Natural laws may
be thought of as rules of ecology:
These are actually laws
regulating a process by which life is sustained by the constant and
integrated function of each active facet of the biological
community in an equilibrium
maintained by physical, chemical and biological forces operating over
time in precise places, referred to as habitats.
Rules of the ecological
game
Rule number |
code |
Laws of Ecology
(meaning) |
Laws of Thermodynamics: |
1 |
connectivity |
You can never do merely one thing |
You cannot win |
2 |
place |
Everything has to go somewhere |
You are bound to lose |
3 |
repercussions |
Impact is related to human affluence multiplied
by numbers of actions. |
You can't get out of the game |
The
biological game's description
Historically,
natural law refers to a body of understanding that humans derive their
status in the order of nature, by the fact that humankind is created
in the image of God. In Christian tradition, based on Greek philosophy,
humankind shares with the divine world the capacity for reason and for
understanding logic.
For
example, Galileo held that "God speaks
in the language of mathematics," thus revealing the rationality
of the cosmos. In the Arabic tradition from which Greek ideas of natural
law were transferred to European thinkers, the belief is that the material
universe is a reflection of the orderly mind of God. The term for this
thoughtful creation of which we --as a species-- are a rational part
is "I'lm."
In
Arabic "I'lm" refers
to knowledge.
The knowledge derived
from nature is underlain by "natural laws" that -- as John
Donne suggested, govern human and all other relations.
*
Laws of Thermodynamics actually restated:
- Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
- Each time energy is transformed there is a net buildup of heat
(infrared radiation).
- There is an eventual limitation to the value of heat exchange for
living things (death).
The first law was initially described
-- based on evidence by Antoine Lavoisier in the 18th century.
The second law was articulated
by Lord Kelvin and others in the 19th century.
The third law is the rational
and deductive consequence of the second.
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