A popular idea within the scientific community is that what happens in the present moment is the result of a chain of causes and effects. This deeply ingrained idea is what prompted scientists to come up with the ‘Big Bang’ theory — the idea that a single event, at the beginning of time, is the cause of everything we experience today.
There is an obvious problem with this theory. If time is a linear process, then it seems natural to ask what existed before the moment when the universe, for whatever reason, exploded into being. Much ink has been spilled by scientists trying to find an argument that makes sense of the idea that this vast and complex universe could spontaneously emerge out of absolute nothingness (or some kind of quantum vacuum).
An alternative view of reality — and this is the view that I subscribe to — is that the entirety of existence is contained within God. God has the attribute of aseity, which means He is self-existing, so there has never been a time when God didn’t exist. Actually, all that exists right now, in this moment, is not the result of cause and effect; instead, what we experience as present-moment reality is the manifestation of a living God.
If a living God is the animator of all events in existence, then it is not the case that events unfold in some kind of mechanical process of cause and effect. Instead, existence is much more fluid and rather like a puppet show, in which God is unfolding a story which could go in any direction that He wills in any given moment. If this perspective is correct, it means that the past does not define the future, and that in any given moment there are infinite possibilities open to God, and He always has the option of unfolding events in whichever way He chooses.
So, the two thoughts I’d like to leave you with today are as follows:
- The past does not determine the future
- God is in control of existence in its entirety
If you understand my thinking on this subject, these two statements should be very liberating for you. They are empowering ideas, in a sense, because they imply that the future is unwritten, and that your prayers and actions therefore have the potential to literally change the course of history.
Of course, what you pray about, and what you do, will happen only if they are a part of God’s will. I’m well aware that this raises the question of whether or not humans have free will, and I have dedicated most of my adult life to exploring the philosophical implications that result from my perspective that there is a single living God who is in control of all activity in existence.
If the subjects covered in this article are of interest to you, I would encourage you to explore my work in more depth, as you may well have questions that I have already answered on this blog and in my books. My personal website, at www.stevencolborne.com, functions as a hub from where you can explore all of my work and investigate further in accordance with your particular areas of philosophical interest. Thank you for reading.
Perfect Chaos 