For a profound and insightful interview regarding the atom, please investigate with an "open mind" the EQAFE interview : "The Psychology of The Atom", explaining the creation and the function of the atom and subatomic particles from a perspective that has never been heard before.
Today I will discuss the atom. The atoms have been referred to by scientist as the basic building blocs of matter.
The concept came about through a philosophical question regarding whether or not matter could be divided again and again into infinity and maintain it's original properties, this question dates back to ancient India and Greece, over one thousand years ago, where they have concluded that there must be a basic particle / structure that matter consists of and that cannot be divided. The term Atom comes from the Greek word átomos, which means indivisible, "uncuttable" or "the smallest indivisible particle of matter", this term was coined by the Greek philosopher Democritus, the student of Leucippus in approximately 450 BCE.
To illustrate this point, imagine a chunk of gold, split it into two pieces, now you have two chunks of gold and both pieces will still retain their chemical identity as the properties of gold, split them again and again and again… eventually you will get to the most basic particle which will be identical in all substance as the building blocks of all matter, and thus will not have the qualities of gold anymore - this was the main hypothesis made by the Greek philosophers, though scientists have found that gold is a chemical element and it's atom defines and thus still has the properties of gold, because it was found in the 18'th and 19'th century that the atom isn't the most basic particle and can actually be split - but the idea of splitting matter until we find a basic particle still stands, we know today the elementary particles are the electron and other subatomic particles.
The idea and thus the name was given to the atom as the smallest indivisible particle, though, as mentioned above, more recent research has shown that it itself consists of smaller subatomic particles - what science know today is that and each atom is made up of electrons, that hold a negative electric charge, each electron is defined as -1, and the electrons surround a central nucleus that hold a positive electric charge, the nucleus is composed by neutrons, which as their name implies hold a neutral charge, and protons which hold a positive charge, each proton is defined as +1. The neutrons and protons are composed by even smaller particles called quarks which have been given the names of up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top. The up, charm, and top quarks have charges of +2/3 that of the proton, whereas the down, strange, and bottom quarks have charges of -1/3 that of the proton. The proton consists of two up quarks and one down quark, which you can easily show leads to the correct charge for the proton (2/3 + 2/3 - 1/3 = 1). Likewise, the neutron consists of two down quarks and one up quark, giving a net charge of zero (- 1/3 - 1/3 +2/3 = 0).
The name given to the atom, as you can see, is not as suitable anymore because it is clear that it can be divided into it's smaller particles, yet the name remained and the search for the smallest indivisible particle continues. The most resent and very exciting finding was the Higgs boson, which I have not yet investigated so will not speak of, but it appears that every new finding opens the way for more questions and more research so it seems to be a never ending story.
What I find disturbing about this quest for the elementary particles, is that scientific research has demonstrated time and time again that the goal of the research is not to understand our reality from a practice and livable perspective, but is to learn how to manipulate substance through the findings they have reached, in order to serve the perceived benefit of the human where as most of the findings end up being used as a play ground to build faster computer more sophisticated technology and more effective weapons - as most of the research is funded and used for military purposes - there is this aura about science and specifically physics as it is our way to improve our well being and for that justification so much funding is being pored into it, but in reality physics is not aimed to actually understand reality and the human within it, nor to find ways through the findings to bring about an equilibrium for humanity to exist as one with the rest of existence as a whole.
I realize and have stated in previous blogs that scientists are approaching science through their preprogrammed mind systems, and thus their starting point is a systematic starting point, one of separation - when we look at their approach to the physical, it is clear they perceive it as being something lifeless, separated from us, as we all probably do to some extent, but along side with the belief the physical is lifeless we the human, the scientists, believe we have the right to analyze and dissect it for our benefit, looking at it as a foreign object, separated from us which we define as life and as such the possibility that substance is the basis for our life here is not taken into consideration, clearly we would not be here if it wasn't for substance, it has been here way before we have, and it will survive all the manipulations we are inflicting upon it and still will be here to see us humans perish away if we don't "get our act together", we have a lot to learn from the physical and research is a cool way to approach it - but it all has to do with out starting point - are we going to continue investigating the physical in separation or are we going to allow ourselves to investigate it within a starting point of self reflection, within realizing that we are the physical, equal and one, and all the findings can shed another ray of light into understanding ourselves and our acceptances and allowances within this world as our existence.
Lets see some of the hidden assumptions that hold together the atomic theory, and the physics research in general:
1) It is an assumption that everything that is here, including humanity, human nature and consciousness started and originated from the atom as the structure we know and see today, another perspective could be that the atom evolved to be what it is today, manifested, created and designed to enslave the physical to energy and humanity to the mind.
2) It is an assumption that if we keep on searching we will find the elementary particle that cannot be split any further, another perspective could be that perhaps this quest is the biggest ever lasting distraction, keeping us from what really matters and can really influence our existence to the better.
3) It is an assumption that matter as the physical is lifeless, another perspective could be that the physical is the essence of life itself, and only through equalizing ourselves to the physical as life will we even know what life really is.
4) It is an assumption that we have the right to manipulate matter to our benefit while disregarding everything else in existence through not considering the delicate relationships that hold everything in balance, another perspective could be that our interference with the physical is abusive and distractive within our very starting point of separation, and that as long as we disregard the physical as life we are headed towards consequences that we are not equipped to handle
5) It is an assumption that what we are looking for can be found "out there" in research separate from us as we investigate matter as substance in separation from ourselves, another perspective could be that everything that we ever find is always pointing back to ourselves as giving us an opportunity to investigate the point within ourselves, to learn from what we find and apply it to and as ourselves - that the answer is within ourselves as who we are within what we do with and perceive our findings, and not the findings themselves.
6) It is an assumption that it's more valuable and beneficial for humanity to spend money, time and resources on research in the goal to solve existential questions, that is based mainly on curiosity rather than spending the money, time and resources to actually benefit the lives here on earth directly through implementing the vast amount of research and findings that have already been investigated and is able to end suffering and abuse for humanity and all life in existence.
7) It is an assumption that physics is not responsible to investigate human nature and is restricted to the realm of the lifeless physical, in the search of more life "out there" which will then be passed on to another department as of physics not taking responsibility for life, another perspective could be that human nature is obviously related to the physical as it is our habitat if nothing else, and that all life is connected to the physical and thus the responsibility of physics and all scientific discipline to address it and consider it.
If you haven't read my blog about scientific paradigm, please do so, and consider investigating the writings of Thomas Kohn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - it is clear that these hidden assumptions and many many more have been the directive principle for the scientific research, and as the dominant paradigm, they have not been questioned sufficiently.
As in every scientific revolution, you must allow yourself to baldly go where no one has gone before, thus, allow yourself to investigate anything that is an assumption, ask yourself what is the starting point of such an assumption, is it ignorance, is it fear, is it greed, power, control, or is the starting point to investigate all things and keep that which is good, from the perspective of finding ways to benefit all life equally as what is best for all life - putting all the greatest minds together to find practical solutions, the same human minds that have thought of atoms 800 years before the technology to prove they existed, can surely come together and find practical, livable, uncompromising solutions that will be best for all life .
The splitting of matter into it's basic particles is a pealing off of it's self definition, it's individuality, when splitting it further and further it comes down to the same substance, I have interpreted it as follows:
1) the concept of atoms, the elementary particles, the building blocks of matter, represent the common denominator of all substance, thus it stands for equality within and all everything as we are all equally made out of the same basic particles.
2) our self definition is limited to our belief, we must ask ourselves what are we going to find if we allow ourselves to peal off all that we believe ourselves to exist as, we must ask ourselves and investigate what might remain as the essence of ourselves if we allow ourselves to let go everything we have defined as ourselves - as we have been looking for the essence of life, of matter, in the subatomic particles instead of looking at ourselves and finding the "subatomic particles" within ourselves as the beingness of and as ourselves, as life itself - what else are we going to find, when looking at the essence of life, but life?
3) the fact that we are all equally made of the same substance, the same life force, yet we are individualized, reflects that something more is going on - the relationships between the particles as substance that creates us as who we are - on one dimension we can see this through looking at the chemical relationships as the relationships between particles, pulling themselves together to form molecules, to form structure, enslaved to each other, interacting with each other, balance each other. On another dimension we can reflect this to all relationships and interaction in our existence - from the electrical, to the chemical to the biological to the psychological to the social - The atom shows us that we are all made of the same basic "building blocks" and thus are equal from that perspective, and it shows that everything these building blocks build is created through relationships as interactions - the laws of physics show us the possibilities of stable, effective and supportive relationships and the possibility of instable, abusive, destructive ones. As well it shows us through the human influence as we deliberately create imbalance in natural relationships as manipulation to substance, in the justification of research, though, even through seeing the massive destructive nature that creating a deliberate imbalance to the relationships of the atom, as substance, has on reality, as the obvious example of the atom bomb for instance, we have not dedicated ourselves to stabilize ourselves as making sure that we create balance and stable and effective relationships, where all participants in the relationship are taken care of, thus we have not been working towards equilibrium, even though we clearly see the destruction we create through manifesting an imbalanced relationship.
Here within the research of the atom, to sum it up, the three points we could investigate further and find how the atom represents these points from which we can learn and apply ourselves are equality, life and relationships - these are critical points to investigate within ourselves, as the laws of physics bring us back to them time and time again - we can align ourselves with what physics is showing us and thus walk with the forces of nature and be supported by them in harmony, or we can walk in conflict with nature, as we ignore the simple truths that are so clearly visible when one takes off the vale of the mind, as the vale of predetermined belief systems that investigate all in separation, and instead replace them in a humble investigation, within the starting point of self honesty, self responsibility and actually finding solutions that will benefit all life that live - I will investigate the definition of life further in blogs to come.
We have a responsibility to take all that we see around us and reflect it back to ourselves to take in each and every discovery to check ourselves, to see how we can utilize it to create more harmony in our lives and reality.
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