I've been putting off writing up this episode because I
feel like the topic is too big. I like how they dealt with it in this episode.
There is some neat imagery trying to represent the inconceivable edge of our dimension. The issue is the nature of the
space our physical world lives in. Picard sums it up by saying that thought is
the basis of reality. It's that idea that I want to talk about.
Even that phrase makes
the point I think this episode is exploring, that our reality is but a
sub-set of a larger one. If anything except for the reality itself is the basis
for our own, then there is something else out there, by default bigger and more
powerful than anything we have observed in our physical world. In the Star Trek
universe, that something out there is thought itself. I immediately thought of
the mind of God. His thoughts are the basis of reality.
There
are any number of new discoveries in quantum physics that just continue to tell
us that where we live is small and weird compared to the something greater
beyond. There is a lot of interesting stuff to read about here, but I don't
really want to start down that rabbit hole. Khouse.org has some great
articles (here's one to get you started) that will have you up all night googling
things like planck length and Berry Setterfield. I 'll leave that to you. I'll
follow you down that rabbit hole if anyone is interested enough to make a
comment.
What I'm most interested in is the boundary between this
world and the next. In Christian circles we usually describe these two places
as the “physical world” and the “spiritual world.” But I don't think these two
categories describe the situation accurately. In this “two worlds” model, the
only ones stuck in the smaller reality are humans, and we only cross over when
we die (and sometimes we get right up next to the fence when we ALMOST die. But
that's another article). The spirit world is a wispy, cloudy, bright place
where angels and God and every dead human get to float around for eternity in
their smokey, insubstantial bodies. I don't think this is what the Bible
teaches at all, but it's a folk theology that has a pretty strong toe-hold in
the christian community.
I think this idea has the entire situation upside-down. I
touched on this in my comments about The Lonely Among Us. The more I understand
about the nature of reality, the more I'm compelled to move the boundary
between the physical world and the spirit world to the very edges of heaven. I
think the best place for this divider is simply between God and his creation.
Two groups: Creator and Created. That means we get angels and heaven on our
side, in the physical world. God created a perfect world which was then broken
somehow by an angel and his cronies who fell (don't know exactly when, but I
tend to believe it was after the last day of creation and before the Fall of
man), and then further by Adam and Eve when they sinned. This action split the
natural world in to two sub-groups: natural and super natural. The point is
that God is still outside of both.
All that to say how I think our understanding of physical
vs. spiritual is a bit off. Because there is a veil of mystery to the spirit
world, we tend to give it spookie, insubstantial qualities like a ghost having
a vapory body that you can walk right through because it's only sort of there.
But I think it's us who have the vapory bodies. Just look at what we're made
of: atoms. They're basically empty space surrounded by electrically charged
particles. This entire realm is made like that. That's why Jesus, after his
resurrection when he was in his new body, could disappear and walk through
walls. He was more solid than the world he was ministering to! But he was still
physical. He ate food, and his disciples were able to touch him.
This should re-assure us, and inspire us to pursue God
with all our heart. I hope the more we understand this world we live in,
especially as we understand that how it works is a mystery, the more we can
pray for Jesus to come restore it and rescue us from this body of destruction.
For now we see in a mirror in a riddle, but then face to
face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been
fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:13
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear. Hebrews 11:3
For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven,
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers[spiritual entities]: all things were
created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things
[are] held together. Colossians 1:16,17
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