Life Paper for January 11th, 2002:

"Life... Get Out There And Live It"

Life... get out there and live it.

There, it's said. Good advice, you know... wasting time, as I have so painstakingly discovered, is NOT a good way to get things done. Nothing will come of nothing, you know... the only way to live the good life is to BE good, and only then will all good things come to us.

But all this tends to suggest that we should be doing something... and unfortunately for those who like simplicity, there's a good deal more than a single straight and narrow path. Even theologians, whose self-proclaimed job is to tell us how to live our lives, differ widely on a variety of subjects. Is it all about the bread and wine, or is Jesus da man, or maybe it's that we just gotta BELIEVE... but which one is it? If they're not going to figure it out on their own, well, I suppose I'm as qualified as the next fellow. Therefore, that is what we shall herein attempt to discern - just what the heck is going on here, and what does that mean we should be doing?

First of all, let's make the universe a little more hospitable to the philosophical method... that is, of wondering, thinking, and (hopefully) finding answers. Let's assume that the God, the first cause of everything, is an entirely lawful deity - that is, that God doesn't do things at random, that God is perfect and does things logically according to that perfection. What this does is that it renders God ultimately understandable... maybe to truly understand God would require our own perfection, impossible unless we actually BECOME God - two ultimate beings in one place seems a tad bit much - but at least we can begin to comprehend what God is about, and base our behavior on such knowledge.

Now, let's start at the beginning. Not the creation of our universe, the beginning. Where God 'started'... while God is presumed to be permanent and eternal in all directions, God would seem to have a history of sorts. Now, a basic law in this universe (and, as I've mentioned before, one that I've learned the hard way) is that nothing comes out of nothing; therefore, if we assume that this is a law of existence in general (being entirely mathematical in nature, it would seem to be pretty much untouchable, and so if any law applies to God, this one should), then there was nothing for God, God being taken to mean the First Cause at any rate (regardless of sentience or other qualities; God's First Causal nature is the most important characteristic to have here and therefore, the one that I choose to take for granted), to have been generated from. Therefore, we must assume that God somehow generated itself, exists outside any concept of time, or has always existed. Let's look at these each in turn.

Okay, let's assume that God generated itself. This is essentially equivalent to stating two things: first, that God is somehow the ultimate law of the universe, and secondly, that that law exists as it does by necessity... that is, that it couldn't of happened any other way. The whole of God had to happen like it happened, or at least it had to happen in the first place. This is an interesting theory, tending to favor a very lawful God indeed. In fact, it lends itself well to an impersonal aspect of God, that is, a manifestation of God as a totally lawful power. Now, God could still have a personal form, but this form would have been generated by the lawful, entirely perfect form that generated itself. Palatable enough for me, but let's move on.

Okay, now let us assume that God exists outside of any concept of time. God is out there, existing and generating everything from its metaphorical throne, but never changing. This, too, would lead to an impersonal aspect of God as God's primary and primal state. Also once again, this would allow a personal aspect of God as a secondary manifestation, but, as far as I can see, not much more. This, too, seems like a good concept, but in the case that you find it insufficient, we shall move on to the next consideration: God has always existed, and always will.

This is quite different from the last two in some ways, but can also assume the aspect of both. If God has always existed but has existed within time, then God has a past, a present, and a future, instead of a single state of being... but then is God perfect? To me, perfection implies wholeness, a totality and all-encompassingness that is infinite in and of itself. Myself, I also like to hold the parts of God as ultimately somehow infinite in and of themselves (something that could bode very well for all of us), but that's more of a side note than anything else. The real issue here is whether anything that constantly changes can be forever perfect... or, on the other hand, can something never change even when exposed to the rigors of time?

Well, if a state of perfection is a state of wholeness, then perhaps there can be multiple arrangements of the parts in which the parts make a perfect whole. On the other hand, if something never changes even after being exposed to time and circumstance, that suggests a sort of 'read-only' model of God. In this model, God is, once again, the First Cause, never being caused but only a cause. So yes, this could be another possibility.

Okay, well, it took a while, but we're finally here. We now know how God might have gone about creating itself; now, let's look at how and why God created the rest of us.

A question that I have asked many times before and, on occasion, answered nearly to my own satisfaction: what did God make us out of? Well, mind you, I'm not talking about our physical bodies & how God made those; those were apparently made by the internal processes of the universe that God set in motion by being the First Cause. What I'm talking about is, how did God create what was there in the beginning... what came before.

Let's assume that everything that has ever been created in our own universe was either created by God at some indefinite point in the past, or was created through God's continued influence here. This means that nothing will ever come of nothing, and something will never come of nothing... for God is the only creative force, while all other forces can only change. Destruction, too, is not something that can actually exist, except as things leave the universe and return to God. Or, then again, we could include the whole multiverse (whatever else that would include beyond the universe) AND God in the system, making it so that nothing can ever be created or destroyed. Everything is a part of God, and that's that.

This arises once again from the assumption that God had nothing else to work with to create things, being the First Cause. But even with this being said, we can still wonder why some parts of God was given human form and why some parts were given rock form, or (if we accept some form of evolution or, as I might call it, divine painting) why any form at all was given, and why initial forms LED to our human forms... so let's do that. Why?

Well, if God is perfect, then I would think that the universe has happened out of necessity. Using the little God-existing-inside-time-from-eternity-to-eternity model that we generated earlier (but not denying the existence of the other models in the process), this is a state of perfection, and whatever happens next will be a state of perfection. Taking a quantum approach, any state in which the universe might, under whatever laws apply to it, come to, exists and is a state of perfection. So (and I assume some form of evolution for this next part to act as a catalyst for our wonderings) if humans have evolved over vast periods of time from one form to another, similar to their chronological neighbors but differing greatly to either end of the scale, then why did that happen? I do not like to make evolution random, for that removes both the divine, logical, and mortal roles in determining what course evolution follows... so, let's make it either a logical / mathematical process, like a chemical reaction, or a divinely overseen one. Since we assume that God is both lawful and perfect, these two options are relatively similar in nature... either one would yield a logical sequence of events, and that's what I'm after. So, not knowing the specifics of either case, I'll (for the moment) assume that it doesn't matter.

So, we've got creatures, over vast periods of time, performing the almost unbelievable change between, say, single-celled organisms and human beings (hint: if it seems incredible to you, take it in steps). Why? Well, apparently because there's a tendency towards organization and 'mergers' on lower levels, and a constantly increasing usefulness of one's natural abilities on all levels. It is a tendency that leads towards survival, which seems to be what evolution is about: an adaptation of the self to help one to survive.

Okay, so let's review. I've been talking for a really long time, and -

No, seriously, let's review our wonderings, and see if they help us figure out the meaning and purpose of life. Believe me, you're probably just as much in the dark as to what we'll find as I am.

God, for some still-unknown reason, generated us. Why we were generated in our current state is a mystery (though necessity could be the answer), as is how God came in to being in the first place. But we were, presuming that the mathematical principal of zero equals zero, and that zero always yields zero when added or subtracted from itself, apparently created out of God, and because there was no where else to put us, we are apparently within God's reaches now. We are each a part of God, by this logic... and therefore, God's mission is ours.

So, just what IS God's mission? This is where the straight-out logic ends and the 'perhaps's start. Perhaps it is to make each part find its place in the whole. Perhaps it is to make each part a perfect replica OF the whole. Perhaps we are to come to understand God in such a way and to such an extent that we BECOME a perfect replica of the whole. Perhaps God's parts must advance themselves in such a way that they remake God itself, carrying the perfect harmony of God to a new level of perfection, deeper, fuller, and greater in all ways then the last.

Yes, it's all theory, but it's kinda fun to think about. And that's the end of this paper.