Taxonomy
Taxonomy terms
In this site, an explanation is an account as to why certain phenomena are as they are observed to be.
The fine-tuned universe is the observation that the universe appears fine-tuned for life, in the sense that if any one of a whole range of fundamental constants had been even minutely different from the observed value, life as we know it would not have been possible in it.
Finitism, in the philosophy of mathematics, is an approach which accepts the existence of only finite mathematical objects. Infinite mathematical objects are without meaning. In consequence, singularities - where a function tends to infinity in the neighbourhood of a particular point - are also dismissed as meaningless.
Framing is the process of leaving out or obscuring, from the set of phenomena that need to be explained, those phenomena which would lead to the explanation incurring a disadvantage relative to other explanations.
The observed movement of stars in a galaxy in orbit around the galactic center.
General relativity is a mathematical system, developed by Albert Einstein, which describes how space affects mass and mass affects space. It is based on two assumptions. Firstly, the mass of an object as a cause of gravity is one and the same phenomenon as the mass which determines its acceleration under a force. Secondly, the combined experienced speed of an object through space and through time is always the speed of light.
On this site, God is taken to be the deity worshipped by Christians.
Phenomena are good to the extent that they involve higher order quanta. Goodness is a relative concept. For example, sound is good, notes are better, music is better still, and musical expression is better than them all.
Note that something can therefore be very good and yet contain evil. Evil is not the opposite of good, and does not diminish it, although is may prevent the good from coming to expression.
Gravitational lensing is the phenomenon in which light from distant objects is bent by the gravitational field of intermediate objects, so as to reach us from multiple directions.
The gravitational potential energy of a closed system is the energy required to move each particle in the system an infinite distance from each other particle. Note that this is always negative, it is a deficit of energy that must be supplied.
In QO, there is an equivalent definition: the gravitational potential energy of a closed system is the energy that was required to create the particles in it from nothingness and move them to their current locations within the system.
Gravity is an emergent phenomenon which results in objects having mass-energy being attracted to each other.
Greek accretions are notions, introduced into Christianity, which derive from the Greek philosophical tradition and not the Bible.
Higher order concepts are natural law quanta which have been derived in a complex manner from elementary natural law quanta, and transcend them. For example, musical expression derives from music, which derives from notes, which derive from sounds, which derive from wave behavior of gasses, so musical expression is the highest order concept in this series.
The Holy Spirit is, in the Christian faith, the third person in the Trinity.
The interpretation of the last member of an unbounded sequence as an actual quantity.
The initial quantum popped out of absolute nothingness, complete with the behaviour of quanta. From it, all that exists came into being, and all that exists is present in it.
Interconnectedness is the interrelation between phenomena that derives from ontically autonomous natural order quanta getting together to produce a resonating and persistent whole.
Johnjoe McFadden (1956 - ) is a British and Irish scientist, currently Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey. In his book "Quantum Evolution" [McFadden, J. (2000). Quantum Evolution. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-255948-X.] page 220 and further, he argues that quantum teleology (although he does not use this term) is the way life originated.
On this site, the term 'key findings' is used to denote those conclusions within a domain in which QO differs markedly from mainstream thought.