| A Prayer of Jesus | I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. |
FREE WILL
Chapter III: The Habitat
The previous chapters have suggested that God desires children with whom to share his Glory, commonly called heaven. It then becomes necessary that he provide for them an alternate habitat where they can decide for themselves whether that is also to be their desire. This latter requires free will. Free will then requires individuals, options, and time. We have also shown that this is consistent with certain utterance of Jesus. We have identified the world with this alternative habitat, but now we temporarily set this identification aside and ask, What are the essential features of this habit? Individuation, options, and time are clearly among these essential features, so let us look more closely at each one.A. Time
Time is one of several features essential to the habitat. Without time, it is not possible that there can be a number of individuals; indeed, without time, there cannot be even so much as a plurality of individuals. How would we distinguish them without some time interval to separate the recognition of each? So, no time, no individuals. There could only be a unity, and a consciousness of only a unity! There could only be simultaneity of identity and simultaneity of events simultaneity of everything! This "time" must, then, stand apart from eternity, perhaps immersed in it, yet not of it. It is the realm of beginnings and endings, and everything in between. It is the realm of sentences such as this one, in which there is a beginning and an ending and something between, letters laid down one by one, one following the other, as time allows.
We have also indicated that time is essential to free will. Therefore, without attempting to explain time as a physical conception, we can consider it as a basic premise, a "given entity" that is basic to our development of other ideas. We simply list it here as No. 1.
(1) Time is an essential feature for the habitat.
Time is not Enough.
What is to distinguish between contemporaries? They are occupying the same time and therefore are indistinguishable unless there is some additional partitioning agent. Remember that the application of free will is possible only for a single individual, as determined in Chapter II.
If one contemplates a realm constituted
solely of time, such a universe can be graphically represented by a single,
moving point, the present, marking out a single path in its progression
from the past toward the future. In such a universe one can mark out and
identify individuals and numbered entities only if they are sequential.
There is no room in a single straight time line for contemporaries! Time
will mark out only one dimension, and what is needed is to provide some
additional
dimensions if we are to provide for candidates for the Eternal Glory.
These will serve to define that common entity that we call "space".
1. The Needed Dimensions
Lets take a look at how the additional
dimensions might be established. Referring to Illustration A, we see how
time, that has already been justified as a given entity, progresses from
left to right along a straight line.
To provide for some simultaneity of objects, let us draw a single line, TY, perpendicular to the time line as shown. Now it is readily seen that additional points, illustrated by e,f,g and h can be placed along this line and will be simultaneous points, all existing at the point in time designated "T." This is obviously a beginning as we seek to provide for simultaneous, distinct objects at the time "T." But since a line has only one dimension, these points are limited to this one dimension as possible locales for their simultaneous existence.
This addition solves the problem for all point like objects, to be sure, but a point in itself has no dimensions, and therefore no real existence! It is not possible for a multi-dimensional object to exist in a single line of one dimension. A number of short lines might be imagined to exist simultaneous with one another at time "T" but this would require boundaries between them, which have not been provided, and they would yet have only one dimension and therefore no real existence in spacetime. Otherwise each is infinitesimal, and therefore inadequate to represent a real entity in time. What good are contemporary points or short lines?
Next, refer to Illustration B and see how we may proceed to rectify this lack of dimensionality. If we provide a second dimension, in addition to time, by permitting the line TY from Illustration A to move perpendicular to the time line to a new position designated by (Z,YZ), It will trace out an area TZ(YZ)Y.
This is a two dimensional surface and it is perfect for the representation of two dimensional objects such as flat circles, ellipses, triangles, and rectangles, as illustrated provided, again, that something be supplied to bound them and set them apart the one from the other and we yet have not supplied boundaries.
Suppose that instead of providing a new dimension perpendicular both to the time line and the original dimension represented by TY, we simply permit the TY dimension with its associated points and line segments to move to the right with the time arrow. In this case we will find that a later time, T', we will have traced out a two dimensional surface as in Illustration C, below. Remember, though, that one of these dimensions is time, and that it advances inexorably so that at any one instant it is not accurately represented by the dimensional line shown. One instant is not the next instant, but a different one!
Therefore there is no planar extension as suggested, and no continuous line. The past is lost, there being no space dimension in which to mark its track; the future is not yet, there being no future space on which to cast its shadow. The single dimension, TY, does not advance in time to a new position tracing out a planar surface as indicated. It can only stand as the single entity, TY, and become older as time flows. This can also be expressed by stating that point "T" that represents "the present" can never represent anything other than the present. It cannot become a new point, "T ". it must simply continue to be itself, "T" as time flows.
Do not lose sight of the object of this entire enterprise. It is to provide for the existence of individuals of free will, as dictated by the implications of the message of Jesus. But that first requires that they have the freedom to exist, outside of and apart from Glory. We intend this discussion of dimensionality to provide a basis for a world in which they can find that freedom. Once we have provided them with a world suited to their existence, we may proceed to add the freedom of the will to their degrees of freedom. Therefore, what we are doing in building up a world in which such entities (children) can exist, by providing such "dimensions" as time, is drawing the container that separates them from Glory, or from Eternity. This boundary must needs consist of time and such other dimensions as we may find necessary.
Now return to Illustration B, where
we have provided two non time dimensions Y and Z, in which two dimensional
entities can exist. As in illustration C, the plane TZ(YZ)Y can exist as
an independent entity as time flows by, but cannot be truly represented
as a distinct object in the progress of time. Let us experiment by adding
a continuation of those dimensions in the direction of time, much as with
the one dimensional continuation in Illustration C. It looks here, in Illustration
D, below, as though we at last have something, for we have extended the
plane TZ(YZ)Y in the direction of the time line to a new position to mark
out a three dimensional figure by stopping the extension in the position
indicated by T'Z(YZ)Y.
Is this sufficient for our needs?
No, it isn't. All we have done is provide for the the continuous existence of two dimensional entities. This is similar to the world of Illustration C. We still have only two real dimensions, plus time, in which to work our wonders. This is not enough. How to proceed? We are working on a two dimensional sheet of paper, so we cannot visualize more than three dimensions, and we can realize only two. Apparently it is the presence of the time dimension that is blocking our progress, therefore, let us see what happens if we drop that dimension from the illustration. But if we do this, we need to acknowledge before proceeding that time is still of the essence and anything we can produce will be as it exists at only one instant of time. We cannot illustrate the effect of time without the representation of the time dimension.
So, in Illustration E (below), we have shown a third spatial dimension as it is produced by extending the two dimensional world of Illustration B to the right to form a three dimensional world as it might appear at one instant of time. We have also redesignated points T and T as O and X, O being the origin, or point of beginning, and X being the third new dimension that replaces time in the illustration. Now, with three dimensions, plus time, we have something with which to work. In every direction there is the possibility of a continuation of any real entity. In the two dimensional world of Illustration B, there was no possibility of a continuation in the direction
perpendicular to the two dimensional world. The same is true for the three dimensional world of Illustration D. So, realistically, the two dimensional entities in such a world can have no existence. Now, however, we have overcome that problem by providing yet a third dimension, which together with the time dimension makes a total of four.
We cannot show all four on a sheet of
paper (or a monitor). But if we want to illustrate the effect of the time
dimension, it is possible to do so by providing additional sheets of paper
(or monitor views) on which we illustrate the appearance of the three dimensional
entities at succeeding instants in time. This is what a movie reel does
by providing consecutive images of three dimensional entities as time progresses.
We began with only the one dimension of time, and we have found
it necessary to add three dimensions of space, thus supplying a
total of four dimensions of spacetime. This we set forth as the
second feature:
C. Boundaries
Is this all we need for our habitat?
No, we need more. To realize why we must have something else, let us return briefly to Illustration A. There the line TY represents a single dimension added to the time dimension, and we discovered that multiple entities could be represented on this line, as they appear at any instant, by individual line segments illustrated by ef and gh. Otherwise, the segments cannot be truly separate, or individualized. They will overlap in the one dimension and blend together so as to become one. There must be some sort of partition, or boundary, to distinguish individual entities, which in this case we accomplish by limiting the length of each.
So, to provide for the existence of an entity outside of Glory, we created a dimension. But to provide for the distinction of individuals, we provided a limitation within the dimension. Therefore, no single entity can occupy the entire dimension. It must be bounded if we are to realize individuals.
Now refer again to Illustration D in which we provided for the continuous existence of two dimensional entities along the time line. Similarly, for two dimensional individuals to exist within a two dimensional world, they must likewise be bounded. These boundaries are illustrated by the lines shown to distinguish circles, triangles and squares. Now that we are up to the three dimensions of Illustration E, we still, as in the case of one and two dimensions, require a boundary to distinguish individuals A one dimension plus time world required a one dimensional boundary. A two dimension plus time world required a two dimensional boundary. Similarly, a three dimension plus time world requires a three dimensional boundary, as illustrated by the cubes and cylinders of Illustration F, below. These boundaries can also be though of as being vessels that contain individuals.
These boundaries present a new problem. Individuation is essential to the responsibility that goes with free will, for only as an individual can one of the "children" be held responsible for a free decision. But the three dimension (plus time) habitat of Illustration E provides no boundaries to distinguish one individual from another. Within this world, every entity, like a vapor, has the freedom to expand or move in any and all directions. The result will be a mixture, which is the absence of discreet individuation and of self consciousness. Therefore there will be a failure to realize the existence of individuals.
Something else is needed, something to differentiate individuals, and it must be a new element not yet defined. What we have defined are the three dimensions of space and the one of time, to which we now apply the name, spacetime. But we cannot conceive of discrete spacetime individuals within spacetime, also comprised of the same spacetime, for there is nothing to separate one from another within space time. To clarify, imagine that spacetime consists entirely of liquid water, and that is all we have to define individuals. How could we differentiate between liquid water and liquid water within liquid water? Between liquid water here, and liquid water there? Where would one individual start, and another stop? There is no provision for containing individuals, and they will blend together with the currents within the liquid. Differentiation of individuals within spacetime requires something other than time and three dimensions of space.
This water metaphor may suggest the answer to our need, for if we take small portions of the water and freeze them into cubes, then place them back into the larger pool, we have a means of individuation. The cubes of solid water within the larger body of liquid will swirl about, mingle and jostle one another, but they remain individual cubes provided they do not melt. And we have created these cubes by extracting energy from small portions of the liquid. This results in there being an unequal distribution of energy within the mix of cubes and liquid, with the liquid containing more energy per unit.
If unequal energy distributions can maintain individuation in a body of water, could it also provide the boundary needed for discrete individuals in spacetime?
Our three dimensional (plus time) world
of spacetime is not enough. We have created three dimensional space,
a new component, and the one dimension of time with which we began, but
there
is too much freedom for the existence of individuals. They can exist,
but not as multiple entities that could be numbered, nor as individuals
that could be held responsible for their choices. Without limits or bounds
in all three non- time dimensions there is no basis for individuation.
We have provided time as the first dimension of a world of free
will individuals. We have provided three additional dimensions of space
as required for the existence of free-will individuals, which we have called
spacetime.
Now we discover that is yet not enough, for if they have
the freedom to occupy all space (and time), individuals cannot be individuated
and held responsible. If we are to realize individuals we must confine
each in some way as yet undefined.
1. The Needed Container
We need individual containers, or vessels,
as illustrated in "F" that will confine each individual for the totality
of its existence in spacetime. Of what will we construct them?
We have as yet only provided spacetime.
We have also considered the need of a container that will segregate individuals
from Eternal Glory until they are either reconciled to God's will or have
transgressed to the limit. Can we provide some boundary within our four
dimensional world that will separate them the one from the other within
spacetime?
If we compare the habitat we are seeking
to conceive with a basket with eggs, then the egg basket that we
are providing must seal the potential children off from God and his Glory,
but they also must be separate, within spacetime, from one another. The
separation from Glory is necessitated by the requirement that they each,
as individuals, act to become reconciled with God's will before
entering Glory. The separation from one another is necessary for individuation,
but the need of both separations is simultaneous.
2. The Needed Basis for Time
We need something more. What can it be? We have provided four dimensions of space time as logically required for the provision of children of free will. We have recognized a need for a container, or basket, to contain them, and the same or similar barrier to provide for their individual existence. Now, as we consider all these essential provisions, especially the containers, something else suddenly jumps out at us! We have provided no basis for time. We have allowed for it in the plan, but we have not provided a means to achieve it. Time must be measurable if it is to exist. Measurement requires periodicity of some sort! Now we see that space-time needs something similar, for if there are no points of reference, no boundaries, there can neither be the existence of space. Space needs boundaries; time needs periods, which are also boundaries, or barriers, of a sort. Everything requires a distinguishing boundary! Space, time, individuation, and separation from Glory all require boundaries. What we need is some provision of space, time, individuals and their persons to set them apart from Glory. Will a single addition supply them all?
Yes!
D. Energy
The clue came in considering the individuation of ice cubes by extracting energy from water. We propose that the needed raw material is energy and that it is abundant in Glory! It is energy divine, eternal, immutable, glorious energy! The stuff of Glory can, by an act of will, be restructured to provide the necessary boundaries and thus provide an existential basis for space, time, free will, individuals and their separation from Glory until they choose it for themselves.
We can imagine that the Creator first provided a pin-hole in the tissue of Glory, then project energy through the pin-hole. Let this be called a singularity. And as the energy passes through, let it be quantized, or subdivided into elementary particles that, in turn, will, by a suitable application of forces derived from the same energy and that inhere in the properties of energy, join together into combinations suitable for the required boundaries. Uncombined, the quanta will consist of elementary particles, photons, nutrinos, and quarks, issuing at high velocity. Their rapid rate of expansion from the singularity will simultaneously provide for spacetime and for the expansion of the boundaries of space and time. When combined, the particles will form protons, neutrons and electrons that will further combine into atoms, the smallest particles of various elements that will again combine, under favorable conditions, to form all varieties of matter.
The primal elements will also combine into huge agglomerations that will, in time, subdivide into stellar systems composed of stars and planets. It is in the heart of large stars that the heavier elements will form, where the pressures and temperatures are sufficient to provide the necessary compression of the primal energy and the primal elements. These stars must then explode to expose the wide variety of elements that have been formed.
These will in turn agglomerate to form
a second generation of stars and planets containing significant quantities
of the more complex elements. The elements on some of the planets, and
perhaps also dispersed in space, where the mix and the temperature is permissive,
will further combine by another force to produce molecules of compounds,
some very complex, and some so constructed as to reduplicate themselves
from time to time, thus producing succeeding generations of their own kind.
Agglomerations of such molecules will satisfy the need of a vessel for
the containment of free will individuals, provided a place is extant where
the conditions are suitable, and where adequate time is allowed for the
necessary agglomerations. We are providing "matter" to serve as the raw
material of the confining bodies of the individual inhabitants the shells
for our eggs. This we can list as feature No. 3.
E. Laws
What law, or laws, will rule the whole process until the full number of children have responded? It is reasonable to suppose that the laws must be applied from the very beginning, therefore they can inhere in the nature of spacetime and energy.. Everything the laws, the forces, the spacetime, the energy packets that condense to form the vessels for the children as well as their dwelling platforms, will inhere in the process from the beginning. Having initiated it, the Creator need have little more to do with it until it has fulfilled his purpose.
When we consider the unlimited resources of space, time, and energy we realize that only one fundamental law will suffice, the law of probability. Given enough space, time, energy and the necessary forces, anything can happen! The odds will be heavily weighted against it, but eventually, something can happen that will lead to the production of the limiting vessels, or bodies, of the children.
All of this must be spontaneous after
the first acts of creation for reasons that will appear in Chapter IV.
The Creator must provide all the necessary principles of operation, or
laws
of physics at the outset, then await in patience while this new creation
operates spontaneously to produce the individuals possessing free will.
Everything will be in motion of one kind or another. The laws will
insure that there will be some sort of periodicity through the motions
of atomic components and also in the motions of what we know as astronomical
bodies. This will provide the periodicity requisite for marking the existence
of time. The particles will themselves provide the points of reference
for the measure of space, as required for its existence. The self replicating
molecular agglomerations that arise will themselves be of many different
types. We have, then, feature No. 4 of our egg basket:
F. Forces
We will need to provide certain forces as suggested above, inherent in the system, to produce the agglomerations required to serve as limiting boundaries for the children. We must have the elements in order to get anything whatsoever started, and this requires a strong force to bind the protons and neutrons into a nucleus of elements. We require an electron force to bind the elements into molecules of the many compounds that must be assembled. We require something else to bind the materials into large agglomerates adequate to supply favorable conditions for God's children, rather than simply expanding outward in the form of elementary particles or radiation forever without providing bounding vessels for the children. The anticipated children will require individual bodies, in which to dwell during the period of their probation, while they are candidates for Eternal Glory. The bodies will require platforms of some sort on which to dwell. All can arise from the same fundamental energy and forces. We must provide feature No. 5:
(5) There must be fundamental forces to administer the natural laws.
These forces and the rules (laws of physics) by which they operate will be so intimately related that neither can exist apart from the other. Nevertheless it is helpful if we sort them individually as essential components for the habitat within which candidates for the divine childhood can exist and survey their options.
Summary
We summarize this chapter by listing
the five essential features of the habitat that is required to produce
children for the Glory of God:
(2) We require three dimensions of space to constitute a habitat to contain the potential children of God at any instant of time.
(3) Energy in the form of matter will provide for individuation of the potential children and will also serve to provide markers for time.
(4) Laws must regulate the process.
(5) There must be fundamental forces to administer the laws.
A four dimensional spacetime world containing discreet condensations of energy and ruled by laws of physics is a sufficient structure within which to build a habitat for candidates for the position of child of God. We have determined this by recognizing that such candidates must have free will to make the essential choice as first defined in Chapter I. The fact that Jesus is the one who has set this choice before us in relating his Great Principle strongly suggests that he viewed our habitat, the world, as the place created for the specific purpose of providing children for God the Father, and that our eternal destiny depends solely upon our choice as individuals. It likewise appears reasonable to believe that Jesus understood the nature of the universe, including our planet earth, and that he conceived its purpose as fulfilled in the production of divine children for the Glory of God the Father.
Furthermore, it is also reasonable to believe that the various features of human nature and our existence on the earth are fully consistent with this purpose and with the doctrines of Jesus. In Chapter IV we will examine some of these features to confirm that it is, indeed, reasonable to believe that we exist for the sole purpose of becoming the children of God sharing his Eternal Glory. And here, again, is our choice:
Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:33)
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