This morning I was thinking about what it would have been
like to be Jesus. If he was fully God, as many assert, then from a young age he
would have known every single thing he would do and say for the rest of his
earthly life. Can you imagine knowing when you are two years old that when you
turn 33 you are going to experience a brutal death on the cross? And can you
imagine going through life having no choice but to do those things you foresee
lest you prove yourself unworthy of Godhood by not having perfect foresight of
the future?
On the other hand, having perfect foreknowledge could be
fun. Just imagine never having to study for an exam and still getting a C% on
every exam and straight Alpha’s on every report card. Think how you could
handle those bullies who always want to pick a fight. You could dodge every punch
and kick and win the fight through attrition without ever mustering a blow. You
could be the greatest mentalist of all. Of course, you could only do those things
if your foreknowledge allowed them. If your foreknowledge said you had to miss
some questions on an exam, get Beta’s or Gamma’s on your report card, or take a
few blows from the bullies, then you’d have to make sure those things happened.
On the other hand, perhaps God relinquished some of his
powers when taking on a human form. Perhaps Jesus did not have perfect
foreknowledge. After all, he was different from God when it came to other things
such as pain. He bled like a human which God supposedly doesn’t do as a
spiritual being. But if Jesus had fewer powers than God, then isn’t it true he
was not God, but rather a human? You might ask, “But what about the miracles he
performed?” Well, the apostles performed miracles. So did a number of people in
the Old Testament. If performing miracles is proof one is God, then all these other
miracle workers were God also. But I don’t know anyone who believes that.
You might be thinking, “Jesus was God because he was God
before taking on human form. He just chose to take on a human form and give up
his Godly powers for the benefit of humankind.” Perhaps so, but if God can
choose to relinquish his powers when taking on a human form, cannot he choose
to do so while in spiritual form? I have heard a number of people say that if
the being we call God is not omnipotent (having all powers), omnipresent (being
everywhere at once throughout all time), and omniscient (knowing all things and
knowing everything that happens everywhere throughout all time), then that
being is not really God. To me, this seems to be rather presumptuous. Who are
we to tell God what attributes he must possess? Rather, shouldn’t God himself
be allowed to choose who he will be and what attributes he will claim for
himself?
Here’s a thought. Perhaps the primary attribute of God is
his ability to choose. Choose how he will create. Choose what he will know.
Choose where to be at any given time. Choose how he will interact with his
creation. Quantum theory has shown us that at its base level, the Universe is
probabilistic rather than deterministic. For example, electrons aren’t fixed
particles with fixed positions and momentums, but rather a probability field.
You might call this limited determinism or restrained chaos. If this view of
the Universe is correct, it implies that God created a Universe whose future
cannot be known with certainty. Perhaps he did this on purpose, not wanting to
be bored for billions of years by knowing everything that was going to happen.
If you want to get a sense of how utterly boring living in a totally
predictable Universe can be, watch the old episode of The Twilight Zone
entitled “A Nice Place to Visit”.
The current understanding of our Universe is that it
consists of a multitude of invisible fields. No, sports fans, not football
fields or baseball fields or soccer fields, but rather quark fields, lepton
fields, and boson fields. These fields interact with each other to produce what
we perceive to be matter and energy. And thanks to Albert Einstein, we know that
these two things are interchangeable via the formula E=mc2. But what we
perceive as particles are actually bundles of probability, thus unpredictable
in a deterministic way. Given that everything in the Universe is made up of
these fields, that means our brains are made up of these fields as well. Yet,
it seems that somehow we are able to make choices. But how? Could it be that
the interactions of the fields as embodied by a brain have some sort of
feedback that allows us to “nudge” the probabilities in such a way as to make
them fall on the choice we want? Whatever is going on, we perceive we can take
in information and make freewill choices that are non-deterministic. We also
perceive we are conscious beings. Could it be that being made in the image of
God means being given the ability to make choices. Choices that are limited by
our physical nature, but choices nonetheless.
Here’s another thought. If the invisible fields that make up
our Universe can interact in such a way as to make brains capable of knowledge,
emotions, and choices, could it be that all the interactions throughout the
entirety of these fields in the whole Universe makes one humongous super-brain
that is much more capable than any one brain. And perhaps it is this super-brain
that sustains everything. Perhaps that super-brain is what we call God.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are
without excuse.
Acts 17:27-28
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach
out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in
him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have
said, ‘We are his offspring.’
