An interesting philosophical thought crossed my mind last night. What if you pictured your life as a cog in a clockwork mechanism. Every decision you make and every experience you have works to move that cog forward. But in order for a cog to work as its intended, it must move other cogs, or other lives, the ones you influence in your life. Everything you do in life influences how the cogs move. But we don’t even have to think of a person as being the only cogs that exist. Larger cogs can be perceived such as governments and organizations, in fact all of these cogs can also move a cog that could represent the world or a universe or even the whole of reality itself.
What if in combination with the cog that is our reality, there are also cogs that represent realities that parallel our own. Ones with slight changes, different experiences, and even mirror opposite realities. All of these realities work in unison to slowly move the machine that is the whole of creation forward. Cogs that get infinitely big and small, past the scope of our realization or comprehension, must exist and that creates something we can’t wholly understand or define and then with things going off to infinity, paradoxes are formed. Every time we reach a paradox, we can go no further, be it the laws of physics breaking down or dividing by zero. These situations simply can’t exist, or can they?
Up until this point, I’ve explained my cog theory as mostly a two-dimensional model, not unlike a graph with x and y planes. Say we’re only accustomed to seeing these two dimensions and we simply cannot perceive anything greater, but a 3rd dimension is added into the mix. What would a third dimension look like to somebody who can only perceive two dimensions? I believe that where this third dimension intersects with our two dimensional perspective, paradoxes are formed. Situations that cannot exist, but do for the sake of the machine. So, in this clockwork theory, there’s multiple dimensions of cogs at work, but we can only see the cogworks that run through our dimensions.
Now, placing ourselves in a system such as this defines us in two ways which are at odds with one another. The first thing this with us being in a system such as this, it sets up up to say that our actions are predetermined, since we’re moving the machine around which comes at odds with our idea of free will. However, because this cog machine exists in all dimensions, any action you can take is taken into account in the cog machine so while you make the decision of your own free-will, the machine has taken your actions into account by accepting all possibilities. The second definition is that in a life, everything happens for a reason. This is a theory I’ve firmly believed all my life, but I can apply it here too. The problem is that saying everything happens for a reason dictates that the action was foretold or premeditated, but in the cog theory, your action just moves the machine along. It was supposed to happen because that’s what makes the machine move. You can still dictate the action and change it, but in the end it will move your life and everything forward.
I realize that this concept is at war with itself to an extent. It creates a paradox in which you have free will, but everything you do is for the good of the system, which is an endless loop. For me as I’ve said before, when I see a paradox, I merely think it’s an intersection point into another dimension that I cannot perceive. I think that in the end, all of this clockwork connects to a central point and that point is God. He exists in a dimension we cannot perceive, despite our attempts, but everything that I’ve seen has always seemed so one-dimensional for an almighty being. I don’t believe he is just somebody that sits on a throne watching down on us as I’ve always been told in church. He is something far greater and any attempt at describing how almighty and glorious he is does not do him justice. God is the center cog and keeps the machine working. He guides us on our journeys and ultimately shows us the path that we can choose to live our life.
First of all, with your paradox of free will - maybe it isn't as paradox-ridden as it seems if you examine it more closely. This isn't an argument by any means rather something to think about. There are two distinctions in how to define free will. One is the ability to choose; one is actually choosing. The second definition doesn't make any sense if we actually have one timeline, since for any set of choices only one thing actually happens. However the first can be fleshed out some and at least seems possible to me.
ReplyDeleteGod knowing what you will do in the future does not necessarily mean he is exerting direct control over it. St. Augustine wrote about this in more detail, but just because God has knowledge of the future does not mean he controls it. He can predict it, but not actually plan it. You have knowledge of what you did yesterday, but that does not mean you have no knowledge of it. I have a more deterministic view of the universe so I don't necessarily believe in free will except as a pragmatically useful concept, but that's outside of this anyways...
Ok, actually your two outcomes based on this theory parallel the idea of the Atomists (particularly Democritus); although they did not believe in a God and would not agree with you, it may help you flesh out how your views are not that contradictory because they are saying two different things. They concluded ideas from their conception of the universe. One, everything happens for a reason, in the sense that the universe is deterministic. Two, nothing happens for a reason, in the sense that there is no reason/master plan/God that created everything to occur a certain way.
Your cog analogy seems to say that the physical realm is deterministic, but outside of it God exists and can affect it in a deterministic (perhaps rational/logical, or in what manner may not even be that important) way that we cannot perceive. I would instead see the third dimension of cogs as consciousness/the soul. They could or could not be a part of the physical realm, but it shouldn't make too much of a difference in the analogy, really. If I were to conceive of some god, it would exist outside of the cog analogy, but depending on your conception of god this does work of course. It may also work with my analogy, but then with god existing outside of the cogs, and only exerting influence through the third dimension of cogs, ie spiritually, as opposed to exerting influence by changing the laws of the physical world.
Also why is God a dude? I want a philosophical justification for that! Just kidding... But you should look at the lecture notes from the Ancient and Medieval Religious Philosophy class Brad and I took, probably would interest you with several things (nothing super directly related to this, but God's relation to time, properties that God must have, God's relation to free will - all that good stuff). I take contention with the third to last sentence that doesn't want to describe God; if you just give up that isn't doing philosophy (I know it is just your ideas and not an elaborate justification, but that is my difference of opinion =p). Anyways, mostly rambling/giving you things to think about, not agreeing/disagreeing with most of this stuff since it was mostly an interesting analogy. But if anything strikes your interest comment back!
A lot of the things you're saying make a lot of sense and I may ask to see some of those notes from the class if you and Brad have them because it's something I might like to look at. A lot of these ideas are things Brad and I actually discussed that night, but we talked about so much, I didn't have the chance to include them. We actually talked about consciousness being a dimension and I meant to include this in the explanation above. And while I mostly used 3 dimensions to explain my analogy, there could easily be even more dimensions and using some of the theories I've read involving physics, some of those dimensions fold over into previous ones and thus could influence one-another. So if I considered God the central cog or the highest dimension, then he could easily influence each of the dimensions below him if he so chose.
ReplyDeleteLol, and I don't necessarily think God has a gender though I know you're just messing with me about that. It was just easier to describe him as a he. The last point I should make and I realize after rereading it that it's not that I'm content not describing God. I think we should do everything in our power to describe or relate to him. I was mostly trying to make the point that I would know that despite my efforts, he's so much more. So it's not that I'm giving up on describing him. I just took contention with trying to describe him almost as being human if that makes sense. Again, Brad and I talked about so much and trying to put it in a post the next day and include everything was difficult.
Thanks for commenting though. A lot of the points you made make sense and it gives me some things to think about. Hopefully, I covered all of the points you made or questions you asked. I am interested in seeing those notes at some point. Let me know if I missed anything. :P
Here is my complete take on the theory. I see it a little differently, but it still works perfectly with Matt's theory.
ReplyDeleteSay you have a center cog, one "above" it, and one "below" it. Just like the picture. Notice that the center cog communicates with the one above and below it, BUT these other two don't even have a hint of any other cog other than the center one. But the center one is affected by/affects the one below it too, how can this be!!
It's like the analogy Augustine made with the moon. While you can see how the sun's light reflects off the moon, you can't see the moon. You can describe the affects and works of the cog, but you can't see it.
This is how I think god works. We are only somewhere in-between where we notice the effects of both cogs with varying degree.
To go along with matt's multidimensionality proposal, other cogs in this circle can be different states of consciousness, with varying degrees of seeing one or the other. Like a spectrum. This is what happens when you take various drugs/you age/life experiences/etc. You literally THINK differently. Each state of consciousness can connect you more with the astral realm vs. physical realm. Spiritual vs materialistic. Being vs. doing.
The center cog is the one that can never be defined and results in paradoxes. The one above and below it are both "gods" or a set of intrinsic qualities... for more on those qualities I wrote an entire metaphorical story called "Virgo and Leo."