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Matthew's Pool / Billiards Blog

By Matthew Sherman, About.com Guide to Pool / Billiards

I Think "Billiards", Therefore I Am

Sunday April 29, 2007
Photo (c) Amidzic Laboratories In a takeoff of Saint Thomas Aquinas' logic and pursuit of ultimate truth, an anonymous philosophy student recently utilized the humble sport of Pool as part of his "proof of an immaterial soul". His two arguments stem from causation and necessity (proposed as a dilemma).

The complex series of bioelectrical events that describe our human brain was likened to a relay team passing the baton between runners. The question posed was who blows the whistle to cue the running team? His thought, "…Perhaps the brain's workings are also analogous to billiards with a cue striking a ball thus transferring its kinetic energy which causes the ball to move indefinitely until it loses its kinetic energy or finds its way to a pocket. The same question arises, who is it that strikes the cue? …Sometimes I imagine it is a result of external stimulation. However I believe that sometimes it happens as a result of choice."

He goes on to suggest, "…How can such a thing be? How can a thing cause itself? How can I (my brain) be the source of the cause unless I am in some way distinct from my brain? …It is my will that blows the whistle and it is my will which strikes the cue …Let the flames fly and the criticisms abound. However, if these arguments be valid I pray that they may cause many to consider the possibility that we are a union of the physical and the meta physical. And that the source of our being is found in God the Creator.

Truly, pocket billiards is even more substantial a sport than I have formerly proposed! – Quick Draw

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