Thesis: Physics often treats “laws of nature” as immutable commands, echoing theological conceptions of divine legislation rather than describing relational regularities.
Observation: From Newton’s Principia to contemporary formulations of fundamental physics, laws are written in the form of unbreakable rules: gravity “acts,” energy is “conserved,” symmetries are “obligatory.” These formulations suggest that reality is bound by commands issued ex nihilo, echoing a divine legislator who imposes order on chaos.
Analysis: Conceptually, framing laws as prescriptive rather than descriptive transforms ontology into theology. Matter and energy are no longer relational processes; they are obedient subjects to an external decree. Even when formalism is purely mathematical, the metaphoric language and explanatory culture in physics perpetuate this theological residue.
Implication: This framing is not neutral. It naturalises the idea of immutable, universal authority, discouraging reflection on relational foundations. When laws are treated as commands, the actualisation of potential in context — the perspectival emergence of phenomena — is elided in favour of fixed decree. This is an ontological misplacement disguised as scientific necessity.
Conclusion: By tracing the theological shadow in the language and conceptualisation of physical laws, we can see how physics inherits, without acknowledging, a mode of thought rooted in divine command. The first step toward a relational ontology is to recognise law as description of relations, not a cosmic edict.
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