Wednesday, May 5, 2010

God in a Realm Outside our Experience

While I was having a conversation with a friend today, an interesting idea occurred to me.  I'm not sure why I hadn't thought about it before.

If we say that God created the natural laws, which were then capable of building our universe without His interference, then we move Him out of the sphere we traditionally place Him in.  We usually say "God created the heavens and the Earth," not "God created the natural laws, which created the heavens and the Earth."  I know that the Bible says nothing about natural laws specifically, but I can't imagine that the ancient prophets knew enough about physics to comprehend them anyway.

I always assumed that the laws of physics were somehow eternal, and that God simply harnessed them and used them to organize things.  But if the laws of physics were created, then the truly eternal laws could be completely outside our realm of experience.  Maybe God doesn't dwell in a universe governed by gravity, inertia, time, matter, and energy as we know them.

I've heard people say that there must be a way to communicate instantaneously across long distance, because "God can hear our prayers."  I've heard people say that instantaneous travel must also be possible for similar reasons.  But maybe these things are not actually possible within the framework of the universe-governing laws that we know.  Maybe they are only possible in a universe where distance and time have no meaning at all.  Maybe God pops in and out of our universe wherever he wants without actually physically traveling any distance at all.

Idle speculation, all of it.  But it's fun to think about.

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