The Universe

More terms that have cropped up in my searchings:

pan·the·ism: any religious belief or philosophical doctrine that identifies god with the universe.

panentheism: a belief system which posits that god exists and interpenetrates every part of nature, and timelessly extends beyond as well.

So as near as I can figure this posits that god is either the universe or possibly, if current cosmology is correct, the multiverse (though I don't think that's exactly what most theologians have in mind). As anything as large as the multiverse is almost incomprehensible (and probably irrelevant) I think I will stick with considering god and the universe. Except I now refuse to use the word god as it reminds me too much of that guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

For me the frontiers of theology lies in science and science fiction, especially the latter as the writers are free to use their imagination to ask "what if" and "what is the meaning of life" (and 42 is not the answer *grin*)

Eric Chaisson wrote a book called The Life Era wherein he describes an evolving universe that has now become able to develop and sustain planetary life and we, as part of the universe, will continue to evolve along with it. I find this idea similar to the unfolding universe (see right). Did the universe/god begin in a Big Bang and evolve/unfold? If so, this deity would not be the personal deity from some supernatural revelation but vast and impersonal.

From "Babylon 5", a TV series created by J. Michael Straczynski comes these ideas:

Delenn:

"We believe that the universe itself is conscious in a way we can never truly understand. It is engaged in a search for meaning. So it .. breaks itself apart, investing its own consciousness in every form of life."

"We are the universe, trying to understand itself."

"Then I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff, we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out."

Jeremiah:

"You see my friend, the universe is sentient, aware, alive... We're all recycled you know. Just molecules and atoms born in the stars and recycled into carbon based life. Why do you think we have spent millions of years trying to understand the stars, the moons and the universe itself hm? Hm? Because we are the universe, the universe made manifest. It broke itself into pieces to examine every aspect of its being. We try to understand it because in so doing, well, we will understand ourselves."

I like that: "We are the universe, trying to understand itself."

So is there something beyond us, evolving yet lacking knowledge of itself, that made it possible for inquisitive beings like ourselves to come into being to make sense of it all?

Deism: belief in the existence of a god on the evidence of reason and nature only, with rejection of supernatural revelation.

Neo-deism: contends that theology is a branch of physics

Am I a neo-deist? Could be - I recall a few years ago hearing about the theory of dark matter/energy that science was finding difficult to explain what they might be and thinking maybe they're signs of that deity or whatever it is that encompasses the universe. It's early days and the answers might not come in my lifetime but it's fun to speculate.