What is LONANG?

LONANG is an acronym for the Laws of Nature and (of) Nature's God, a phrase first used in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776. The phrase is also a plural contraction; a somewhat shorthand way of saying "the law of nature and the law of nature's God.

But the concepts embodied in the phrase didn't originate with Jefferson. The law of nature was a common term used by historic legal writers such as Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone and others. The law of nature's God, a lesser used term, was more commonly called the divine law, or the revealed law, meaning the laws of God revealed in verbal form. So what are these laws, and what can be known about them? 

"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation." -Declaration of Independence (1776)

Science includes many principles at least once thought to be laws of nature: Newton's law of gravitation, his three laws of motion, the ideal gas laws, Mendel's laws, the laws of supply and demand, and so on. Other regularities important to science were not thought to have this status. These include regularities that, unlike laws, were (or still are) thought by scientists to stand in need of explanation. These include the regularity of the ocean tides, the perihelion of Mercury's orbit, the photoelectric effect, that the universe is expanding, and so on. Scientists also use laws but not other regularities to sort out what is possible: It is based on their consistency with Einstein's laws of gravity that cosmologists recognize the possibility that our universe is closed and the possibility that it is open (Maudlin 2007, 7–8).

In statistical mechanics, the laws of an underlying physical theory are used to determine the dynamically possible trajectories through the state space of the system (Roberts 2008, 12–16).

Laws of Nature

What are the "Laws of Nature" composed of?

Are they matter or energy?

If not, then what?
Do they exist apart from the universe?

The "Laws of Nature" are neither matter or energy - they are the phenomena that control the action and interaction of all matter and energy in the universe. They are universally invariant, conditions may change but the "Laws" never vary. When the "Laws of Nature" came into existence the universe came into existence, they created the universe and determined its size - where the "Laws" end, the universe ends.

The concept of the "Laws of Nature" and "Universal Space" are the same. Nothing can exist beyond their domain, not even space. They are the framework of the universe that give the universe its personality. What would the universe be like without inertia or gravity, etc.. They create the personality of the universe.

Universal space has no structure, it is all one, there is no unique part of space. Space (the "laws of nature" ) may or may not be expanding. If they are expanding this could account for the "red shift" of the galaxies. If space is not expanding, the galaxies are simply falling toward the outer boundary of a finite universe, this would also explain the "red shift" of the galaxies.

Nothing moves - relative to space itself. The planet Earth (and everything else in the universe) is stationary - relative to universal space itself. (This should soon be borne out when the results of "Gravity Probe B" are fully analyzed.) The "energy level" of matter - relative to space - determines a body's inertial mass.

Inertia for example is the law that requires a force be exerted on matter for it to accelerate or rise to a higher space energy level. Galileo discovered this phenomena and Newton wrote down the mathematical formula F=MA that best explains how a body of matter, acts under this law, relative to other bodies,. If there was no 'Law of Inertia' the universe would have a much different personality. (Perhaps we would not have to wear inertial seat belts in our cars, etc.)

Newton mathematically explained why an apple falls to the ground instead of falling upward - and called this phenomena 'Gravity' - in doing so he helped explain how the heavens work.

Maxwell explained mathematically how light travels in space.

Einstein discovered the mathematical relationship of inertial mass of a body and energy, represented by the equation E=MC2. Inertial mass is the energy level (space energy level) of a body of matter relative to space.

Max Plank discovered the mysterious phenomena of Quantum Mechanics which scientists don't fully understand but use anyway.

Then there is the phenomena of life itself - another group of laws of nature that govern every aspect of life, (biology, evolution, etc.,) that scientists are just beginning to understand and explain.

These are just a few of the phenomena that run the universe - there are many others - some yet to be discovered and explained. They are universal - conditions may vary but the Laws of Nature are invariant and unbreakable.

The Laws of Nature do not exist apart from the universe - they together with matter and energy govern the Universe.

Related Articles

The Seven Universal Laws
Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth
The Law of Attraction

References

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laws-of-nature/ ; http://novan.com/nat-laws.htm ;  The Law of Nature and God of Nature ; http://www.lonang.com/