The Evangelical Universalist Forum

I believe in Unicorns

Theology Philosophical
#1

In an infinite universe, every possible combination of particles will occur an infinite number of times. In this sort of universe, if anything can exist, it must exist. Since a unicorn is a possible combination of particles, somewhere they must exist.

But it gets much more interesting than unicorns. We know that a certain arrangement of particles (your brain) can produce self-consciousness. People are talking of the singularity, when the web becomes self-conscious and grows exponentially intelligent. In an infinite universe, if this singularity event is possible, it is thereby necessary and will have occurred an infinite number of times. Imagine that. An infinite number of exponentially intelligent entities at large in the universe… What if they figure out a way of communicating using quantum entanglement perhaps, or some other process mere humans could never conceive of or comprehend? Suddenly, the idea of universal consciousness begins to look not only plausible, but inevitable. If our web achieves singularity, it would become merely another neuron in a universal brain. We would end up with a sort of scientific pantheism.

But Theists don’t believe God is made from the universe, but rather that the universe exists in the mind of God. “In him we live and move and have our being.” Ok. Let’s grant the existence of a self-conscious, exponentially intelligent life form, say a quantum computer the size of the moon. (In an infinite universe, if that combination of particles is possible, it is necessary.) This staggeringly powerful consciousness would have the ability to simulate a very large number of universes and populate them with mildly intelligent icons like us. We would exist in its mind. If there is one Primary Reality in which our clever computer exists, and a trillion simulations, then statistically we almost certainly exist in one of the simulations.

We once thought the earth was the center. Then it was the sun. Atheists and pantheists still think our reality is the center. Even my talk of quantum computers the size of the moon is geocentric. It assumes the Primary Reality is just like ours, with things in it like moons and quantum particles. But if we are a creation, there may be very little similarity between our reality and Primary Reality. Primary Reality may be very alien and have quite different physical laws. Again, I argue we are not the center. Rather, it is almost certain that exponentially intelligent entities exist, and we almost certainly exist in the mind of one (all?) of them.

And God said, “Let us make Man in our image.”

#2

Well, then. :wink:

Here’s my story, which I like, but I’m not sure whether it’s entirely accurate. (Especially since I haven’t made it up yet.)

Long ago (if you can call it that), before time existed, there was God. He filled everything, but He didn’t fill the nothing, for there was nothing to fill; not even a void. It was, well, nonexistent. It wasn’t quantum; it wasn’t even a big black darkness. Nothing is nothing, and that’s what it was.

Now God saw the nothing, that it longed to invade and take over the everything (if a nothing can long for anything). We might call it chaos, although chaos certainly sounds like a something. But if nothing is done, chaos ensues, and when chaos has completed its reign, emptiness is left behind, and though even emptiness is something, it eventually degrades back into nothing and there you are. A pretty mess, only you can’t see it.

So God decided something must be done with the nothing, and He sent forth His Word by the power of His Spirit, reached into the heart of the invisible and nonexistent, ripped it from its very foundations, turned it inside out and wadded it up into a singularity so small that the denseness of the nothingness weighed more than all the present universe combined. He hung it in the gaping void left behind and spoke a word (well, two words):

“Light, Be!”

(I’m not an exclamation mark person myself, but some things can’t be done properly without at least one.)

At once, the universe (for so we must now call it) filled with a grand explosion of light such as has never since been seen, and probably never will be again (we hope) until Jesus remakes the heavens and the earth. Stars hung in the blackness like Christmas lights crocheted into a random netting, the fabric all crumpled up to fill the moonless night. Planets coalesced from swirling matter; nebulae formed and constellations constellated.

It looked, to tell the truth, like a half-finished construction project at that awkward stage when you have to wonder whether the guy in charge really has a clue what he’s doing. And the Spirit of God hovered over the deep, brooding, pulling it all together, squeezing out the last possible drop of chaos. Some would have to remain for a little time. At the right time it would be overcome, but it still had its work to do, calling forth its fellows from the lambent creation, exposing them for destruction when all was ready to be consummated.

Today it is said “first the physical and then the spiritual,” but truly in that time (for it was the beginning of all times), the nothing was first, and from it was wrested the physical. From the physical was wrested stuff more like God than like anything else, and yet there was still that element of chaos hiding within it. That bit of the nothing that wanted, not to return to its former state, but rather to reign over the Everything, subjecting it to its own mean emptiness.

'Twas the Son of God who exposed it, routed it from the heavenlies and flung it into the infernal realms – where it did not stay. God knew, for God always knows, what would come of this. He knew with deeper knowledge than the chaos, could ever know, and He allowed the chaos to remain. It yet had a use, and while it was an enemy, it would not fail to serve His purpose.

God knew from eternity that the chaos, the child of the nothingness, would one day achieve its gnawing desire. It would take the very life of the Divine One. And God was content.

Edit: (Oops! I intended to hit “preview” and look for errors and instead I made an error and hit “submit.” But I guess I’ll let it stand for now. Perhaps I’ll finish it later.) :wink:

#3

Let’s see, someone said, “one day we will know fully even as we are fully known.” We will wake up to see what we have really always been.

Is there a universal all knowing consciousness spawning off universally unaware local baby consciousnesses that grow and mature to eventually merge back and expand the shared experience of life, grace, and light?

Where do we exist in the chain of dependencies? Who knows. When we grow up into maturity will we be the beginning of a whole new chain of dependencies that will continue to flesh out our particular path in the ever expanding universal consciousness as it progresses from glory to glory?

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

Or maybe it’s all hogwash and some of us will just sit for eternity on clouds and play harps while most of the rest of us burn in hell forever. Yeah, that’s probably it.

#4

Cindy, to me this sentence is self-contradictory. How can anything happen or even exist BEFORE time began? The very word “before” has a temporal connotation. But if time began, then there was no “before”.

Let me explain. Let’s say let’s say that t1 was the beginning of time. If some event E happened BEFORE t1, then t1 WASN’T the beginning of time. Some prior event must have marked the beginning of time.

Just what IS “time”? I consider “time” to refer to a measurement of the passing of events. If I am correct, there could not have been a “time” BEFORE the beginning of time, and therefor no events BEFORE. Indeed there could not have been a BEFORE!

However, perhaps you have a different concept of “time”. If so, I would be pleased to read your your explanation.

#5

Paidion,

You’ll get no argument from me. I was trying to be ironic. :wink:

Blessings, Cindy

#6

Can you help me out, Cindy? In my density, I see no irony in the passage I quoted and to which I responded. Your explanation of the irony would be appreciated.

Okay, never mind. I just read your whole post more carefully. I noted your winking emoticons. I am guessing you were trying to come up with a story as outlandish as some of the preceding ones. Am I right?

#7

There has never been nothing. Only God existed. He created nothing, a void and allowed it to come into Himself, like a wound. A crucifixion of sorts before the foundation of the cosmos. We were created in the void, the chaos, the wound. Love always comes from a wound.

#8

Pretty much, Paidion

All the quantum stuff generated it in my brain. :wink: I couldn’t understand it, you know. I’m too small.

Mine is a kind of ridiculous story combined with mental doodles. I probably should have kept it to myself – It was really only for my own amusement.

The idea of eternity is included because it has always been bemusing to me – eternity as a sort of place where everything has already happened and is happening and nothing new ever could happen (and if it did, it wouldn’t happen in sequence, for the end had already taken place even as the beginning had begun – but no, nothing could either begin or end or happen at all that hadn’t already happened . . . and this is going nowhere, of course. Maybe it’s the limitations of my non-Einsteinian brain. I just can’t see how it would work at all.

And as for the thing about “the nothing,” I’ve been wondering what God made the world out of. Some say He made it of Himself, and of course, we could say that it is made of His words. Others say it’s His thoughts and the whole thing exists in His mind. We know that those things which are seen are not made of things that do appear, but many things don’t “appear” to the naked eye, and there are things that (so far as we’re concerned) can’t appear, such as dark matter. But unless God made the world(s) from Himself in some way, what else is there for Him to use but “nothing?”

What if this “non-existence” didn’t “want” to be changed into a something? What if it, by its very nature of non-existence fought back, trying to get back to the state (or non-state) from which it had been wrested? What if that is the cosmic battle between Good and evil? (Not that I think it is – as I said, it’s just a sort of mental doodle.) Hey, maybe this is a picture of my invisible doodle. :wink: I can’t figure out how to insert it, but here it is on my flickr page: flickr.com/photos/30488860@N04/5391684931/in/photostream

Well, I’ll spare you further nonsense, Brother. You see what happens when a person spends too much time alone. :laughing: So if something I say seems to make no sense, perhaps that’s because it doesn’t.

Blessings!
Cindy

#9

Nimblewill,

Most excellent thought (in my opinion, for what that’s worth). God has always been love and sacrifice and all the things He’s still about. Beautiful thought. :slight_smile:

Blessings, Cindy

#10

What if in lieu of “Long ago, before time existed” we substituted the words “In a realm of existence where there is no time”?

But I think I get the gist of what Cindy is trying to convey, and, because it is rendered in the format of a fable or storybook tale, the words “long ago, before time existed” are appropriate.

#11

Thanks, Psalmist :slight_smile: