Tuesday 13 April 2010

But there was no information

A new blogger has been noted by John Hobbins - Margaret's Musings. She has posed an initial game - to summarize Christianity in one word. A sucker for reductionism, I picked 'information'.

My allusions are first, to the Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
 
Secondly to a definition of God by Stafford Beer - where I do not know, but in the body of his work somewhere - God is a store of negative entropy. I.e. God is information. God also forms me inwardly - so inner formation, secretly wrought,is also in the word.

And finally, in anticipation of the science of gravity that may itself be an aspect of information according to the latest thoughts, all things held together by the word of power that was in the beginning.

My definition is meant to be inclusive. I asked a real question today in a place I don't usually frequent. I seriously doubt that there will be an answer that is, I might say, satisfactory. (I am right so far - but perhaps they are too busy as Elijah once quipped. I wonder how long I will put up with a blog that takes such history for granted.)


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