Two characters from my book Pieces of Eight discuss the theological problem of evil.
“How
can God pre-determine and create a Universe and be consistent with
His nature as perfect and without sin or wickedness; sin and
wickedness exist in the Universe and hence Multiverse and if they are
pre-determined then God has created sin and wickedness too, no?
“I
must stipulate a no John. God cannot sin or create wickedness.”
“Yet
each exists and the Universe must be predetermined along with the
Multiverse if God is to have created it.”
“Hell
exists John. And the Lord was crucified. Each were or are at least
nominally wicked from my point of view. I don’t mean that the plan
of God to allow His Son to be crucified as a substitute for the
original sin debt of humanity was wicked; it is just that it was
existentially a wicked experience for the Lord; for any human, to go
through.”
“Sure
Carla; wickedness exists and the Lord God being omni-powerful created
not only it- he created everything else; and yet free will exists.
For many that is another apparently contradictory point about God. I
believe however that the Multiverse and quantum mechanics may account
for each, as it also may account for quantum gravity and relativity.”
“How
so John?”
“Consider
Carla that relativity requires a time dimension to exist as anything
besides a static form of space-time composition. If the Universe were
entirely pre-determined and pre-created in its fullness from alpha to
omega however, comparable to a digital action movie stored on a
microchip, the relativistic effects and changes of space-time would
be contingent and superficial emergent characteristics of the present
time line position of inhabitants of the movie. Even relativity would
be an apparent rather than a real experience.”
“Yes
John. I follow that. The characteristic of a fully created and static
Universe that had apparent motion experienced by people living within
it just as minds or thoughts experiencing it as they moved forward
within the Universe’s space-time line might well appear to have the
qualities of real motion, time and general relativity commonly
regarded as actual qualities of space-time.”
“Thus
it is that there is a great difference between apparent and actual
material facts regarded by a conscious mind, at least potentially or
theoretically. Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave recorded that
idea many thousands of years ago in the Earth’s lost past. Still,
we have the problem of evil as it relates to God in addition to the
nature of the Multiverse and FTL 5 units to consider.”
“Of
course John, please continue.”
“An
infinite Multiverse could be encompassed by God as an idea
pre-determined yet infinitely malleable. For now I will stipulate
that the Multiverse created is static and that minds existing within
it experience it contingently without awareness that it is their
ideas traveling within its spatio-temporal substance rather than
Multiverse or any given Universe itself.
Every
possible Universe in any form is pre-created within an idea of God
that hasn’t spatial-temporal dimension or scale; God is spirit. The
Multiverse is a contingent idea of less necessary size than that of a
Plank length.”
“Then
John, the Multiverse to be consistent would require that each thought
of any mind would be consistent with the appropriate pre-determined
physical structure of a single Universe; logically then a single
thought would switch any individual’s thought to another Universe
with a structure consistent with that though selected by the
individual.”
“Yes
Carla. That is perhaps one of the most remarkable features of a
Multiverse with free will and pre-determinism coexisting. All of the
infinite Universes existing within the Multiverse allow seamless
thought transference laterally. It is just the number of souls that
are conscious thought that are finite or at least numbered and known
to God that exist within the Multiverse.
And
that is why God could pre-determine every possible Universe and
pre-create it in its fullness and allow free will to flow within it
to such an extent that it could choose wickedness and occupy
spatio-temporal material locations consistent with it; until people
choose wickedness, the locations of wickedness aren’t used. They
are empty shells without spirit within them.”
“Sure
John. Hell existed yet one need choose not to be saved to occupy it.
Wicked scenes in the Multiverse exist yet until someone chooses
wickedness no one goes there.”
“And
Carla, though God created Lucifer as an angel of light, Hell was
brought into existence to contain him should he choose wickedness. It
is amazing that wickedness is selected by some as a creative power of
destruction as they hope to create more wickedness. They expand human
and other spiritual experience into realms that God never intended
for anyone to go. Heaven and hell as something of existential
selections would be challenging and even anathematic concepts for
many during the passage of time that is human experience.”
“What
of the quantum mechanics of it all John? What would the structure of
a static Multiverse be in regard to quantum mechanics, subatomic and
virtual particles?”
“My
thoughts on the topic are nothing more than inferences. Consider how
gravity exists transcendently within a Universe yet draws mass only
at the speed of light. Gravity need have some sort of faster than
light presence to transcend local limitations of space-time yet draws
other mass together only up to the speed limits of mass within a
field described by general relativity; gravity is another emergent
characteristic of the entanglement of virtual particles that for any
given particle occupy theoretically every possible location in the
space-time of a Universe. The probabilities of entanglement increase
compresent with the increase of mass and hence mass is drawn together
as an emergent phenomena that seems to be gravity.
Each
individual virtual particle and a unique configuration of a Universe
as a unique Universe differing from another by as little difference
as the location selected through entanglement of one virtual particle
from another is required for comprehensive permutations of all
possible to exist alongside those of all possible Universe that could
be occupied by a human being. Of the switching mechanics of a soul
from one Universe to another that is consistent with his or her
thoughts and free will selections in a world-line I cannot say right
now. I will, God willing, give that some additional thought
eventually. It may be either a material or a spiritual mechanics
since either is consistent with a theology of a Multiverse fully
actualized by God.”
“Then
I may infer John, that God has provided people with free will that
allows them, existentially,
to choose their own destination in hell, should they decide not to
accept his call unto eternal salvation through the atoning sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ?”
“I
agree with that inference Carla. Keeping in mind of course, that
wickedness is the evil that men do, while plain evil are those
enacted by nature and else without act of human will, so far as one
interprets Biblical use of the terms. Satan is wicked while
earthquakes that collapse well designed and built structures may be
evil, contingent upon their effects on humanity-for instance the city
may have been long deserted and an eyesore and the Earthquake served
as an accelerated improvisational urban renewal phase one; hence not
evil.”
“Evil
in nature need impact humans adversely to be evil and therefore is a
secondary emergent phenomena?”
“Again
Carla, I must agree.”
