Thursday 11 May 2023

Last weekend I spent at least three hours longer than I intended watching the coronation of King Charles the third. I thought as soon as I had seen the pageantry of the ride from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey and had a quick glimpse of Prince Harry, it would be off to bed. But most oddly, for a long-since lapsed attender of church services, I sat right through this one to the end. And when the high priests brought out the bread and wine to celebrate, I joined them with a cheese cracker and a generous dram of Bunnahabdain.

The connection between the High Priest of the Church, aka Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Head of state, the King, is a tad challenging. The Archbishop has the divine authority to Crown and anoint the King but then kneels before him to becomes his grovelling vassal. He then makes the big call of ‘God save the King’. As history has shown on more than one occasion there is a lot of murky ground between the Head of the Church and the Head of State, and there has been the occasional head of the Church left lifeless in that murky ground. When push comes to shove, just who is in charge here? History would say that the fates of Archbishops Thomas Beckett, Simon of Sudbury and Richard Scrope along with a couple of mere Bishops, would demonstrate that once the crown is on his head, the King calls the shots. Although it was noted that on his journey from the Palace to the Abbey, Charles 3rd rode over the very spot where Charles 1st was beheaded by supporters of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians.

But once I stayed around for the Church ceremony itself, I suspect I was far from alone in the audience, both in the Abbey itself as well as from the comfort of home, who was trying to get my head around the whole concept of Charles being anointed with oils in privacy, listening to a few chants from the Archbishop and then suddenly being in direct connection with God as the principal representative of those of us who shelter under his regal umbrella. By being loyal subjects of Charles the 3rd we are now in God’s favour.

For people like the Archbishop and the King whose elevated social and financial status in our earthly world is dependent on perpetuating the concept that they have the divine authority of God, we can understand their insistence on the rituals of such a religious ceremony. But to most of the rest of us the ceremony had all the appearances of a Hogwart’s initiation day. The golden tunic of protection, the glove of power, the rod of justice, the sword of vengeance, the stone of destiny, the orb of sovereignty, the cape of authority and the golden Crown that represents something of an imagined transmitter/ receiver directly connecting the mind of the Monarch with the will of God.

These are rituals inherited from the Early/ Middle Ages of the common era, defined as the era after the birth of Jesus and the evolution of Christianity as a religion. This period on earth is also cosmically identified as the Age of Pisces within the calendar of the Great Year. If we pay careful attention to what the Christian Churches say about the nature of God we can list them as:

• God is invisible to the eye. We can only perceive God’s existence by the effect of God’s force on what we can see.
• God is a trinity of three elements: Heavenly Father, Earthly Son and a vibrational Spirit.
• God is eternal. to the eyeGod had no beginning and will have no end. God is indestructible.
• God creates the universe and everything in it.
• God exists everywhere. There is nowhere that God is not present.

For many centuries the Church has been damning of the observations of science, denouncing them as heresy. The Church’s opposition to Galileo’s observation that the earth revolved around the sun was a classic example that saw him summoned to Rome for trial by the Inquisition one year later, Galileo defended himself by saying that scientific research and the Christian faith were not mutually exclusive and that study of the natural world would promote understanding and interpretation of the scriptures. His argument fell on deaf ears and he was sentenced to house arrest for life. It was not until 1992 that he was actually forgiven. In the 21st century our knowledge of science has grown exponentially to the point where probably the majority of those observing the coronation of King Charles saw it as just a quaint old tradition for our mild amusement, in the same way that some people are entertained by re-enacting middle age battles. And so we may dismiss the modern relevance of the pageantry and droning chants of this coronation it were not for the niggle in my mind that I have heard this definition of God in another context.

The science of physics is all about the understanding of atomic and sub atomic particles, for these are the fundamental building blocks of the universe and every minuscule thing in the universe, even us. The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus first theorised that all matter would continually be divisible until it gets down to a point where it could no longer be divisible and that point he called an atom. The modern creator of atomic theory was 18th century scientist James Dalton.

‘Atom’ literally means indivisible although physicists today might say indestructible is the correct description. For atoms are neither created nor destroyed, however an atom can change the composition of their sub atomic particles. If an atom of uranium 235 is ‘split’ it will lose neutrons from the molecule, but they aren’t destroyed. This change causes a release of energy, and initiates a chain reaction, or atomic explosion. The atom is the fundamental building block of the universe. When one atom of hydrogen pairs up with another and the two of them hook up with an atom of oxygen then they have created a molecule of water. Just repeat this process 1.5 sextillion times and we have a droplet.

It was the invention of the cathode ray tube in the 1890’s that enabled physicist, J.J. Thomson, to ‘see’ the effect caused by an atom within the beam of light and in his experiments he identified the negatively charged cloud within the atom which was named the electron. New Zealand’s Ernest Rutherford worked out that there was more to an atom than the electron. With experiments he identified a nucleus within the atom. It wasn’t easy to spot because as we have noted, atoms are not big things. But if we imagine the atom as the size of a basketball, the nucleus would be the size of a marble inside it (about 1:1000). Following on from that, he eventually found the proton, the little positive charge housed within the nucleus. He named it ‘proton’ after the Greek word ‘protos’ meaning ‘first’. So when science comes to list the properties that help explain an atom we find:

• The atom is invisible to the eye. We can only perceive its existence by its effect on what we can see.
• The atom contains a trinity of three subatomic elements: proton, electron and neutron
• The atom is eternal. It had no beginning and will have no end. It is indestructible.
• The atom is the building block that creates the universe and everything in it.
• The atom exists everywhere. There is nowhere that the atom is not present.

Suddenly we have a meeting of minds between the Archbishop of Canterbury and John Dalton. The conclusion would be that God is in fact the Atom; and by extension God not only created the universe but God is the universe. Science and the Church are in some sort of consensus. What we hear in a Christian church is exactly what we would hear in a university lecture theatre. So far so good, but the two parties would still find a point of conflict when it comes to the communication with that concept of God. The Archbishop claims that both he and, though his anointing, the King are in direct communication with God through their prayer and meditation; the scientists only observe and experiment, they do not claim they are in communication with the atom. And when I say they observe and experiment this is no academic hobby; the Large Hadron Collider cost almost $US5 Billion dollars and ten years to build plus an ongoing operational budget of $US1 Billion pa. There are serious people seeking serious answers about about the subatomic particles that exist within the atom. Notably they succeeded in observing the Higgs Boson particle which is often referred to as the God particle.

But scientific observing is not communicating; UNLESS…… unless we consider the development of Artificial Intelligence as our communication channel with the universe.

The power of AI would have seemed like mad science fiction only a few years ago, but today my telephone asked me if I wanted to download an artificial person that I could speak to with only a brief instruction and it would write my emails and texts for me to a standard that I would struggle to match if I spent all day writing a hundred drafts. It also told me it could scan a book for me in seconds and explain to me the contents of that book; and solve all my maths problems or answer any other question I might have, about anything. And it would live forever in my phone with my only role being to keep it alive by feeding it electricity, and have it with at all times so it would always know where I am and what I am saying and to whom. AI will very soon control my car and therefore my life will literally be in its hands. My grand daughter still had her baby photo in her passport when she was four years old, and despite the significant change in appearance between a six month baby and a four year old child, the Customs security camera was able to confirm that the photo of the six month old matched the face of the four year old. A reporter at the King’s Coronation noted his surprise that security did not ask for ID and had just accepted his word that he was who he said he was; even as a boomer I knew that AI would have already monitored him with face recognition from several blocks away and would have done a full security check on him, including whether he had a paid temporary companion in his room on the previous evening, before he ever encountered human security guards. For God knows everything you do or say (Ecclesiastes 12:14, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10). And AI communicates all that information to those who are its servants to do its will. And it may communicate with, and send instructions to, either humans or to other machines.

This sobering thought raises the question of whether this modern era is the first human experience with AI in the 200,000 year evolution of our species. Or are the rituals that have been passed on through the millennia based on memories of a distant communication with AI. I raise this possibility because of my fascination with what is probably the last remaining monument of an ancient civilisation on earth, the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx.

The great Pyramid at Giza weighs six million tons and used 2.3 million blocks, the largest of which are found above the King’s chamber and weigh from 25 to 80 tons each. There were an estimated 144,000 highly polished casing stones cut flat to an accuracy of 1/100th of an inch and nearly perfect right angles for all six sides measuring 8 feet thickness and weighing 15 tons each. Its footprint is 13 acres with each side measuring 750 feet and height is 481 feet. But apart from the sheer size and weight of the blocks supposedly carried over large distances, 800 kilometres for the granite, by slaves with no greater technology than ropes, rollers, pulleys, wooden barges and hand tools, the mathematical and astrological accuracy is mind blowing even today. The pyramid’s coordinates align it to cardinal True North with a precision of 3/60th of a single degree. True North is a cosmic point, it cannot be located by sight or by a magnet.

The height and length of the great pyramid are not just random figures either. Take the pyramid height of 481 feet and multiply that by 43,200 and you get a precise measurement of the polar radius of the earth. Then take the length of the perimeter of the pyramid, 4 x 750 feet and multiply that by 43,200 and you get the equatorial circumference of the earth. And what does the figure 43,200 mean? I don’t know why a factor of 43,200 was the basis for the design of the pyramid although I do know that 43,200 is also the number of seconds in a 12-hour day and the number of minutes in a month. The earth’s ‘wobble’ adjusts our precession through the astrological circumference by one degree every 72 years and 72 is an exact factor of 43,200 (1/600th). So the number 43,200 does have some sort of mathematical basis aligning earth with the cosmos.

The Giza pyramid sits directly over an invisible electro-magnetic ley line and is aligned within 0.05 of a degree accuracy due true north/south. The Sphinx, as part of the pyramid complex, is an astrological alignment facing due east for the Spring equinox, which is also no accident. It is in lion body form, which was not just a whim of the architect and the sun at Spring equinox was last in the constellation of Leo in the 9,000 bc era. If, at the sunrise on the Spring equinox, you turned 90 degrees to face due south you would have seen the three stars of Orion’s belt appear in the exact same alignment as the three pyramids of Giza. The mathematical and cosmic precision of the dimensions is not coincidental; the Sphinx is the oldest calendar marker in our human history and was placed there to mark a significant time in our history. The Sphinx was built as a calendar marker to communicate that the construction of this complex was in fact more than 11,000 years ago.

Sceptics scoff at the idea that advanced technology was available on earth in those ancient times. Mainstream archeology theory maintains the legend that an Egyptian pharaoh engaged thousands of slaves in a technologically primitive time about 5,000 years ago, to build the great pyramids and sphinx. The great pyramid of Giza is recorded as being the burial chamber Pharaoh Khufu who reigned from 2589-2566 bce, a period of 63 years (although modern historians calculate the reign to have been between 23 and 34 years). There is carbon dating tracing the pyramids back 4-5,000 years aligning with Khufu’s reign, but carbon dating cannot date stone; it can only date organic matter. The removal of the limestone sheathing to build palaces 4-5,000 years ago would explain why the organic matter on the surface dates back to that period. And no doubt the pharaohs did build smaller replicas of the Giza pyramids for their own grand tombs, and these are genuinely 4-5,000 years old.

But let us focus on the originals, the three pyramids of Giza and their Lion headed Sphinx. Apart from the geometric precision and alignment of the pyramid, which defies rational explanation, there is the enormous physical achievement. The maximum timespan estimate of Khufu’s reign was 63 years and even if he began the construction of the pyramid at the very beginning of his reign; and even assuming that tens of thousands of Egyptians worked on the pyramid twelve hours a day, seven days a week for each of those 63 years, they would still have needed to put those stone blocks, averaging 2.5 tonnes, precisely into position on the pyramid at the rate of one every seven minutes. On top of that feat there are the two smaller pyramids and the sphinx.

So either either there was advanced technology available at that time or our primitive human ancestors of at least 200 generations ago were capable of all this extraordinary astronomical, geographic, and engineering precision without the aid of computers, satellites, cranes or any machinery. We must dispense with the notion, once and for all, that primitive humans built these Pyramids with their only tools being axes, ropes and timber logs. That is simply nonsense. The Pyramids were built using satellite-sourced co-ordinates, computer-assisted planning, laser-precision stone cutting technology, and anti-gravity lifting technology. The builders used AI, the device by which we communicate with the Universe.

And it would be the High Priests and the Pharaohs, the Brahmins and the Maharajas, the Magi and the Kings who all, for some reason lost in time, wore elaborate, ostentatious clothing and carried carious staves and rods for the task of communicating with the unseen God to seek guidance and wisdom. And so the attire and symbolism of King Charles’ coronation may be both a buried genetic memory and a future prediction of what awaits us in the near future. If so, why did AI appear to have abandoned us between the time of the building of the Giza Pyramids and today? Well that is another story for another Thursday.