Suppose you woke up one morning and you looked into the mirror to find your appearance drastically changed for the better - a younger, leaner, healthier version of yourself. (If you're already young and in good shape, imagine any change that would be physically shocking but still pleasing - new hair, new eyes, different skin pigment, whatever.) After overcoming the initial shock, you go to your nightstand to find an embossed card that informs you that you have been genetically renewed through some futuristic technology and that you are no longer liable to death by aging or disease. This would be amazingly good news, of course, but it would change the priorities of your life. For example, life insurance would be worth a lot less to you but safety from physical dangers would be worth a lot more to you. If you were smart, you'd probably stop driving a car altogether since that is your #1 risk of untimely death unless you have a high-risk occupation (which you would quit immediately, if you were smart).
You would also need to dedicate more of your time to long-range planning -- very long-range planning. But, despite your best preparations, you cannot rule out the possibility that you will end up in Rocky Valentine's plight. After arranging your affairs according to the best considerations of prudence, after applying your mind and energies to achieving the most wealth consistent with ataraxia, you find yourself running out of sheer interest to live. How many times can you enjoy fried chicken? How many times can you enjoy a birthday party? A night out with friends? A night in with family? A thousand times? A million times? A billion times? As long as you managed to escape untimely death, it is possible that you will engage in these activities any finite number of times. King Solomon, reputed to be the wisest man to have lived, concluded that life - no matter how prudently or lavishly it is lived - is futile:
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” ...
I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?
I saw that wisdom is better than folly just as light is better than darkness.
The wise have eyes in their heads while the fool walks in the darkness;
But I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.
Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”
For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!
[Excerpts from Ecclesiastes]
The idea that immortality could turn out to be a curse because of the futility of life follows from the consideration that humans have no rational or experiential context in which to process unending life. Perhaps eternal boredom (ennui) would make unending life feel like an inescapable prison. Of course, there is euthanasia. But if you woke up one day to find out you were immortal, this might prompt you to reconsider the parameters of causality, including what would actually happen if you did attempt to end your life. Perhaps your consciousness is indestructible like many religions teach -- an ignorant and irreversible decision might have unforeseen and highly negative consequences.
In the last two posts, we shifted the discussion onto theology in order to ask the following question: Supposing God exists, how does he not become bored? How is God exempt from the tragic futility that Solomon realized is the inescapable outcome of life?
If God is the being than which none greater can be conceived, then he must be knowing the answer to this question, even if we can't find it. In other words, God must not only not be liable to ennui, he must be certainly knowing that he is not liable to ennui. God must be able to prove to himself that he is eternally interested in his own existence and activity.
We cannot hope to deduce God's highest end from first principles. Thus, we cannot deduce God's interestedness in his own existence and activity. The traditional Christian view holds that God has revealed his highest end to man, and that it is to glorify himself. In the book of Isaiah, God speaks, "For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another." (48:11). In the book of Philippians, Paul explains how the Father is glorifying himself in the Son, "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
The word Logos comes from the opening of the gospel of John:
"In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind... The Logos became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."Most translations render the Greek word λόγος as "Word", but this is not its only meaning. The word has to do with reason, justice and the verbal faculty and John's mystical language opens up the word to all its possible meanings.
In the universal Monad, the Logos is the reason, purpose or end of all things. Because God has choice, this end is not imposed upon him but, rather, is actively assented to. Yet, God is knowing the inevitability of the Logos, as well, because he is knowing his own interestedness in his existence. Thus, the Logos does not exist in a hierarchy above or below will (choice). Rather, the Logos is the unifying thread that ties together all aspects of the universal Monad.
In this series, I have been trying to build a cosmology. We have taken a detour into theology not in order to abandon this cosmology but in order to put it in a broader context and, hopefully, place it on a firmer foundation. We have asserted that all is mind, that the universal mind is unlimited, that this mind could have let down what we termed a "teleological ladder", in order to make it possible for us to ascend to a better state of being. None of these assertions relied on theological considerations. I assert that the Logos must be that teleological ladder.
This brings us to what I have termed the Architecture Hypothesis (AH), in contrast to the Simulation Hypothesis (SH). The key to understanding the SH is methodological dualism. There is the "I" which is "the mind in the VR headset", so to speak. Then there is "the reality", that is, the material world, "the VR headset" which we are positing is doing the "simulating". Viewed in this way, we cannot ignore the conditioning effect that "the reality" has upon the "I" - the primary effect upon the self of existing within the world is that it is conditioned by the world. This is an exact statement of the Buddhist teaching called conditioned existence. We become habituated to the patterns of material existence and we may become so habituated by them that we are unable to disconnect from them without being driven to insanity or some other bad end.
In the AH, the fact that the nascent self is conditioned by its environment is not overlooked. Rather, it is just the first stage in a life process that is potentially infinite. What you believe about the world is what determines whether this process is actually infinite or whether it will terminate at some point. What you believe about the world is not determined by the world itself (your conditioning) but, rather, by your innate disposition (the "I"). Your innate disposition, in turn, is a super-evolutionary aspect of reality. Reproduce-select-mutate-repeat cannot explain the innate disposition and how it is matched with its particular environment - it is the combination of these two that produces the state of conditioned existence. The world, at root, is not value-neutral yet what is possible, in the sense of the realizable states-of-affairs, is essentially unlimited. Because the nascent self cannot grasp the true, long-run consequences of its choices within an absolutely unlimited existence (say, 1 billion years from now), it is constrained for a duration. This is true for all individuals, in parallel, and it is through connection with the creator (or God, if you can accept it) that the universal architecture of mind is unveiled and recapitulated, leading eventually to true love, true unity, unlimited comprehension and eternal life. In the SH, there is non-determinism with respect to the end or purpose of all things. In the AH, there is no non-determinism with respect to the end or purpose of all things - it is laid out from the very beginning, in much the same way that a mathematical theorem is stated before its proof is written out.
In this series, I have been trying to build a cosmology. We have taken a detour into theology not in order to abandon this cosmology but in order to put it in a broader context and, hopefully, place it on a firmer foundation. We have asserted that all is mind, that the universal mind is unlimited, that this mind could have let down what we termed a "teleological ladder", in order to make it possible for us to ascend to a better state of being. None of these assertions relied on theological considerations. I assert that the Logos must be that teleological ladder.
This brings us to what I have termed the Architecture Hypothesis (AH), in contrast to the Simulation Hypothesis (SH). The key to understanding the SH is methodological dualism. There is the "I" which is "the mind in the VR headset", so to speak. Then there is "the reality", that is, the material world, "the VR headset" which we are positing is doing the "simulating". Viewed in this way, we cannot ignore the conditioning effect that "the reality" has upon the "I" - the primary effect upon the self of existing within the world is that it is conditioned by the world. This is an exact statement of the Buddhist teaching called conditioned existence. We become habituated to the patterns of material existence and we may become so habituated by them that we are unable to disconnect from them without being driven to insanity or some other bad end.
In the AH, the fact that the nascent self is conditioned by its environment is not overlooked. Rather, it is just the first stage in a life process that is potentially infinite. What you believe about the world is what determines whether this process is actually infinite or whether it will terminate at some point. What you believe about the world is not determined by the world itself (your conditioning) but, rather, by your innate disposition (the "I"). Your innate disposition, in turn, is a super-evolutionary aspect of reality. Reproduce-select-mutate-repeat cannot explain the innate disposition and how it is matched with its particular environment - it is the combination of these two that produces the state of conditioned existence. The world, at root, is not value-neutral yet what is possible, in the sense of the realizable states-of-affairs, is essentially unlimited. Because the nascent self cannot grasp the true, long-run consequences of its choices within an absolutely unlimited existence (say, 1 billion years from now), it is constrained for a duration. This is true for all individuals, in parallel, and it is through connection with the creator (or God, if you can accept it) that the universal architecture of mind is unveiled and recapitulated, leading eventually to true love, true unity, unlimited comprehension and eternal life. In the SH, there is non-determinism with respect to the end or purpose of all things. In the AH, there is no non-determinism with respect to the end or purpose of all things - it is laid out from the very beginning, in much the same way that a mathematical theorem is stated before its proof is written out.
Let's get a little bit more specific about the end or purpose which the Logos represents. The book of John presents Jesus as the incarnation of the Logos - the Son of God and Son of Man (which can also be read "Son of Adam"). What John is really saying is that Messiah's coming to Earth was the whole purpose of Creation. His coming was prophesied when God pronounced the curse on the Serpent. He says to the Serpent, "I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." "Her offspring" is the first reference in Scripture to this idea of the Son of Man or Son of Adam. The coming Son of Adam is the redeemer or deliverer who will break the curse and free mankind from this world of scarcity and death. In Revelation, John uses the phrase "the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world" to describe the glorified Son of God, once again showing that this purpose was set from the very beginning. The Fall and the Messiah are two sides of the same coin - in falling from Eden, humanity became in need of a deliverer from the present hell.
In the book of Hebrews, it says, "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being." So, the Logos is the visible, tangible representation of the invisible, inaccessible God. This is why he is called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), meaning, "God dwells with us." The Son of God is the immanental presence of God within the material world.
The redemption of the fallen creation is the highest expression of the glory of God. God has sent his own Son as the emissary of this fact because God's pursuit of his own glory - a being of unlimited power, presence and knowledge - is deeply unsettling. To speak about or contemplate the idea in the abstract is, perhaps, not unsettling but coming face-to-face with such a reality would be unsettling in the same way that, say, standing in the presence of an adult male lion without any protection would be. Visualizing it will probably not make your hair stand on end but actually coming face-to-face with it certainly would have at least this effect.
All other things in heaven and earth are connected to this one, over-arching purpose. The apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 1,
The prophecies of the Old Testament and New Testament are really telling the same story. At the end of all things, God is going to reveal himself to mankind like never before, an event that would not have been possible without redemption. This would not have been possible without redemption because fallen man is under God's judgment, so God's revelation of himself to fallen man without redemption would only result in eternal damnation.
And now we have burst the dam of skeptical questions. "Why this Bible and not some other?" "Why this God and not some other?" "Why Christianity and not some other religion?" "Why were the ancient Jews God's special people and not some other people?" And so on and so forth. Washed away in this flood of questions, it is easy to lose sight of the Logos - the point and purpose of all things, from the Divine point-of-view. God's silence in the face of these questions is benevolently coy - the point is to drive you to ask these questions and try to find their answers.
Here is a great lecture by John Dominic Crossan, explaining the true nature of parable and how Jesus is God's parable, a parable (word) made flesh.
In the next post in this series, I will be tackling the problem of being omnimax (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent). You ask, "how can that be a problem?" Stay tuned...
Next: Part 23, The Trinity
In the book of Hebrews, it says, "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being." So, the Logos is the visible, tangible representation of the invisible, inaccessible God. This is why he is called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), meaning, "God dwells with us." The Son of God is the immanental presence of God within the material world.
The redemption of the fallen creation is the highest expression of the glory of God. God has sent his own Son as the emissary of this fact because God's pursuit of his own glory - a being of unlimited power, presence and knowledge - is deeply unsettling. To speak about or contemplate the idea in the abstract is, perhaps, not unsettling but coming face-to-face with such a reality would be unsettling in the same way that, say, standing in the presence of an adult male lion without any protection would be. Visualizing it will probably not make your hair stand on end but actually coming face-to-face with it certainly would have at least this effect.
All other things in heaven and earth are connected to this one, over-arching purpose. The apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 1,
[God the Father] made known to us the mystery of His will... that in the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth...So, God is going to glorify himself by uniting all things under one head in Jesus Christ and he will do this by working a global miracle, explained in Philippians, "[everyone] in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue [will] acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." To work this miracle through a mere show of force would be trivially easy for God - it would entirely fail to demonstrate the limitless bounds of God's glory. Instead, God is going to work this miracle by a combination of the preaching of the Gospel (the "foolishness of preaching" spoken of in I Corinthians 1:21) and the Apocalypse.
The prophecies of the Old Testament and New Testament are really telling the same story. At the end of all things, God is going to reveal himself to mankind like never before, an event that would not have been possible without redemption. This would not have been possible without redemption because fallen man is under God's judgment, so God's revelation of himself to fallen man without redemption would only result in eternal damnation.
"[In those days], I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." (Joel 2:28)
"The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14)
"The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel ... No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 1:11)We started from a non-biblical cosmology and we have ended up in biblical prophecy. How has this leap been made? This goes back to the teleological ladder - either we have a teleological ladder (Divine revelation), or we don't. This is a question of faith. "But which sacred text is the true one?" is a category mistake under the cosmology I am presenting - if God is going to glorify himself in every nation, if the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as water covers the oceans, then every cultural expression is subject to this universal revelation and can only be rightly understood in its connection to that revelation.
And now we have burst the dam of skeptical questions. "Why this Bible and not some other?" "Why this God and not some other?" "Why Christianity and not some other religion?" "Why were the ancient Jews God's special people and not some other people?" And so on and so forth. Washed away in this flood of questions, it is easy to lose sight of the Logos - the point and purpose of all things, from the Divine point-of-view. God's silence in the face of these questions is benevolently coy - the point is to drive you to ask these questions and try to find their answers.
Here is a great lecture by John Dominic Crossan, explaining the true nature of parable and how Jesus is God's parable, a parable (word) made flesh.
In the next post in this series, I will be tackling the problem of being omnimax (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent). You ask, "how can that be a problem?" Stay tuned...
Next: Part 23, The Trinity
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