Monday, August 07, 2017

How a Slap on the Floor Saved Time-space


In the beginning, God created four dimensional existence. Before that... - well, there was no “before that” as there was no such thing as time, nor form, and therefore no movement. All was a dark void - no, we can't even call it dark; that would assume the existence of light, just as the digit zero assumes the existence of other numbers. Only “null”, the nonexistence of any state or number or concept, or the space to put it in.  
From whatever dimension or state of existence He possesses, God's Spirit brooded over the null and void, conceptualising matter, which therefore existed as a microscopic kspeck. All of space consisted only of that speck. Apart from that speck, there was no space.
Then, God said, “Let there be light.” Movement began, and thus, the dimension of time. The speck exploded into a vast cloud of photons shooting outward in every direction. The light shown from the centre, the beginning of time, outward in a straight line to the end of time, flooding all of space-time with whiteness.
Then, God said, “Let the light be separated from the darkness.” Dark matter began to separate from the light matter, causing ripples to appear in the stream. As it proceeded from the centre, light and dark matter began to form centres of gravity, swirling around them, forming galaxies. The vacuum that was left, those areas where darkness prevailed, God called “night”, and those parts affected by the light, “day”.
In all of this swirling of galaxies and the gravitational pull, stars were formed, and then planets. On some planets, God saw to it that the conditions would be such that water could coexist in three states simultaneously: in solid, liquid and gas, and that an atmosphere would surround those planets.
And so, the universe consisted of galaxies, that contained stars and solar systems, with planets of all sizes and types, some, no more than rocks, others mostly gas, but some with molten cores and having atmospheres, which presented other possibilities that God intended to put to use. Thus, God looked over His four dimensional space-time, beginning with the burst of light at the centre, developing into geometric spirals of energy and matter, evolving into orderly patterns, ever expanding outward to the end of time.
God, from whatever dimension He possesses, saw it all from beginning to end, and thought that was beautiful, and called it a day.
The next day, in whatever dimension He possesses, God turned His attention to one of the planets with a molten core, that had an atmosphere, and water existing in three states.
First, by causing lava flows and by shifting the continual plates, He made the land separate from the water, forming oceans and continents. Then God said, “Let there be molecules configured in such a way as to hold life, and let them reproduce and adapt so as to fill the earth with life after its own kind,” and deep below the surface of the ocean, DNA cells began to form.
Plant life began to spring up. Simple life forms provided nourishment for the more complex, which, at the end of their own life cycles, became food for others of their kind, all the while reproducing themselves through their seeds and shoots. Thus, to the end of time, the planet was filled with self sustaining multicoloured life. God, from whatever dimension He possesses - let's call it it the fifth dimension - looked at His four-dimensional space-time, and said, “it is good”, and again called it a day.
On another day of fifth dimensional time, God said, “Let there be living creatures that move about, swimming in the sea, flying in the air, and walking and creeping on the dry ground. They can eat the vegetation, and become food for one another, and at the end of their life cycles, they can become food for the vegetation.
Thus the whole earth began to come alive with movement, creatures moving, swimming, creeping, flying, making noise, making music.
Each creature, acting according to its need and instinct, followed a course that could be predetermined by taking into account every factor and every movement in the universe. A butterfly living at the beginning of the age of butterflies, by flapping its wings one way or another, would affect the course of a tropical storm near the end of the age of tropical storms. Of course, how the butterfly flapped its wings was also the predictable result of yet other factors.
When some of the species became so large as to take over and inhibit the further development of life, they were destroyed by a large asteroid, which was simply following it's predicted course.
God looked at this and said, "It is good, but not good enough." The whole universe was nothing but a big toy, and after some shifting and tweaking - and doing things like flicking a butterfly,  or adding to the gravitational pull of a small rock in space so that it would strike an asteroid, putting it on a course to destroy the dinosaurs a few aeons later, thus making room for mammals - God decided the four dimensional space-time needed something more innovative, something that would make it complete, less predictable, a true work of art, fully expressing His creative and loving nature.
Actually, it was the thing God had in mind from the very beginning.
God created a new life form, unique from all the others - humanity. The human was capable of true creativity independent of his need to survive, his instinct, or anything that limited the other creatures to a predetermined course. In fact, the human was created after God's own pattern.
Thus, humanity would contribute to the final design of the four dimensional space-time. The main difference was that humans were limited to being conscious of the fourth dimension only one moment at a time, not seeing it from beginning to end as God does. That, if you think about it, is the only way humans could possibly influence space-time through un-predetermined choices, all the while God knowing about those choices beforehand simply by viewing the entire space-time from beginning to end. God can and does influence the the final design by interaction with humans through various means of communication, influencing their choice through suggestion, and sometimes enabling those humans to perform miracles.
Thus, the final shape of the four dimensional space-time is a collaborative effort between God and the human race which God designed to be both a part of and as fellow artist in the project.
However, there is also a downside to this whole plan. Humanity is also capable of choices to do or not to do what God wishes, even of violating specific instructions. That factor is a necessary part of being designed in God's image, unlimited by pre-determinism. One day, humanity partook of an element that he was specifically instructed to leave alone. It affected him in a way he wasn't prepared for, giving humanity a consciousness of good and evil. Humanity was already creative, but now his consciousness was skewed by the need to constantly compare things by their rightness, their desirability and superiority. This opened up many dark areas that humanity wasn't ready for.
The action had such repercussions, it was as though shockwaves reverberated throughout the whole four dimensional space-time, threatening to shatter it. It's possible that, as viewed from God's perspective, it did begin to shatter.
God's remedy was to absorb that shock.
To understand the concept of shock and the absorption of shock, we could either delve into the laws of physics, or we could use a simple illustration, from Judo. People being trained in Judo are taught how to fall. Being thrown to the ground, or even falling backwards can cause serious injury if one doesn't know how break one's fall, because of the shockwaves going through the body. To prevent injury, one simply slaps the floor just before the back of the head hits the ground. The hand may smart, but the head stays intact because the hand has absorbed the shock-wave. As we talk further about the strategy of absorbing the shock, think about a judo fighter slapping the ground as he falls.
Interacting with various humans, especially those of the family clan of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, God set up a framework whereby He would continue to cooperate with humanity to enact His plan to both absorb the shock and restore everything to a beautiful state. An important part of this framework was the institution of blood sacrifice.
Death can be viewed as simply the end of a natural cycle; a part of nature. Untimely death, however, is something that continues to send shockwaves through the four dimensional space-time. Causing the untimely death of a fellow human without just cause is what we call murder. God told Noah and his sons that murder must be atoned for by the death of the perpetrator. Only by that means is the shock-wave absorbed so that it doesn't do further damage to space-time - like a slap on the floor.
Blood sacrifice is another means of using death as a means of absorbing shock. The agreement God made with Abraham and his descendants, given in detail to Moses, provided for blood sacrifices on a regular basis. This was sufficient to temporarily hold back the damage from the great shock-wave. Thus, Israel played a vital part in preserving the universe by becoming, as it were, the provider of a multitude of slaps on the floor.
It is indicated in the Talmud that when Israel was at Mt Sinai, they saved the world from destruction by accepting God's terms and ratifying the covenant God had made with Abraham.
However, that was not yet enough. It was only the preparation for God's ultimate solution. God sent an instance of Himself, His Word, to a critical time-location in space-time to be born as a human with all the attributes of a human including the ability of independent choice. He had all the authority of a human, including the option of communicating with God through the Holy Spirit, so his actions would constitute those of a human from inside the four dimensional space-time. Though He was from outside space-time where He could view the end from the beginning, by being born human, He restricted Himself to being conscious of the fourth dimension only one moment at a time.
As a human, Jesus, the Word of God, exercised all the authority he had - authority that had not been diminished through human failings - even to the point of death. That death was the event that absorbed all the shock-waves and saved the universe - the ultimate slap on the floor. Not only did it save four dimensional space-time, but it left a surplus of energy that enabled the resurrection of the dead.
We'll go into more of this in other video podcasts. We'll also deal with objections that often come up when discussing the existence of God, and His dealings with humanity. We'll look at the question of whether the assertion that God is righteous and loving, and that He is, at the same time omnipotent, are contradictory. While I don’t operate under the illusion that one can prove the existence of God to an atheist by argument, I hope we can answer some of the objections that often come up, and show that at least it's not possible to disprove His existence.
We'll also go more into what all this means.

form, nor even dimensions to render form possible, and God's Spirit brooded over the face of the non-existence.

Then, God said, “Let there be light.” Immediately there was movement, an intense brightness consisting of photons moving outward in every direction. Thus, existence came to be, as light shown from the centre, the beginning of time, outward in a straight line to the end of time, an ever expanding time-space of intense whiteness.

Then, God said, “Let the light be separated from the darkness.” Dark matter began to separate from the light matter, causing ripples to appear in the beam beginning at the centre of time-space. As it proceeded from the centre, light and dark matter began to gravitate towards a multitude of centre points. Some of these formed into black holes which caused the light to swirl around, forming galaxies. The vacuum that was left, those areas where darkness prevailed, God called “night”, and those parts affected by the light, “day”.

In all of this swirling of galaxies and the gravitational pull, stars were formed, and then planets. On some planets, land was separated from the water. God said, “Let life come into being.”

Plant life began to spring up. Simple life forms provided nourishment for the more complex, which, at the end of their own life cycles, became food for others of their kind, all the while reproducing themselves through their seeds and shoots. Thus, to the end of time, life-baring planets were filled with self-sustaining multicoloured life. God looked at His four-dimensional time-space, and said, “it is good”.

Then, God said, “Let there be living creatures that move about, swimming in the sea, flying in the air, and walking and creeping on the dry ground. They can eat the vegetation, and become food for one another, and at the end of their life cycles, they can become food for the vegetation.

Thus the whole earth became self-sustaining.

Each creature, acting according to its need and instinct, followed a course that could be predetermined by taking into account every factor and every movement in the universe. A butterfly living at the beginning of the age of butterflies, by flapping its wings one way or another, would determine the courses of a tropical storm near the end of the age of tropical storms. Of course, how the butterfly flapped its wings was also the predictable result of yet other factors.

When some of the species became so large as to take over and inhibit the further development of life, they were destroyed by a large asteroid, which was simply following it's predicted course.

God looked at this and said, "It is good, but not good enough." The whole universe was nothing but a big toy, and after some shifting and tweaking - and doing things like flicking a butterfly,  or adding to the gravitational pull of a small rock in space so that it would strike an asteroid, putting it on a course to destroy the dinosaurs a few aeons later, thus making room for mammals - God decided that four dimensional time-space needed something more innovative, something that would make it complete, less predictable, a true work of art, fully expressing His creative and loving nature.

Actually, it was something God had in mind from the very beginning.
God created a new life form, unique from all the others - humanity. The human was capable of true creativity; independent of his need to survive, his instinct, or anything that limited the other creatures to a predetermined course. In fact, the human was created after God's own pattern.

Thus, humanity would contribute to the final design of the four dimensional time-space. The main difference was that humans were limited to being conscious of the fourth dimension one moment at a time, not seeing it from beginning to end as God does. That, if you think about it, is the only way humans could possibly influence time-space through non-predetermined choices, all the while God knowing about those choices beforehand simply by viewing the entire time-space from beginning to end. God can and does influence the the final design by interaction with humans through various means of communication, influencing their choice through suggestion, and sometimes enabling those humans to perform miracles.

Thus, the final shape of the four dimensional time-space is a corroborative effort between God and the human race which God designed to be both a part of and as fellow artist in the project.

However, there is also a downside to this whole design. Humanity is also capable of the choice to do or not to do what God wishes, even of violating specific instructions. That factor is a necessary part of being designed in God's image, unlimited by pre-determinism. One day, humanity partook of an element that he was specifically instructed to leave alone. It affected him in a way he wasn't prepared for, giving humanity a consciousness of good and evil. Humanity was already creative, but now his consciousness was skewed by the need to constantly compare things by there rightness, their desirability and superiority. This opened up many dark areas that humanity wasn't ready for.
The act of disobedience was so serious it sent shock-waves throughout the whole four dimensional time-space, and threatened to shatter the whole thing. It's possible that, as viewed from God's perspective, it did begin to shatter.
God's remedy was to absorb that shock.

To understand the concept of shock and the absorption of shock, we could either delve into the laws of physics, or we could use a simple illustration, from Judo. People being trained in Judo are taught how to fall. Being thrown to the ground, or even falling backwards can cause serious injury if one doesn't know how break their fall, because of the shock-waves going through the body. To prevent injury, one simply slaps the floor just before the back of the head hits the ground. The hand may smart, but the head stays intact because the hand has absorbed the shock-wave. As we talk further about the strategy of absorbing the shock, think about a judo fighter slapping the ground as he falls.

Interacting with various humans, especially those of the family clan of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, God set up a framework whereby He would continue to  cooperate with humanity to enact His plan to both absorb the shock and restore everything to a beautiful state. An important part of this framework was the institution of blood sacrifice.

Death can be viewed as simply the end of a natural cycle; a part of nature. Untimely death, however, is something that continues to send shock-waves through the four dimensional time-space. Causing an untimely death without just cause is what we call murder. God told Noah and his sons that murder must be atoned for by the death of the perpetrator. Only by that means is the shock-wave absorbed so that it doesn't do further damage to time-space - like a slap on the floor.

Blood sacrifice is another means of using death as a means of absorbing shock. The agreement God made with Abraham and his descendants, given in detail to Moses, provided for blood sacrifices on a regular basis. This was sufficient to temporarily hold back the damage from the great shock-wave. Thus, Israel played a vital part in preserving the universe by becoming, as it were, the provider of a multitude of slaps on the floor.

It is indicated in the Talmud that when Israel was at Mt Sinai, they saved the world from destruction by accepting God's terms and ratifying the covenant God had made with Abraham.

However, that was not yet enough. It was the preparation for God's ultimate solution. God sent an instance of Himself, His Word, to a critical time-location in time-space be born as a human with all the attributes of a human including the ability of independent choice. He had all the authority of a human, including the option of communicating with God through the Holy Spirit, so his actions would constitute those of a human from inside the four dimensional time-space. Though He was from outside time-space where He could view the end from the beginning, by being born human, He restricted Himself to being conscious of the forth dimension only one moment at a time.

As a human, Jesus, the Word of God, exercised all the authority he had - authority that had not been diminished through human failings - even to the point of death. That death was the event that absorbed all the shock-waves and saved the universe - the ultimate slap on the floor. Not only did it save four dimensional time-space, but it left a surplus of energy that enabled the resurrection of the dead.