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.