What I Believe: On the End of a Time

"What I Believe" is a series of posts on my current personal spiritual/religious beliefs. At least, my beliefs at the point of time of the post. These beliefs are personal and don't represent those of any larger group. I am proudly a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), but this blog is no way endorsed by Friends or meant to represent that community.

If you come across this before reading "On Points and God," you probably want to read that first.

Will the universe come to an end? And, if so, what will happen after that? This question has plagued science and religion almost as long as the after death one.

The question is not one of physics or of theology, but of psychology. Can one ever truly understand one's self? God is certainly greater and more complete a being than man, but I believe there is a paradox which prevents God from ever completing the experiment of self discovery. If God were ever to know everything about God then God would need to know what knowing everything was like for the next minute. God would then need to know what knowing everything plus knowing the next minute was like for the minute after that.

Oh, but what if God is outside of time. I believe the principle still stands. Time provides an easy way to explain the paradox, but is not necessary. The process of growth is continual.

However, there is no guarantee that God's exploration will not lead to transformation. It may be that at some point the universe, as we see it today, will not be useful for further discovery. God may morph and take the universe along for the ride or God may simply start a new experiment. Since we are all God this is not something to fear. We will be taken along for the ride, even if it is not in any form we recognize.

It is also true that the nature of God's experiment is non-deterministic. One can not say with certainty what the future holds, because if you could it would make it useless to God. One does not plan a journey of self discovery. One launches oneself onto the unknown and prays for a net of understanding to catch you. God is not so much different in this respect. God must allow for uncertainty in God's experiment or God can learn nothing from it.