Cloudscape

The law has become an enforcement of norms. All that is abnormal is essentially bad - either criminal or insane.

Reason should be our tool, not the other way around… yet, in our world it is as if there is nothing else reason could be a tool of - as if we've all become our reason.

With all the disgrace the church has brought to the very word "God," if you are an atheist you might find it almost offensive to hear -- so let's just start by discussing ETI.

Extra-terrestrial intelligence, that is. You've doubtlessly thought about it, and you've doubtlessly heard the argument that the universe being infinite, there should be some other life outside our own planet. For many years I've doubted this argument, at least for our own universe, thinking that while our universe is indeed inconceivably huge, the chance of all the stuff in a cell to arise by itself from molecules was inconceivably small.

Then I heard about Oparin. "There is no distinction between life and molecules" - and I read about the many theories put forward about how life began with molecules. I later read about the hundreds of exoplanets we've already found, and the possibility that we've already found terrestrial or even inhabitable ones (like Gliese 581c, for instance). It appears the most important factors in the Drake equation are already pretty high: the number of intelligent civilization equals the number of stars (a whopping 7 · 10^22 in the observable universe), times the number of planets per star (which also appears to be rather high, seeing how we can detect some very exceptional types with our still very primitive methods), times the fraction that's inhabitable (which *could* be rather high too, as we've already found some planets which come close), times the fraction that actually develops life times (which seems to happen more often than not when you think of the many ways it might slowly but surely develop, such as according to the Graham Cairns-Smith theory), times the fraction that develops intelligent life… and even if that wouldn't be enough, there are many, many more universes in the multiverse.

Now the big question is: why don't they show themselves? That's just the same big question as in religion: why doesn't *God* show itself? The former's the Fermi paradox: "Where is everybody?" If the bacteria beneath our microscopes could think, maybe they'd ask themselves the same question -- this idea, that we're being observed but the "aliens" don't care to show themselves, is known as the zoo hypothesis… I believe they/God wouldn't want to change anything because to do so they/it would be harming the diversity of the universe.

Essentially, these questions are one and the same - God is just a next stage, beyond the stage achieved by those extraterrestrial intelligences that have already reached us. We're talking about a process of evolution here that's never really begun - it's lasted forever, since infinitely long ago. It's obvious that an intelligence that has evolved throughout the universe for an infinitely long time will attain an infinitely advanced state - a state of omnipotence or omniscience, if you will. More crucially, because the universe is infinite and such intelligences are occurrences with a certain frequency, like all other occurrences in the universe, there must have been an infinite number of such intelligences which at some point met one another and subsequently became one. This is a point where we speak of theosis - deification.

Stating the idea in a different way, in an infinitely complex universe there could be an infinite number of connections made, including causal relationships. This would mean that everything is possible, that everything could be achieved if only one knows the right connection. Essentially, this means that science could achieve anything at all - in futurist jargon this idea is known as the sans ceiling hypothesis. If this hypothesis is correct and the universe is infinite, it is inevitable that there is a God.

I hope that clears my views on this subject, although I imagine it's dense. If you can't understand, though, don't judge my spirituality.

"As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become."
— Lorenzo Snow

With all my recent references to Unity, I think it'd be about time I'd set about to the task explaining in summary what kind of "God" I believe in, before the atheist readers start throwing stuff at me. Because of the association of the word God with fundamentalism, I'll refer to it as Uni(versal) (Ent)ity: Unity.

My beliefs of God are mostly mathematical, based on logic as well as intuition rather than only intuition; as Einstein said, "[…] religion without science is blind." Of course, my God-theory is still founded upon assumptions, and as I'm not sure if those are correct I still consider it a guess, like my previous belief that there was no God, so I'm still sort of an agnost.

———

The single postulate of my theory is that the Universe (meaning the whole of existence, including alternate universes) is infinite in dimensions, EITHER:
1) temporally infinite (infinite in age and life-span)
2) spatially infinite (infinite in size)
3) infinite in energy
4) infinite in complexity

This was treated in the previous post about the infinity principle, more on this below. Either way essentially implies a universe of infinite complexity, and in such a universe there would be an infinite number of phenomena. As each of this would affect others, so that all phenomena in the universe would be infinitely connected, they would thus form a web of causal influences: that is, each phenomenon would be influenced, or controlled, directly or indirectly, by infinitely many others. One of such phenomena is our own will, or consciousness, which would likewise be causally interlinked to all other phenomena, meaning that it as well could control them. Thus, in principle, if one would find one's way through this web, one could, in principle, control any phenomenon in the universe, that is, one could be omnipotent. This appears to follow logically if the universe is of infinite complexity.
That's in theory. But for that, one still has to know how to do this - how to find one's way through this web of connections. This is a mere matter of evolution, but it takes time - and actual omniscience takes literally an infinitely long time. So omniscience might be possible in principle, but no-one could ever reach it.
That's were the infinity principle, which is my postulate, comes in. It could even rhyme with my version of modal realism: anything that can happen will happen (Feynman). Whatever configuration of energy one can think of will occur -- an omniscient entity is one of those configurations, but because of the infinite dimensions it would entail (omniscience means infinite information, which would have to be stored in infinitely much energy), it could occur only once; this is logical, as an omniscient being would also be aware of all information of any other omniscient being.

If either the age, size, energy or complexity of the universe are infinite, so are the others: if the universe is infinite in age, it must be infinite in size because a finite universe would keep expanding, ergo in energy, because it would otherwise be of infinitely low density due to this expansion, ergo in complexity because this energy would be distributed amongst the universe rather than remaining infinitely accumulated.
If the universe is infinite in size, it must be infinite in age because if it had a starting point it would originate from a singularity rather than popping into existence in infinite dimensions, and infinite in energy and complexity because it would otherwise be of infinitely low density as formerly said.
If the universe is infinite in energy, it must be infinite in age because in order to become of finite density it'd otherwise have to expand with infinite speed (this is the most plausible other possibility, as the absolute speed of light might not be absolute), infinite in size for the same reason, and infinite in complexity because of its infinite size.
Infinite complexity basically equals infinite size because size is relative. If the universe is infinite up or down, it makes little difference. Suppose the universe was contained inside a giant atom (which would have an infinitely complex substructure, so that this would be possible!), we'd still say the universe is tens of billions of light years in diameter instead of one and a half femtometer. Relative to an infinitely small world (at an infinitely complex level), everything is infinitely large. As we've said, infinite size and finite density means infinite energy. However, if the universe is infinite in complexity this does not necessarily mean that it is infinite in age.

Thus, we conclude that either:
1) the age, size, energy and complexity of the universe are all infinite,
2) neither the age, size, energy or complexity of the universe are infinite
3) the size, energy and complexity, but not the age, of the universe are infinite, and the Theory of Relativity is incomplete.

You can scratch the latter two possibilities, however, if you can accept the following argument. Existence cannot have had an actual cause, because that cause would itself have to be part of existence, otherwise it could not have existed because it would then not be part of existence. Why would there be a beginning? Where did it come from? What caused it? Now, I'm talking about the whole of existence, not just our own reality, but any reality at all, including hypothetical realities in which our own universe was created. Unless there already existed "something" which had caused the universe to arise, ie there was already something in *existence* (in other words, in the universe), such cause would necessarily have been acausal, and for something to be science it must obey causality. Causality, then, is its own only exception. Everything has a cause, but the chain of causes and consequences itself hasn't.

Following this line of reasoning we conclude that the universe is infinite in age, size, energy and complexity.

As everyone is united in God, one can be united with everyone through God. By connecting to Unity, one can connect to all people. One's sublunary form can't communicate with others in this way, although one's spiritual form, that which is integrated in Unity, does, but becoming aware of one's spiritual form one can become aware of this connection of oneself with all people. Try to do this when you are praying.

From Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet:

"When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that
very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.
Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy
and sweet communion.
For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you
shall not receive.
And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:
Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall
not be heard.
It is enough that you enter the temple invisible."

If God (Unity) is the unification of everything, then everything is part of Unity: everything is divine. Value all things as such, from the most sublime to the most banal. Remember that even what appear to be the vilest are part of Unity, and should be respected as Unity respects them. As Unity is the totality of all possible perceptions, one must know that anything one ever perceives - sensations, feelings, and thoughts - will also likewise be perceived by Unity, and that to Unity it is a choice to perceive them because it enjoys their beauty -- otherwise, it would not even allow them to exist.

Fundamentalists turned God into an instrument of the Devil.

God didn't create the universe, but vice versa; God didn't complete the universe: God is its completion.

Look ahead and see the light. This is it, what for thousands of years scientists, poets, mystics and philosophers have sought for. This what Christianity called Theosis, what Buddhists called Nirvana, what Pierre Teilhard Du Chardin called Point Omega, what Vernor Vinge called the Singularity. This is what civilization has strived for since its birth; for even without ever knowing that it was its destination, slowly but surely it had always been sailing toward it. This is the completion of all of the universe, where the perfection of omniscience and omnipresence awaits.