Jesus In the 21st Century

When contemplating the life of possibly the most influential human to ever walk planet earth, I like to look at what made Jesus so amazing in those days. It wasn't his miracles or that he healed people, others have done very similar things, or history at least claims they did. Paul performed miracles and healed people, but he is only known by people because of his relationship to Jesus, not because history itself remembers him, outside of the bible anyway. It was not these incredible actions that made Jesus so amazing, what made Jesus so incredible was his message for the time. Think about it. Jesus was preaching a 21st century message to 1st century people. They had never heard anything like it before. Jesus' ability to think outside the box and to come up with something so radical that it changed all of society, that is why He is remembered to this day. Even if you don't believe in Jesus and don't believe his miracles, you cannot argue with me on this point. His message was so powerful that it has withstood the test of the ages. Over 2,000 years and all the world still knows something of Jesus, even if it is just his name. 

People came to him after he fed the 5,000 and they asked for bread, they didn't care he had performed the miracle, they acted in a very 1st century way and wanted an easy meal, even though they were not hungry, they acted rather primitively and wanted something for free (oh wait, that sounds kind of familiar...) Jesus told them, pretty much, to get their own food, his message was a message if changing perspectives and thought patterns, to live a life based in principles, not on rules. To think for ones self, and to develop relationships, it was a post modern message preached 2,000 years before our post modern world came in to its own.

Jesus drew people from a primitive, and submissive culture, to one with pride, courage, and love for others. Turn the other cheek was a way of putting yourself on equal ground with the one who had slapped you, It wasn't a message of cowerdess and submissiveness, quite the opposite in fact. In the culture of the day If someone slapped you they usually did it backhandedly because they saw you as inferior to them, by turning your cheek the perpetrator was forced to do one of two things, slap you open handily, recognizing you as an equal before God, or to walk away, thus ending the dispute. Either way, you won the argument. Jesus' message was not a message for pansies. He taught that if the Romans forced you to walk a mile, you should walk two. It was common in those days, any soldier could ask a conquered countryman to carry his equipment for the distance of 1 mile. Jesus put the people in authority, for by walking 2 miles when demanded only 1, you no longer were obeying orders, you were choosing. Jesus placed the power of choice in the hands of the lowly. Such a peaceful message, but deadly. It is no wonder they killed him. 

Jesus revealed that obedience to the law is meaningless, just as obeying that soldier is an act of being cowed, but walking 2 miles puts you back into the position of power by your own free choice. You cannot coerce love. You cannot reduce love to a set of does and don'ts. That was the whole point of the Levitical system, to show humanity that Gods law of love is impossible to make in to a set of rules. The Israelites, after leaving Egypt and coming out of slavery with rules to follow, demanded of God a list, so God gave them over 800. It's almost laughable. It's so obvious that God was revealing that love to him cannot be made into a set of rules. Love is freely given, and love to God can only come from a heart desirous of friendship. A relationship with God is the only thing that can lead to open practice of good works. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus revealed this truth in a shocking way, by showing that not even perfect obedience to the law can obtain salvation. Jesus' message was a message of the heart, not of works.

If Jesus came today, his message would be so far ahead of popular thought that it would leave us in the dust. His message would not be that everyone join the Adventist church. Nope, In fact he'd call people out of Adventism, to a deeper understanding. Not that he would ask people to leave the church, but that they change their understanding of who He is. Love cannot be canonized in as et of doctrines. Conanization inhibits the progression of truth. Jesus didn't ask Jews to leave the faith, he asked them to change the way they thought. Jesus didn't ask the Samaritans to become Jews, only that they change their views of who God was, Jesus didn't ask the Roman centurion to become a Jew, he recognized that he had already changed his way of thinking and even though he was not a part of Gods people at all, he had more faith than anyone Jesus had ever met. He wasn't even Christian you could say today. Jesus' message would be a message of inclusiveness. It would be for everyone, and would leave no one out, not even atheists, because Jesus would not ask for adherence to doctrines, but for a change in the way of life and how we view the world. Jesus' message would be a message for the 40th century, in a 21st century world. You tell me what that would look like. I think it would rock our world.

The Knowledge of Gods

Humanity, like so many ants following a scented path directed towards riches beyond. All people working for their own betterment, yet as a whole the populations somehow ebbs and flows together like one surging mass alive. I see it in the faces of those passed by in terminals, faces blend, and what is registered is a spot of blonde here, grey touching the scalp, brown, black, red, yellow. The Distinguished debonair, briefcase in hand, business in the mind, together with the haggard, worn and unsuccessful. All of them so easily melt in to one, yet behind the mask and pretense if each, lies that awakening of intelligence seen in wise eyes. Everyone a story, everyone a unique history explaining the evolution of mankind. How easily the soul of the individual is cast aside in the observation of the whole.

I peer down from sky's above, as a god in his heaven. Gashes across the earth plainly seen as the industry of the most diligent and persistent creature forces the land to their own control. With what would you compare such a great creation? Who can imagine a more adaptive creature? A land dweller desiring the sea, so he took it. He envied the birds so he flew. He saw the frozen uninhabitable land and he killed to make it his. He saw the stamina of the deer, so he ran it down. He became jealous of the maintains so he climbed. He became angry with nature so he destroyed. Yet turns to look and desires to save, thinking himself the redeemer of creation. With armies he conquers, with fire he burns, with unity he builds, with power he rules.

And yet, in all this glory of man, he holds one flaw, a scar which no other earthly being is set to bear, one flaw above all else...He believes. Since time of recognition man sat and looked up and understanding dawned and songs if worship ascended. How great a burden has been placed on the intellect of man. Shall we not be considered gods simply to be worthy of it? What was holiest of all has breathed it's first breath through the thought of autonomy. What holy rituals must we invent, what sacred games must we play to fill the longing of the human mind? We are the creators of the creators, how great of a deception we must needs believe in order to set ourselves free of the problem our invention has created. Long have we sought to rid ourselves of our ability, to kill the god of our mind. Oh, god is alive, and remains alive and we made it so, yet nonexistence still smothers. The deep blackness of nothing looms. The despair of humanity is palpable, how shall we rid ourselves of our burdened brilliance? Look deep into the eyes of the individual and peer into the soul of man, is not infinity housed there? The knowledge of gods.

Multiplicity of Reality

Chapter 4

The Multiplicity Of Reality

            Elcric was a good law abiding citizen, he always obeyed the speed limits, paid his taxes, and most of all he always traveled, North, South, East, and West. Elcric never speculated about things too high for him, nor gave any thought to those who questioned the very foundation of D2, the world that he lived in. Elcric had heard the tales of course, of squares appearing and disappearing, or of shapes morphing magically into other shapes, but Elcric knew these tales to be false. D2 was fixed and determined by natural laws. Nothing came into existence on its own, nor could things that had a fixed shape transform from one to the other. Most of all, Elcric knew that there was no up and there was no down. The concept was sickening. How could anyone make up such vile lies. To question the very nature of reality its self was a diabolical sin. After all, had not god created D2 and its laws, the existence of anything else was science fiction and meaningless. These were the thoughts of Elcric, and indeed every other good D2 dweller, until their eyes were opened.

            We will now turn our attention to a concept that will be hard to comprehend. In fact, it is impossible to comprehend. We can only speculate and imagine on what I am about to share with you. That is the existence of dimensions outside of our 3 dimensional world. How would a fourth dimension effect our world and our view of God? Does anything change with the existence of such a thing? We will attempt to answer these questions in this chapter. If we do not come to an exact conclusion, at least we will have a better understanding of the issues and the scientific thought and evidence of a new conceptual idea.

            First, we start off with a simple question. What is a dimension? We exist inside a world that can comprehend 3 dimensions. We know what the first dimension is, and we can imagine what it looks like. It is a dot, a dot existing in only one unit of space and time, this dot has no dimensions, it is a single point on a coordinate system. Now if we take this dot and move it in a straight line, we now have 2 dimensions. 2 dimensions is a 1 dimensional particle moved in one direction. Now we have something that can exist in space, North, South, East, and West this thing can move in space. What if we take this line and move it North, now it just experienced a square. What happens to a square if it moves up? Now you enter the 3^rd dimension, a cube.

            We live in a three dimensional world. We understand North, South, East, and West and up and down, but imagine if we lived in a two dimensional world with no understanding of up and down. What if someone told you that there was up and down? You would have nothing inside your frame of reference to compare such an idea with, and you would say, “ridiculous!” You might even accuse the person saying they are a heretic for believing in fantasy and false teachings. Just like the little story at the beginning of this chapter. Elcric is a circle, he can comprehend left right, forward and backward, but to speak to him of up and down is a ridiculous notion, because in his mind, no such thing has ever existed or could ever.

            Imagine, though, that one day, while Elcric is moving around in this two Dimensional world a cube passes through his world. What would he see? To him all of a sudden, without any warning or sign, a square would appear in front of him, stay for a while, and then vanish. “Witch craft!” no doubt he would yell, or if he is a believer, “The hand of God!” It would be perceived as a miracle. What if a sphere passed through D2? It would appear as a dot, grow into a bigger and bigger circle and then shrink again back to a dot and finally disappear. A three dimensional object projected into two dimensions, is the shadow of the original, or cross section of it.

            Unless Elcric is moved out of his two-dimensional world and magically transported into the world of three dimensions, he will see all these observations as miracles and unexplainable. For instance, since we are living inside a three dimensional reality, we could stick our figure right inside the house of Elcric, thus to him it would appear as though a cross section of our figure all of a sudden appeared in his living room. Elcric would think it just came right through the walls and he would call it magic, or a miracle.

            Now imagine this, what if what we experience every day, is not all there is to reality? What if our three dimensional world is not sufficient to explain the actuality of the universe? If the two-dimensional world can’t understand the 3^rd dimension, is it possible that the 3^rd dimensional world cannot understand the fourth? What if there was a dimension outside of our North, South, East, West, and up and down?

            If the shadow of a three dimensional object is a two dimensional object, what is a three dimensional object the shadow of? “Ridiculous!”  you might say, “A three dimensional object is not the shadow of anything, it’s three dimensional!” What if, however, there exists something outside of our dimension, something called, the fourth dimension? What if there was another direction for our cube to travel so that it went from dot, to line, to square, to cube, to…what? To a hypercube, moving in a direction that we can barely begin to comprehend? Let’s look at it this way, a cube unfolded into two dimensions is what? Can you unfold it in your mind? Try it for a second, what do you get?

                                     

            Is this what you came up with? This is the only way that a two dimensional person could experience a cube. They could look at this cross and see all the parts of a cube, but they could not imagine it folded up. Now imagine our three-dimensional cube moving in another direction of which we have no understanding, what would be the unfolded three-dimensional representation of that four dimensional hypercube? Try it in your mind. If a square, after moving in the 3^rd dimension has 6 surfaces, twelve lines, and 8 points, then a cube moving in the fourth dimension would have 8 cubes, 24 surfaces, 32 lines, and 16 points. What does that look like unfolded? We can represent the hypercube as a cube moving at an angle, but it isn’t an exact representation since it is moving in a dimension we can understand, in reality the fourth dimension is one which we have no grasp or understanding, we only know it exists.

            So what does our 8 cubed, 24 surfaced, 32 line, and 16 point cube look like unfolded in the two dimensions so that we can understand it? If a cube folded into 2 dimensions is a cross, then it stands to reason that a hypercube folded into three dimensions is similar, and in fact, that is exactly what it is. A cross.

            Einstien refered to this 4^th dimension as the area of spacetime. We see space and time as separate ideas all together, we have space, the area in which we exist and move, and then we have time, how long it takes us to move, and exist in this space. In Einstiens theory of relativity (Wich we will cover in the next chapter) space and time are one and the same. There is no difference between space and time, to talk about one, is to talk about the other, hence the name spacetime.

            In this theory, time just becomes another direction in which to move. It is not a separate concept at all. Space and time are one and the same, and if we could view the world inside the 4^th dimension, we would see time as an extension of our cube in another direction intirely. One which we can’t imagine, just as someone living in a 2 dimensional world could not comprehend “up”.

            So what does this mean for us? If we can’t experience the 4^th dimension outside of our 3 dimensional world, why then should we worry about it at all? I believe this concept reveals something striking about the nature of God and His interaction with this world. For most of my life I viewed the miracles contained in the Bible as magic. God did something totally and completely outside the realm of science. God is magical, end of discussion. Then I began to reason as I studied the sciences, and realized that what most people in the past considered magic and whichcraft, today is considered science. If we find that Jesus’ miracles could be replicated by science in the future, would that deminision Him as God? My answer to my own question was no, if I had answered yes, I would no longer believe in an all powerful God. I believe God uses His own laws in interaction with humanity, He does not break them just because He can. How then are miracles possible?

            Miracles are possible because God is not contained inside dimensions. Is this unfair? For God to work inside a dimension that nature cannot itself experience? No of course not. The 4^th dimension is inside nature. As we will see in the next chapter, the orbit of the plants, gravity on earth, and the whirling of the galaxies all obey the laws of the 4^th dimension. Just because humanity cannot experience this sepperate dimension, does not mean it does not belong to science and nature. To the contrary, it is because of the existance of this 4^th dimension, and many more dimensions beyond that, that life in the universe is even possible.

            Jesus appearing in the upper room in Luke 24 and John 20 could easily be explained in terms of the 4^th dimension. Just like we could take our finger and put it right inside the house of someone living in a 2 dimensional world, how hard would it be for a creature in the 4^th dimension to appear right inside our walls? Jesus, angels, and even demons exist in a dimension that we cannot comprehend. In this view, it is not simply magic that makes us unable to see the angels and demons in the world, but simply that angels and demons exist in a sepperate dimension than we do. Angels can perform “miracles” that we cannot explain because they can do things inside their dimension that we cannot do inside the ours. Likewise, demons can appear to have great power because they exist in a dimension that is sepperate from our own. They do not break the laws of God, only abide by a different set of rules.

            C.S. Lewis has a great analogy when it comes to miracles. Picture a pool table. Scientists can calculate the direction that the ball will travel based on force, angle, velocity, and spin. Using those they can determine where and when the ball will go when hit by the que ball. So imagine now that scientists are observing this experiment, all the balls are obeying the natural laws of physics to the tee. Nothing ever strays from the normal. With precise accuracy the ball that the que hits goes exactly where the scientists predicted. Now imagine that I am standing right next to the table watching this all happen, and during one of their tests, I take my hand and I move the ball in a different direction than it normally would have gone. Are the scientists going to exclaim, “Magic!” or, “It is the hand of God!” No of course not; but why not? Simple I messed up their experiement. But, didn’t I break the laws of physics? No I did not. I only broke the laws of the experiement. I was working with a sepperate set of rules outside the dimensions of the experiement. Thus I obeyed the laws of physics, but in a way uncalculable by the scientists.

            God works much the same way. We observe our dimension. We can calculate, with astonishing accuracy, the way in which nature will work. We can predict what will happen in certain curcumstances, and we can explain the natural universe in terms of our laws. Yet when it comes to God, all of a sudden we say, “Nope it didn’t happen, miracles are false, only made up by superstitious poeople. Nothing can disobey the natural laws of physics and nature.” God does not disobey the laws He created, only opperates by laws of which we are unaware.

            I am not saying that God exists in a 4^th dimension. I must make that clear. I am only saying that God deals in dimensions which we do not understand. God’s character is multi-dimensional, with layers upon layers to experience, but God does not exist in any of those dimensions. God is not dimensional. God lives outside all dimensions. He is the inventor of them all. We will forever be discovering the layers of God, but we will find when we crack one dimension after another, God will still be greater! We will never arrive at the "final" dimension of God because if we could be in that dimension, God will cease to be God. If God existed inside a dimension, than we could just as easily say that God is not all powerful, for there could possibly be a higher dimension in which God has no understanding. If He himself exists in any dimension at all, then it could logically be said that other Gods must exist who have designed their own universes. God is not created, he is the creator if all dimensions and too big for us to fully comprehend inside our little frame of reference, which doesn’t describe even a fraction what how the universe works.

I go back to my analogy about existing inside the mind of God. God thought, and it happened. The multi-layered dimensions of God going on, possibly forever, are put in place for us to explore and comprehend the workings of Him. God is helping us created things, understand Him who is not created. We will never arive at an understanding of God, nor cease to be amazed by His intricasies. For all eternity we will be learning, experiencing, and discovoring aspects, dimensions, and sciences of God that we have never comprehended.

Will we ever experience the 4^th dimension and beyond? Has anyone experienced it? I think that yes indeed someone has. We go back to the Garden of eden. Adam and eve lived in continual comunion with God. They observed Angels, and walk and talked with God. When they fell, God banashed them from the garden of eden. Later, as the earth became currupt and totally evil, God said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3).”  The people before the flood, could see the garden and the angels. It is possible, that God dimmed the ability of humanity to see the 4^th dimension, thus obscuring their view of the realm of angels.

Yet we have hope that one day we will see in this dimension again. In 2 Kings 6 Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of the young servant with him, and God answered that prayer and gave the young man a glimpse into the realm of the angels. He saw thousands of the angels of the host of God surrounding them on the mountains. This was a very superficial view into that realm however, it may have been more of the angels appearing in the 3^rd dimension, not the young man seeing into the 4^th. However, there are more stories.

Ezekiel’s vision of God is strange, often highly debated whether or not it is just a symbol or actual reality that Ezekiel saw. The story can be found in Ezekiel chapter 1. Ezekiel describes angels with four faces, 4 arms, and 8 wings, turning in all directions. He says that these creatures did not turn when they went. Each face went in a straight line, always moving forward. So we ask ourselves, “How is it possible for one creature to move in multiple directions at the same time?” It is certainly imposible in our three dimensions. Is it possible that Ezekiel was given a glimpse into the 4^th dimension?  Ezekiel also mentions that these angelic beings can travel at the speed of light, certainly impossible in our world, as we will discover more in the next chapter.

Ezekiel then describes a wheel within a wheel. Now imagine, what would a sphere look like in the 4^th dimension? We have not the slightest clue, becaues no one has ever been able to see it. Is it possible that when Ezekiel here, sees the throne of God, he has no way in which to describe what he sees becaue he is viewing something in a dimension outside of our own? It would explain why the symbolism is so confusing. Ezekiel was not drunk, or crazy, or making things up, he was doing his best at discribing heavenly 4 diminsional objects.

            Think of the discription of New Jerusalmen in Revelation 21. It has been theorized that New Jerusalem itself is a 4 dimensional city. What John saw was a 3 dimensional representation of a 4 dimensional object. Again we come back to the thought, what does a cube look like when moved in a direction that we cannot comprehend? It must be something extrodinary to behold. In the 3^rd dimension it would indeed be a square of equal length and width and hight, but in a 4^th dimension, no one can say what such a city would look like.

            I do not claim these things to be true. It is very possible that they are not, I am only seeking to brodden your minds into realms that we cannot fully comprehend. I seek only to show that the reality of God is much greater than our depth of understanding. The God of my imagination is not held captive by my humanistic, 3 dimensional understanding of the the universe. We must not think that God is somehow limited by our physics and reality. We cannot even say that our reality is even real. We do not know the workings of what is beyond, and to base our understanding of God on our reality makes it possible for our view of God to be crushed as science discoveres new things about the universe in wich we live that do not relate to our understanding of reality.

I believe that if you can come up with a viable theory that disproves the existance of God, than you have indeed disproved God. It is not possible to concieve of a science or a theory that destroyes the existance of God if we have the correct view of God. The only thing that changes as science discoveres new knowledge and obtains greater technology, is that our view and knowledge of God continues to increase. We must recognize that how we thought God created, or exists, or deals with humanity, etc. may not be the complete truth. God is bigger than our understanding, and that we must recognize and accept.

Is Anything Real?

In 1637 A man did a simple thought experiment. He got up out of his chair and walked away from his writing table and began to pace the room. As he walked around he imagined himself a ghost floating around the room without any body. He floated around his writing table, past the bed and over to the window. Finding it was quite easy imagining not having a body he then decided to try something else. He tried to imagine not having a mind, and found...it was impossible. Though a mind separated from the body is something we can imagine, imagining not having an intellect is impossible to do. You cannot imagine yourself out of existence. Out of this simple experiment the man, who's name was Rene Descartes, coined one of the most famous philosophical statements ever written, "I think, therefor I am." 

This statement, whether intending to or not brings up some interesting questions such as, do I make up my own reality? Is anything real? How much of my world is all in my head? If I do make up my own reality, is God real, or is he my own constructed explanation for the absurdity which is existence? Maybe you find these questions stupid and meaningless, but they raise questions that I think are worth discussing. 

In 1935 Physicist Erwin Shrodinger was discussing with Einstien about the strange nature of entangled particles. Quantum physics was a very new concept and was leaving the science community baffled by its discovery. In quantum entanglement two subatomic particles interact together and are then separated. When this happens the particles become "entangled" together. Neither particle is in any definitive state. To describe this in a way easily visualized Shrodinger put it this way. Suppose there is a cat in a box with a radioactive entangled particle and a jar of poison. When this particle decays a detection device detects the radiation and smashes the bottle of poison, but since the radioactive substance is both decayed and not decayed at the same time, for a moment in time, to the universe outside the box, the Cat can be considered both alive and dead at the same time, because the state of the cat is "entangled" with the state of the particle. However, when you open the box, the cat is either alive, or dead, never both. So at what point does quantum superposition end and reality begin? 

Obviously it is a morbid thought experiment, and Shrodinger does not imply that  a cat can actually be alive and dead at the same time, but it illustrates a mathematical principle. So What does this have to do with Descartes?  Shrodinger's Cat illustrates a very interesting concept about quantum physics. Certain things do not appear to obey the "rules" of our reality. Another example closely following the previous thought experiment is an actual experiment which helped establish the theory of quantum physics in the first place, and that is the wave/particle duality of electrons. Without going in to too much detail, it was found that the simple act of observation changed whether an electron would behave as a wave or a particle. If we simply watch the electron fly through a double slit experiment, it will appear a wave with a nice light and dark interference pattern, but as soon as you try to measure this electron, it no longer acts like a wave as it should, it acts as a particle with no interference pattern. The only thing that changed was our way of measuring the electron. 

So now to answer the question of what this all has to do with us, the very fact that we observe the universe,changes the way it interacts with us. Gone are the days of absolute knowing, gone are the days of proving. Nothing can be known for sure, only tested and observed. Our own observations of "reality" around us can't even be taken as truth. Is that tree green? Well, it definitely has the appearance of a color that I associate as green. Is that tree really there? Well, it definitely feels like it is to my touch as my brain translates impulses received by my hand and carried to my brain. Yet it is all in our mind in the end. Everything around us is an interpretation. So what can we know? Are we lost to fend for ourselves as our brains construct, let's be honest, a pretty darn awful universe around us? 

That is one way to look at it for sure, but I like to think of it another way, what if our brains have the power to change the universe around is for good? What if we have the power to change our own destiny, to surmount our own problems, and to conquer our own fears? What if we have the power to make the world bright, full of love and happiness, joy, truth, exploration, and knowledge? What if that is our purpose to exist in an otherwise meaningless reality? What if we were created for a purpose, to give life to reality? Descartes had it both right and wrong at the same time, what his statement should have read is, I think, therefor HE IS. The very fact that I have intelligence and that I cannot imagine myself out of existence points to a creator not subject to my rules, he does not change to the whims of my mind, he is not created that I can think him out if existence, else, I could think myself out of existence since I would be god myself. I think, therefor God is. He replaces the I am, for my intellect could not have constructed all that there is. I may create the reality around me, but what or who created my intellegence? Jesus said of himself, "Before Abraham was...I AM." John 8:58.  Before Abraham had an intelligent thought, before he had begun to construct reality around himself and before he had begun to create a nation who served The Lord, God was. "He is before all things and by him all things consist." Colossians 1:17 "for in him we live, and move, and have our being..." Acts 17:28

The Big Bang: God In Disguise

Chapter 3

The Big Bang: God In Disguise

“In the beginning there was nothing, then, bang”

What is it about the Big Bang? Can this theory be true in light of the Bible? It is certainly taught as truth today in our schools but is that simply science trying to impose its atheistic agenda on us. What was at the beginning of the universe? What was before the Big Bang? The very first words of the Bible are, “In the Beginning God…”[1] In the beginning, there was God. In essence the Bible is making a huge claim here. There never was a time before God. All things come from Him, as Paul wrote in the New Testament, “…he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”[2]

While watching a miniseries by Stephen Hawking I was surprised at the opening line of the show, “In the beginning” it started “there was nothing. Then, Bang!” It is well known that Stephen Hawking is a prominent evolutionary philosopher; he has dedicated much of his time to disproving God through reason. This statement at the beginning of this scientific documentary was such a profound attack against the foundational line of the Bible, that it shocked me. As I thought about this statement though, I began to analyze its meaning. What exactly does he mean by nothing? I know Stephen Hawking is a brilliant scientist, he doesn’t believe something can come from nothing. In order for the universe to have been made it had to have an original causer, the immovable mover, as some like to call it. If before the Big Bang there was nothing than how did creation happen?

The Big Bang is a huge problem for science. Albert Einstein first proposed the Big Bang as a way to explain the creation of the universe in terms of his General Theory of Relativity. Science adopted this view full heartedly without realizing the implications that it proposed. The classical understanding of the Big Bang that perhaps you have been introduced to is not actually the correct view of the Big Bang Theory. I heard one scientist explaining it to kids at a natural history museum, he stated that in the beginning the universe was all contained inside a ball the size of an egg, as he held up an egg sized crystal. Other people hear that this mass was actually the size of a pen head. All these views are incorrect. These are just explanations to help people put an understanding on the Big Bang. The problem is that in the original theory, all the matter that makes up the known universe had no volume, so to describe it in terms of size is meaningless.

Einstein’s theory was that in the beginning there was energy. This energy had no volume but contained infinite mass and infinite energy. Science readily adopted this view because it seemed to eliminate the need for God. Finally science had a theory that totally eliminated a higher power and gave a completely natural cause for everything. This infinite mass and infinite energy exploded in the biggest bang ever recorded, sending infinite mass with massive amounts of energy flying through space. This mass with energy began to combine and expand, setting in motion the whirling of the universe as if out of control, with everything expanding away from everything else. Science seems to indicate this happened about 14 billion years ago, which relative to eternity, isn’t all that long ago.

What Science realized to late is that Einstein’s theory was, in reality, “In the beginning God.” The problem is that infinite mass with infinite energy and zero volume is impossible to calculate. We are forced to rely wholly on faith in order to believe that such a thing exists. For Einstein this was no problem, God supplied the infinite energy, but for other scientists God did not exist.

Imagine for a moment with me as we picture that first creative act. All the energy of God released in a massive explosion of creative power! There was nothing, and then, out of nothing God created. What caused God to create? What was the original thought behind the original action that brought our universe into existence? If our universe is, as I believe, the material revelation of the thought and mind of God, then why did God create at that point, as far as we can calculate, 14 billion years ago? What came before that?

To get around the fact that something close to God created the universe, science has sought new ideas and theories to explain the existence of our universe. The latest idea is that the universe was not created at the Big Bang but instead it was recreated as the last universe died. They call it the Big Bounce. There appears to be some evidence using mathematics and our understanding of the expansion of stars that a previous universe existed before this one.

It is theorized that when a star expands to such a great extent that its internal temperature is no longer enough to keep it from collapsing by its own weight, the star collapses in on itself. When this happens it creates an area of matter with extremely high density. The mass can be so great that its gravitational pull will not even allow light to escape. Eventually such black holes can grow to have such a high density of matter that they become so massive that all that energy stored in something so small finally is released, in a massive explosion.

This is similar to what scientists theorize happened with our universe. Our universe is continually expanding away from the original starting point. Everything is moving at extremely high speeds away from everything else. Eventually the universe will get so big that it will not be able to support its own weight and it will collapse back in on itself, creating a black hole containing every piece of matter and energy in the entire universe. This is condensed to such an extent that all matter is converted to energy and you arrive at the starting point, with something with infinite energy and mass but no measurable volume. This pent up energy explodes sending infinite amounts of energy spinning through the universe which eventually coalesces and forms stars, planets, solar systems, and galaxies. 

Yet when you think about it, it comes to the exact same problem we have with this universe. What created the first universe? What was the first cause of all this energy? Something must come from something; nothing comes from nothing, so they are right back at the Big Bang problem. The amount of energy needed to create the universe we live in would indeed be infinite because as we understand it today, the universe is infinite. There is no end to the universe.

This brings up another problem to which science has many answers but no true understanding of. How is the universe shaped? There are three general ideas as to the shape of the universe, the saddle theory, flat theory, and the spherical theory. The flat theory is the oldest of the theories. It is the idea that the universe is flat, extending out in all directions infinitely. This has been largely discredited for a number of reasons that I will not cover in detail here, but one of the obvious problems with this theory is that if the universe extends in all directions infinitely, than there would be an infinite amounts of stars and galaxies in the universe, if there is an infinite amount of stars and galaxies in the universe than there would be infinite amounts of light as well,  thus the night sky would no longer be dark, it would be day 24/7 because no spot in the universe would be dark. There are many ways around this though and many people still hold to this theory.

My personal opinion is that a flat universe is too simple. It reminds me of when we thought the earth was flat, but I am not a theoretical physicist so what do I know? The second model is a spherical shape to the universe, much like the spherical shape of the earth. This theory explains Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in that there are no straight lines. There is always a space time curvature to everything in the theory of Relativity, thus it seems logical that if space and time curve out enough, they eventually come back on themselves giving our universe of space time a spherical shape. The Hyperbolic Universe also gives the same explanation except that it shows the curvature as never coming back on itself but instead everything expanding in a kind of parabolic fashion. Thus it explains the curvature of space time while providing a viable model for the eternally expanding universe.

I do not know which one of these models is correct, or if any of them are for that matter, neither do the scientists that propose them. However, I tend to believe that the universe is probably shaped in the same way that everything else appears to be shaped in, a sphere. The simple problem of having too much light circulating through the universe is solved by the theory of black holes. If every galaxy in the universe has at its center a giant black hole, as some scientists propose, than any light passing through such a singularity would be captured by the enormous gravitational pull of this black hole and would be recycled into energy. Thus we do not have light pollution in the universe because the light is recycled as it travels through space.

There are extremely exciting ideas that go along with this theory. Many people wonder about the existence of God as they look out over a seemingly chaotic universe with destructive black holes and stars that expand and blow up. However it because very clear that these black holes are needed for a viable system to exist. Think of them as god’s trash cans. The universe is kept clean by giant recyclers that recycle energy and matter back into the universe. If a god did indeed create the universe than he created it with great care and precision. Everything is dependent on everything else to exist. As we will see in the next chapter, we cannot have time, inertia, or rotation and many more things without the existence of other bodies in the universe. If a single human being was the only thing in existence in the universe, there would be no such thing as movement. Our system is irreducibly complex on every level, not just cellular but universal as well.

A spherical universe brings up another extremely interesting subject. What is beyond the orbit of our universe? What is outside the sphere? Could it be that there are more universes outside of this one? Maybe the reason why we have not found evidence of intelligent life in the universe is because this universe is “quarantined until further notice.” Maybe all other life in the universe fled as this one began to decay. Are you beginning to see how great this God could be? He goes far beyond even the existence of our own universe. Our universe might not even be that special in comparison with the infinite universes that could be found out there. We are so small; we don’t even understand how our own universe and its laws work much less any other universe that might exist out there with its own set of laws and rules. The mechanics of our own universe will be the subject of our next chapters.

---

[1] Genesis 1:1

[2] Colossians 1:17