Latest post in my blog on popular science:
Evolutionary convergence
https://populscience.blogspot.com/2025/04/evolutionary-convergence.html
Regards,
Thank you, Manuel, another delightful post!
In addition to physical attributes being shaped by physics, in Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson hypothesize that much of human language is shaped by the physics governing the relationship of the human body to our environment, the planet Earth. For example, healthy human bodies are oriented vertically, so the metaphoric association of both physical and mental health is linked in our language to “up and down.”
Metaphor (word is used as a class of terms communicating one thing in terms of another) is, I believe built into the structure of the universe because it was first the pattern of the Trinity. The Son is the expression of the Father. The Father expresses Himself in terms of the Son.
They and Their creation are exquisitely beautiful.
Blessings,
Ruby
True, Ruby! Creation is a pointer to God.
Regards,
Manuel, it was actually Michael Polanyi’s Tacit Dimension which started me down the path of contemplating how everything is structured in some pattern of the Trinity. Lewis’s essay “Transposition” has some similar ideas but it was Polanyi who really made it clear.
Lower levels cannot predict higher levels. For example, the fact that human vocal chords and mouth can make certain sounds could never predict the alphabet. The alphabet could never predict words.
On the other hand, the phonemes of the alphabet are needed as raw material upon which the principles of language act to make words.
Clay could never predict bricks. Some higher organizing principle outside of the clay has to be applied to the clay for the bricks to be made.
The more I contemplate the structure of physical reality, the more I see the pattern of the Trinity which He left as a “mark” on everything He made.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read it, but I imagine Dorothy Sayers’ Mind of the Maker has similar ideas. As does Tolkien’s essay on fairy tales.
The older I get, the more wonder and joy—magic?–I see in everything our Lord has done.
Blessings,
Ruby
I haven’t read Polanyi, but Sayers’s “The Mind of the Maker” and Tolkien’s “On fairy stories” are among my favorite essays.
Regards,