Back to the Fundamentals--Again

One keeps going back and back to the fundamentals, checking on how things fits, seeing if what new one has learned fits into the world view, and to refresh oneself on what that world view is. So, here we go again.

1. Why is there something rather than nothing? This is the question behind all questions. To me it has to do with the concept of a God. Creation (one universe or multiverse) is here for a reason (something I don’t expect to know, at least given my current state of knowledge).
Creation did not just happen. So, in my view, the reason there is a universe is because there is a God. I argue that God cannot be proven…that there is no “proof” of God. God is an assumption. So this is very personal. But, the assumption has to work. It has to help make things go together, be logically consistent with the whole model, and must not be a superfluous to the model, just a gratuitous appendage.

To me, the Hebrew/Christian captures this in the first sentence of scripture: “In the beginning, God…” This, of course, is from Genesis 1:1. And, it says it all…God exists…God was there before the beginning…and that is all!

The existence of God is assumed! The existence of God does not need to be proven. God’s existence is something we believe…something we trust in. Nothing more needs to be said and we move along.

2. Why is creation ordered? Not only through our own actions but the advancement of science has shown that creation is sufficiently ordered so that we can learn about creation and make better decisions and solve more and more difficult problems. The world is ordered so that we may live and learn within this world and grow and mature though our own actions. That is, because the world is sufficiently ordered and we can learn about it, we are thereby responsible for the development of our problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Where do we learn that creation is ordered? We learn that the world is ordered from Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 1:31. The story presented here is about God creating the world in six days.
This, to me, is not to be taken literally. This is an allegory, a story that carries with it the message that creation did not just come about in a hap-hazard manner, that there was order to creation both in the act of that creation and in its subsequent development. Order was a part of creation.

Thus, God wanted (for whatever reason) creation to exist and God wanted that creation ordered. The assumption is that God got what was wanted because of the proclamation that “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1: 31)

3. All humans are made for community. The basic statement here is “It is not good that the man should be alone.” This is in Genesis 2:18. The story is told in terms of the creation of Eve, but like many of the stories in the scriptures, the meaning is much broader. First, in order to have community, one must have women as well as men so that children are possible. Man needs “helpers” and “partners” (Genesis 2: 20) and so children are desirable and families and neighbors and others are needed. Humans need community.

“When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind” when they were created.” (Genesis 5: 1-2) And, humankind made communities and cities and nations.

4. Humans are not capable of achieving “complete information.” If humans were to know everything, have “complete information” then life would be terribly boring. If you know everything then all decisions are obvious and there is no choice. Humans are also not assigned any responsibility in such a situation for their decision making because there would be no need for decision making…everything would be obvious with only one choice. Who would want to know these beings…how dull…for everything would be decided ahead time…there would be no uncertainty of outcome.

Yet, humans crave from “complete information”, for certainty. And, this craving is the source of many of the problems humans create for themselves. We see this in the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent and the apple. The sneaky serpent claims that if you eat the apple “your eye will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” in essence, knowing everything. (Genesis 3:1-7) The serpent is that little voice in the back of the minds of humans, the inner drive to attain “complete information” because then they would be in charge, they would control everything, and they would “be like God.” At least, they want to know enough so that they can control others.

But, this desire, this craving to gain “complete information” is a primary source of the unhappiness of humans. It creates “enmity” and “contention” between individuals. This consequence is laid out in the banishment from Eden found in Genesis 3:8-19).

These four fundamental issues relating to the world and how it is created, I contend, are dealt with in the very first part of the scriptures. Let me just add two more “fundamental” issues to the group.

5. In both the Hebrew scriptures and in the Christian scriptures we are told that we should love God and that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. To me, these commandments should accompany point number four above. My reasoning is this: to love God or to love ourselves or to love our neighbors or, by extension, to love creation requires that we know enough about the one we are to love that we can “be where they are and not where we are” when we engage with them. That is we can be more unified with them, more in tune with them, more sympathetic with them, more aligned with them. Rather than being “alchemists” who try and change one substance into another we are “scientists” who learn how things work and then try to work “with” the way things are and not against them or a-cross them. In this we are curious…and not dogmatic.

We assume that God loves his creation and all of the creatures in this creation…and he has said that they are “good.” Thus, like God we should love this creation and all of the creatures in this creation. Therefore, we should study creation, we should learn all we can about creation, and we should be open and keep learning, for the more we know the greater unity we can be in them.
We will never achieve “complete information” yet we are still responsible for constantly seeking more and more information so that we can make better decisions and solve more and more difficult problems. Like God, we are made to love.

6. Community is based upon co-operation and self-discipline. The first has to do with “infinite life”. In game theory we learn that in the case of infinitely repeated, simultaneous games, the best solution is to co-operate with others and not default to selfish, self-serving actions. If we have a time horizon that is shorter than this, we have a greater tendency to opt-out of co-operative solutions, thereby harming the community as a whole. Belief in an “infinite life” therefore encourages behavior that is beneficial to the health and growth of the community.
Teachings about “life-after-death” are helpful in the “here-and-now” as they contribute to strong relationships and interactions within the present body of believers.

Another factor that plays into the health of the community is what is commonly called “conscience.” I Stanley Kauffmann, who writes the column on film for the New Republic magazine, one time wrote a definition of “conscience” in his column. He wrote that conscience is the belief that someone, somewhere is watching you.” That someone, of course, could be God. If, in game theory, you believe that the game is going to be over in the near term because someone is going to “catch-you-out”, you will not default from accepted behavior. Thus, in creating guilt through building up the feeling of the “conscience” is a very effective way of getting people within a community to co-operate and act in a way that is not detrimental to the community.

Both of these factors play a very prominent role in the Christian New Testament.