A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL WORLD VIEW

 
 

2. WHAT IS SO SIGNIFICANT ABOUT DIMENSIONS?

The Non-Flat Earth
There was a time when some people believed that we lived on a flat earth. Perhaps most people just didn't think about it at all, but they lived as though it was a flat. On a flat earth, people thought they would fall off the edge if they sailed too far. Then some innovators realised that our earth was spherical, which caused a lot of controversy.. But the main effect was that some brave explorers realised that they could sail further than they ever had before, and even sail around the world.

A flat earth is a two-dimensional earth. A spherical earth is 3D. People knew that their surroundings were 3D, but they didn't apply that to the earth.

When some people said the earth was round most people of the time probably thought “So what?” They carried on with their life as if nothing had happened. They thought dimensions weren't any concern to them. But gradually the three-dimensional earth opened up. When explorers travelled around the world, people gradually adjusted their thinking.

Now people routinely go on around-the-world trips. Spacecraft circle the earth, and except for some eccentric die-hards, no-one any longer believes that the world is flat. Once we can think in greater dimensional ways, we can't go back.

Christians and others will wonder what all this talk about dimensionality has to do with them. It will seem to be irrelevant to their daily life. Who was right over the debate about the flat earth? Was it those who were comfortable with living on a flat earth and thought a 3D earth was irrelevant to them, or was it the explorers who dared to challenge the worldview of the time?

It Changes Our Worldview
Multi-dimensionality is a new way of thinking about our world that will hopefully change the way we think about everything. Once we start thinking in terms of multi-dimensions we will not be able to see the world in the old way again. And our changed worldview will change the way we live.

In practice we actually experience our world as 7D, yet we do not apply that to our world-view or to all areas of our life. If we saw everything as 7D it would change the way we lived.

My simple description of a worldview is our comprehensive understanding of reality.

Obviously two things are required to make any worldview possible. One is the objective reality of what exists. The other is the subjective ability to know that reality. Both of these requirements have been and are still questioned, but if they are not true then I am not sitting here writing this, not do I know that I am not here writing this. The result is nonsense. The conclusion must be that a realistic worldview is possible.

It Challenges Secularism
The way we view our world is something that Christians have long been interested in. We hold to a worldview that places God as the source of all existence. The Bible starts with an overview of creation, and finishes with a dramatic picture of the conclusion of the universe. This view shapes the Bible's understanding of everything that happens in between. It shapes our view of God himself as the supreme creator and ourselves as created to fulfill God's purpose.

This view of the Bible has been severely shaken however by modern scientific discoveries and alternative worldviews. No longer does the Christian world-view reign supreme, or challenge modern thought as much as secularism does.

A secular world-view has taken its place as the major force in the Western world. It has placed total importance on the reality of space, time and the physical world of nature, which can be seen and touched. Theories of evolution have explained the origins of the universe in purely natural terms and leave little place for God. Science has opened up a huge world of technology and material prosperity.

Science itself is not a worldview, and scientists will have various worldview. But sccience has encouraged the worldview of secular humanism which limits us to the natural world, and puts mankind at the centre rather than God.

Multi-dimensionality however will change all of that. No longer will it be possible for people to shut out the dimensions beyond nature, because people will see that dimensions of the universe are open and not closed systems.

As well as that, new understandings of how dimensions work will influence our way of looking at everything. We will understand more about why time goes only in one direction. We will understand more of how the world was created. What we will notice the most is new freedom and new energy spawned from a fresh vision for life.

It Develops Our Biblical Worldview
We are used to the idea of extra dimensions applying to faith in God for there are many ways that this is expressed in the Bible. We can also see how this concept has developed through the Bible.Christianity is a faith that has always ahd a multi-dimensional worldview, although we have not fully recognised it for what it was.

Jesus in his sermon on the mount encourages us to think beyond the dimensions of this world. "The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are soind, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eyes are no good, your body will be in darkness, how terribly dark it will be." [Matthew 6:22-23] Jesus said this while he was talking about worldly possessions. He is saying that we need to use our eyes to see eternal values and God's purposes in this world, rather that just the physical things around us. If we see the eternal things then our mind will be full of light, but otherwise we will be in darkness. Our eyes give us our worldview. We are being encouraged to have a greater dimensional worldview.

A Crisis Of Faith
Many Christians have trouble explaining miracles and God in terms of the supernatural. We do not hold much weight in the world of science and media, because our faith does not say much to the modern mind. There has been a huge gap develop between Science and Christian faith, where the church has retreated into its corner and continued to emphasize relationship with God, but left science, education and the media to lead the world in developing technology and imposing a secular world-view. Christians have been marginalised or we have marginalised ourselves.

Some people have a crisis of faith because they cannot relate faith to the world they see around them. Many Christians who go to university leave their faith behind when they are exposed to science, or the secular world-view that is imparted. We are all Christians who have minds to think things through, and we leave our brains behind at the peril of faith. I am a person who has experienced and continue to experience many things that I can only see in terms of the supernatural. But how do I understand what has happened?

What does supernatural mean? It means above or beyond nature. Christians have always believed that God as creator is above or beyond nature, although in what sense has not been clear. Multi-dimensionality makes sense of it, because it is in the nature of dimensions to be open to greater dimensions.

This is of little importance for those who are content in their faith. They don’t need anything to explain their faith for them. Why take away the mystery of faith? Living in a multi-dimensional universe will not take away the mystery of faith, it will deepen it, and encourage us to reach out beyond where we have got to in our Christian understanding.

Christianity has always believed in a multi-dimensional God, although we have not been using that terminology. Theologians talk about a transcendent God, a God who is infinitely above physical things. But how can anything be transcendent? Now we have a way to understand what transcendence means.

In practice we work in more than one dimension at a time without realising what we are doing. 1 Corinthians 14:15 says, "I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray also with my mind."  It may help us to pray if we understand better the dimensions we can work in.

To change our approach to the world
Christians have always sought to give the reason for their faith. The Christian faith is based on truth, and it is truth that will make us free. That truth does not replace faith, but faith leads us to explore and study.

The beginning of John's gospel says "Before the world was created, the Word  (logos) already existed; he was with God and he was the same as God." [John 1:1] The Word was the truth and meaning behind the universe. Our faith has to be not just a relationship faith, but also a logical faith that is able to search out the truth.

The insights of multi-dimensionality will answer many questions, but will most likely lead us to ask even more questions, and help us to have an even greater sense of the awesomeness of God.

Further study of multi-dimensionality will see a coming together of Science and faith in a new way. This should not be surprising, for Science got underway in Europe when there was a strong involvement of Christians in science. Such a coming together is essential again if Christian faith is to once more to be an influence in the ongoing thinking of this world.

Rev Brian Brandon, May 2004

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