I have a bit of an addiction, and it’s called work.

On 09.01.10, In General Posts, God and Christianity, My Life, Relationally Speaking, By Alexander

In the morning, I wake up, and I go straight to my computer, where I check my email, and if necessary, respond or take action. Then, I get ready to go to work, which is a normal process, and then I get to work, where I – get this – work.

I am in IT, so there is always something to be done. Web sites have to be built, servers can be maintained, phones can be optimized, computers can be prepared for issuance to individuals. Even when I’m not working per se – I’m still working – reading tech journals, manuals, white papers and their ilk, and if not that, then I’m working on completely unrelated things, such as websites for friends and family or basic design work or photography, with the occasional hour or two of painting, when I’m not completely exhausted.

It used to be, I’d get done at work, and then I’d go home and play games – often with others – and I defined that as social interaction. You who haven’t actually seen me in quite a long time would be surprised to know that I spend a grand total of about one and a half hours a week playing video games now. This is a far cry from the three to four hours a day that I used to devote to that stuff. The only reason I play at all anymore is because I have a sort of “game night” with a bunch of guys from church where we deviate from our Christian values for a while to talk smack, insult, and fill each other with lead. I’ve even noticed that my time in those game nights is becoming shorter and shorter, much to the Scott’s chagrin.

Unfortunately, I have not replaced this wasted time with something amazingly constructive – I’ve replaced it with work. And it continues to get worse. (more…)

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And So Begins My Hiatus From Technology

On 02.16.10, In God and Christianity, My Life, By Alexander

I am surrounded by distractions.  Every day, from morning to night, my life involves a computer, a “smart” device, or some other gizmo that is destined to make my life easier.  At work, this is inevitable – I work with and on computers as a way to make a living – i cannot avoid that, at least not right now.  However, in the morning, the first thing I do is check news and technology updates via various services on my iPhone.  When I get home in the evenings, instead of doing something – anything – else, I almost immediately begin streaming movies or TV shows over Netflix “because it’s something to do,” and simply because it’s there.  I have music playing or a TV show running whenever I am doing almost anything else – including writing the first part of this document.  When even that is not enough, I have my iPhone on standby with an app store at my beck and call, waiting to deliver any one of a thousand games to entertain me, even for a little while, for just 99 cents.

My iPhone goes everywhere with me.  It’s my connection to the world of the internet, the millions of people, places, news sources, cool new things, and every other little distraction in my life.  XKCD, Wikipedia (that one’s a doozy), failblog, Facebook and twitter – which i update sporadically, admittedly, but they are massively distracting nonetheless – the ability to know what’s going on in friends’ lives in 140 character snippets is surprisingly attractive.

I lose touch.  The distractions are a growing cancer on my soul – pulling my focus to the world and it’s interactions, and away from where it should be – on God.  Now that’s not to say that I am against the world, and the things it has to offer – I believe that much is good, so long as it is taken in moderation, but the old adage stands true – “too much of a good thing…”  Let’s just say that with the more toys we have, the more likely we are to worship them, and the knowledge, entertainment, distraction, or whatever other aspect that they bring to our lives instead of our Father.

That said, I’m going to try an experiment.  Something that I have never done before, something that isn’t a new idea, at all, but new to me.  I’m going to see how much I am missing due to these parasites stealing my attention from where it belongs.  I am going to sever myself from my interface with the world, at least when I am not at work.  Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, February the 17th, 2010 at 0900hrs, and ending Wednesday, February the 24th, 2010 at 0900hrs I will no longer be involving myself with communications devices and methods outside of my normal work hours – and will be using said devices only for work during those same hours.

I will be disabling email from reaching my phone – at all – for the next week, and will be using parental controls to block access to the web and the apps on my phone.  My phone will be, for the first time in 2 years, just a phone (albeit with a very expensive dataplan).  Twitteriffic will be disabled, and Facebook will be unavailable.  If anyone needs to reach me after 6PM, it would be in your best interest to call me, as I will not be checking mails.  My xBox will be dismantled, the harddrive stored in a separate location, so that i cannot get my instant fix of Netflix.  I do have a computer set up at home with the basics – Cyberduck, Textwrangler, and Safari, so that, in the event an emergency does crop up I will be able to do something about it.

I will have my camera and my voice recorder, and I will still have a phone with which I could attempt to become a lot more social again.  I won’t be getting “news” from people’s status updates, and if i want to know what’s going on with them, I’m going to have to make an effort.

So, here’s to a week of living distraction free, with the time to focus on the things that truly matter in life.  I pray that it leads me in the right direction, and that I realize what all is going on around me, that I have allowed to pass me by for so long, and that I am properly putting myself into a position to become stronger in my walk with Christ.

And if anyone wants to grab a beer, hang out, or just talk, I’m definitely up for it =]

~/A\V/

Postscript: There will be one final twitter/FB post announcing this to everyone, so that they know that I’m not actively ignoring them, around 0830hrs tomorrow morning.

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Why I Am Still Single

On 02.14.10, In God and Christianity, Relationally Speaking, By Alexander
Interesting title, I know, real deep, mind blowing.  Stuff of the ages.
I have, however, been thinking about this subject a lot recently, especially today, it being the 14th of February and all (thanks Hallmark), and I’ve come to a few realizations.  Most guys – at least most that I’ve interacted with – I am ex-military, after all, and spent a lot of time developing a camaraderie of sorts – are truly afraid of the potential of rejection.  But that’s not my trouble.
There are a few women that I am really interested in, this is true.  And the fear of rejection is something that I have already defeated (please, don’t even ask).  I’m not worried that they might already be involved with someone, I am confident that I can handle most any situation that a “rejection” would lead me to.  For the longest time, however, I have been blaming my inability to actually do  something about my feelings on this arbitrary – and convenient, mind you – “fear of rejection.”  Now, however, I realize that there is something deeper involved.
It is a combination of my past, and of my upbringing, along with my faith.  Emphasis on my faith, here, actually.
On the first note, I was primarily raised by my mother – at least in the years that healthy development in regards to forming relationships is concerned.  My father…  was… less than an ideal role model for what a husband should be like in a proper man and wife marriage, and after my parents divorced (no fault of my mother, I assure you…) and he went off marching to beat of his own drum, my paternal influence was even further diminished as he and his _ahem_ liveinguyroommate began a “relationship.”  But that is just some background.  Sins of the fathers and whatnot, yet I do not blame him for my current disposition.
No, my present state and mindset comes from fear alright, but not of the heart wrenching feeling of rejection (which, sucks by the way, I won’t pretend to gloss over that, at all), but of a fear of not being the spiritual leader that my (hopefully) future wife needs me to be.  I have to be able to bear that responsibility – don’t get me wrong, i know it’s a two way street – and I have learned from past relationships (perhaps that shouldn’t be in the plurality) that being the rock of the relationship isn’t something that comes naturally to me.  My fear then, I’ve realized, when faced with the opportunity to approach a young lady with the potential to engage in courtship, is that I will not be able to be the cornerstone, that I am more suited to the state of a willow.
I am attracted to God residing in these women (please, don’t take that as there are oh-so-many of them, there aren’t – that would just make me…  something negative), and I recognize this.  I am attracted to the spiritual connection that they have to our Father, and this is something that I truly value when considering the pursuit of a relationship, in fact, I value it above all else – above physical aspects, intellect, everything – though, I would prefer to date and possibly marry someone that could hold conversations about technology and the sort, I realize that that might be a tall order – girls typically aren’t as in to that sort of thing like us nerdy-type guys – and that, I think, is what makes it so hard sometimes – I fear that their relationship with God is far greater than my own, and, well, Corinthians has a lot to say on that subject.  Let’s leave it at that.
I desire to be the leader in a God-centric relationship, I desire to be able to grow in Christ with a loving, caring, uplifting, glorious relationship, learning more and more from each other with each passing day, but I fear that I am not mature enough in my own walk to take on that responsibility.  I will not allow myself to be an anchor, at least, not again.  So I pray.  I pray that God will lead me in the way that He needs me to grow in Him, and that He would be preparing me for the relationship that I Hope that He has stored for me in my future.  I will know when I am ready for this responsibility, be it by internal, or external signs, of this I am sure.
I think John Piper says it quite well – “Marry so you can prefect the pursuit of one woman for a lifetime” (thanks Ken), but I would like to add a bit to that – “Marry so that you can perfect the pursuit of God with one woman for a lifetime.”
~/A\V/

Interesting title, I know, real deep, mind blowing.  Stuff of the ages.

I have, however, been thinking about this subject a lot recently, especially today, it being the 14th of February and all (thanks Hallmark), and I’ve come to a few realizations.  Most guys – at least most that I’ve interacted with – I am ex-military, after all, and spent a lot of time developing a camaraderie of sorts – are truly afraid of the potential of rejection.  But that’s not my trouble.

There are a few women that I am really interested in, this is true.  And the fear of rejection is something that I have already defeated (please, don’t even ask).  I’m not worried that they might already be involved with someone, I am confident that I can handle most any situation that a “rejection” would lead me to.  For the longest time, however, I have been blaming my inability to actually do something about my feelings on this arbitrary – and convenient, mind you – “fear of rejection.”  Now, however, I realize that there is something deeper involved.

It is a combination of my past, and of my upbringing, along with my faith.  Emphasis on my faith, here, actually.

On the first note, I was primarily raised by my mother – at least in the years that healthy development in regards to forming relationships is concerned.  My father…  was… less than an ideal role model for what a husband should be like in a proper man and wife marriage, and after my parents divorced (no fault of my mother, I assure you…) and he went off marching to beat of his own drum, my paternal influence was even further diminished as he and his _ahem_ liveinguyroommate began a “relationship.”  But that is just some background.  Sins of the fathers and whatnot, yet I do not blame him for my current disposition.

No, my present state and mindset comes from fear alright, but not of the heart wrenching feeling of rejection (which, sucks by the way, I won’t pretend to gloss over that, at all), but of a fear of not being the spiritual leader that my (hopefully) future wife needs me to be.  I have to be able to bear that responsibility – don’t get me wrong, i know it’s a two way street – and I have learned from past relationships (perhaps that shouldn’t be in the plurality) that being the rock of the relationship isn’t something that comes naturally to me.  My fear then, I’ve realized, when faced with the opportunity to approach a young lady with the potential to engage in courtship, is that I will not be able to be the cornerstone, that I am more suited to the state of a willow.

I am attracted to God residing in these women (please, don’t take that as there are oh-so-many of them, there aren’t – that would just make me…  something negative), and I recognize this.  I am attracted to the spiritual connection that they have to our Father, and this is something that I truly value when considering the pursuit of a relationship, in fact, I value it above all else – above physical aspects, intellect, everything – though, I would prefer to date and possibly marry someone that could hold conversations about technology and the sort, I realize that that might be a tall order – girls typically aren’t as in to that sort of thing like us nerdy-type guys – and that, I think, is what makes it so hard sometimes – I fear that their relationship with God is far greater than my own, and, well, Corinthians has a lot to say on that subject.  Let’s leave it at that.

I desire to be the leader in a God-centric relationship, I desire to be able to grow in Christ with a loving, caring, uplifting, glorious relationship, learning more and more from each other with each passing day, but I fear that I am not mature enough in my own walk to take on that responsibility.  I will not allow myself to be an anchor, at least, not again.  So I pray.  I pray that God will lead me in the way that He needs me to grow in Him, and that He would be preparing me for the relationship that I Hope that He has stored for me in my future.  I will know when I am ready, be it by internal, or external signs, of this I am sure.

I think John Piper says it quite well – “Marry so you can prefect the pursuit of one woman for a lifetime” (thanks Ken), but I would like to add a bit to that – “Marry so that you can perfect the pursuit of God with one woman for a lifetime.”

~/A\V/

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Living for the Kingdom of God

On 02.01.10, In God and Christianity, On the World, By Alexander
If everyone who claims Christianity actually lived for God, this world would be a very different place.
Disclaimer:
1) This is mostly in continuation from [That's it i'm done with bad for now, right?]
2) I’m going to do the best i can to prevent myself from waxing the same rhetoric as I am most likely to do when approaching this topic:  That we have such big cars, that we don’t care, that we just go about our lives like the rest of the world doesn’t even matter.  This will be difficult, because that is invariably how i feel, and honestly, I believe these statements to be true and factual.  That said, I now carry on with this article.
This world is an evil place.  Men kill each other over minor theological differences in the same basic religions, children are trafficked across city, state, and country borders – yes, even here in the United States – for the purpose of sexual exploitation, women are permanently disfigured with acid burns to their faces for the simple act of failing to accept a wedding proposal.  Children are used as human shields in conflicts raging across the middle east, whilst children starve even here, on the streets in the cities of America…  Many people know about these atrocities, and yet, they continue to happen – even now, while you are reading this, a child might be sold by the hour to a sick and perverted individual for the purpose of completing unspeakable acts.
And this doesn’t change.  Day to day, if anything, it gets worse.  The spirit of depravity in this place grows more and more sickening with every passing hour, every sweep of the minute hand, as more people fall prey to the unholy acts of their peers and elders.
And yet – if we as Christians were all truly living for the Kingdom – were truly living for Christ, this world would be a far different place.  That’s not to say that there wouldn’t be crime, sickness, depravity, and pestilence – this is a fallen world, after all – but there would be an overall ‘betterness’ to the situation as it is.
Picture this (it shouldn’t be hard, it happens on a regular basis) you’re driving home after an exceptionally long day at the office, tired, beat, worn.  All you want to do is get home to your family and relax.  But all around you, people keep driving like there are no laws – nudging into the turn lane after having sped up the entire length of it in the shoulder, cutting many people off.  They ignore traffic signals, they speed through intersections, they shift lanes when the line is solid white, they cuss and they scream and they throw up certain digits with reckless abandon, they show little to no regard for their fellow man, solely that they may get home a few minutes earlier, albeit with a higher blood pressure.  And then you notice that there… on the bumper, or beside the shiny logo… there’s an Ichthys planted there.  Apparently this person believes that by putting this symbol on their vehicle, they are evangelizing despite their actions.
Romans 2:17-24 says it best, in my humble opinion (emphasis added):
“17But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”"
But we do what we are supposed to, right?  We go to church on the Sundays that don’t have a game…  We put that money in the collection basket, because we’re asked to, right?  Ten percent of out earnings, and we’re in, we’re going to heaven – we believe that Jesus came to this earth to die for our sins, that way we can do whatever we want, and it’s not going to piss off God!  That’s our freedom!
It’s not over on Sunday.  Truly living for the Kingdom of God means more than just singing a few songs once a week.  God is more than 2 hours, He should be filling the other 166 hours a week as well, because it’s simply not that easy.  The common issue is that we live for ourselves, and our careers, putting our own goals and desires ahead of those goals that are truly important.  Think about the volume of people in the world that truly have NOTHING – that lack even the ability to take a shower every day.  There are so many people that are hurting every day, that die everyday from something as simple and curable as starvation, and yet, daily, we throw away enough food to feed a small nation.
While I’m not saying that we should give up everything we have and start a convent in a third-world country, because this wouldn’t accomplish anything in the long run – there’s still the issue of a basic lack of love to worry about.  Our focus is in the wrong direction – we pay more attention to getting things that really, truly do not matter instead of those things that do.  We should show patience, grace to others – it is through our actions that we are seen to be who we really are.  And through these actions we will began the shift that is needed in the world, this mortal plane.
And this shift of focus comes from knowing Jesus, not just knowing who He is.  Every day is God’s day.

If everyone who claims Christianity actually lived for God, this world would be a very different place.

Disclaimer:

1) This is mostly in continuation from [That's it i'm done with bad for now, right?]

2) I’m going to do the best i can to prevent myself from waxing the same rhetoric as I am most likely to do when approaching this topic:  That we have such big cars, that we don’t care, that we just go about our lives like the rest of the world doesn’t even matter.  This will be difficult, because that is invariably how i feel, and honestly, I believe these statements to be true and factual.  That said, I now carry on with this article.

This world is an evil place.  Men kill each other over minor theological differences in the same basic religions, children areChildren trafficked across city, state, and country borders – yes, even here in the United States – for the purpose of sexual exploitation, women are permanently disfigured with acid burns to their faces for the simple act of failing to accept a wedding proposal.  Children are used as human shields in conflicts raging across the middle east, whilst children starve even here, on the streets in the cities of America…  Many people know about these atrocities, and yet, they continue to happen – even now, while you are reading this, a child might be sold by the hour to a sick and perverted individual for the purpose of completing unspeakable acts.

And this doesn’t change.  Day to day, if anything, it gets worse.  The spirit of depravity in this place grows more and more sickening with every passing hour, every sweep of the minute hand, as more people fall prey to the unholy acts of their peers and elders.

And yet – if we as Christians were all truly living for the Kingdom – were truly living for Christ, this world would be a far different place.  That’s not to say that there wouldn’t be crime, sickness, depravity, and pestilence – this is a fallen world, after all – but there would be an overall ‘betterness’ to the situation as it is.

Picture this (it shouldn’t be hard, it happens on a regular basis) you’re driving home after an exceptionally long day at the office, tired, beat, worn.  All you want to do is get home to your family and relax.  But all around you, people keep driving like there are no laws – nudging into the turn lane after having sped up the entire length of it in the shoulder, cutting many people off.  They ignore traffic signals, they speed through intersections, they shift lanes when the line is solid white, they cuss and they scream and they throw up certain digits with reckless abandon, they show little to no regard for their fellow man, solely that they may get home a few minutes earlier, albeit with a higher blood pressure.  And then you notice that there… on the bumper, or beside the shiny logo… there’s an Ichthys planted there.  Apparently this person believes that by putting this symbol on their vehicle, they are evangelizing despite their actions.

The Name of GodRomans 2:17-24 says it best, in my humble opinion (emphasis added):

“17But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”“

But we do what we are supposed to, right?  We go to church on the Sundays that don’t have a game…  We put that money in the collection basket, because we’re asked to, right?  Ten percent of out earnings, and we’re in, we’re going to heaven – we believe that Jesus came to this earth to die for our sins, that way we can do whatever we want, and it’s not going to piss off God!  That’s our freedom!

It’s not over on Sunday.  Truly living for the Kingdom of God means more than just singing a few songs once a week.  God is moreTruly Living for the Kingdom than 2 hours, He should be filling the other 166 hours a week as well, because it’s simply not that easy.  The common issue is that we live for ourselves, and our careers, putting our own goals and desires ahead of those goals that are truly important.  Think about the volume of people in the world that truly have nothing – that lack even the ability to take a shower every day.  There are so many people that are hurting every day, that die everyday from something as simple and curable as starvation, and yet, daily, we throw away enough food to feed a small nation.

While I’m not saying that we should give up everything we have and start a convent in a third-world country, because this wouldn’t accomplish anything in the long run – there’s still the issue of a basic lack of love to worry about.  Our focus is in the wrong direction – we pay more attention to getting things that really, truly do not matter instead of those things that do.  We should show patience, grace to others – it is through our actions that we are seen to be who we really are.  And through these actions we will began the shift that is needed in the world, this mortal plane.

And this shift of focus comes from knowing Jesus, not just knowing who He is.  Every day is God’s day.

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“That’s it. I’m done with bad for now, right?”

On 01.18.10, In God and Christianity, On the World, By Alexander

Yesterday I made a Twitter/FB post that said “First Melanoma. Then bad sick. Then dead battery. Now flat tire. That’s it, I’m done with bad for now, right?”

Soon after I retracted it with a statement that I realized that, basically, what I have to deal with is miniscule compared to what the majority of the world has to deal with. That said, I now begin a (hopefully) short rant on the subject. Most of this stems from one passage in an article about cruise lines stopping at Labadee (near Haiti) that Neal Boortz (@Talkmaster) posted on Twitter today. The rest just comes from the opulence that I witness on a daily basis.

The delightful passage is this ‘”It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving,” said another [passenger on the Cruise Critic internet forum]. “I can’t imagine having to choke down a burger there now.”‘

What I can’t see, is myself ever thinking like this individual. I pray that I never think like this individual. Many people would look at this and think “What’s the big deal? That guy is just showing his compassion for the situation! He’s just showing that he cares!” I disagree with this line of thought – I believe that this individual is showing his guilt. Not guilt for having done anything wrong – he hasn’t – but he already has established that he has enjoyed a burger on this beach while Haitians starved less than 10 miles away, and this has clearly bothered him in the past. Yet, it’s apparent, he doesn’t allow himself to think that this is truly wrong until said starving Haitians were stricken by a disaster of such incredible, unbelievable magnitude that hundreds of thousands of human beings lie rotting in the sun, the stench permeating everywhere, mothers and fathers grief stricken as they search with bloodied hands for the bodies of their children, hoping against hope that they might be alive.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the attitude that I have seen of the majority of the “civilized” nations of the world. We are so caught up in everything that we have that we fail to realize that we have so much more than 90% of the world will ever even see.

I realized today that I am so wealthy that it defies logic. Yes, I had melanoma, but I have the best healthcare system in the world to cure me of it – which it did. Had I been in a different place, I would most likely still have a cancerous tumor that would be slowly leeching destructive cells into my lymph nodes, waiting to die a slow and painful death to advanced lymphoma. Yes, I was sick – pretty badly sick as well – i had a temperature of 103 before i broke my thermometer in a hallucinogenic rage from the fever – but I had readily available and cheap over the counter medicines that combatted the fever and allowed me to function for the remainder of the weekend. I even got a new thermometer for just under ten bucks.

As far as the battery and the tire go – I can’t even bring myself to reconcile why I thought that these were such bad things – I have a car and a fairly reliable traffic system on which to use it – where most people in this world don’t even have an ass to pull a cart with. I have so much that it is unbelievable that I would ever think that I am suffering, yet, I do. My first look is to see the bad in a given situation, instead of realizing that I am so incredibly blessed to be in the apparently bad situation in the first place.

Now, I am in no way saying that everything negative is simply “deserved” or “justified.” No, I’m simply stating that the next time that you spill your coffee on your $200 suit and the seat of your Lexus or get stuck behind the school bus when you are already late to work, give pause and realize that you are incredibly fortunate to have your $5 latte, your luxury car and your job in the city, when there are people who would do just about anything to be able to earn just that five bucks a week. We may be one of the richest nations in the world, but when we do not reach out to the rest of the people out there, we are no better than the dictators that oppress, the tyrants that destroy, and the zealots that kill for nothing more than a sideways glance or a raised foot. I pray that I will not allow myself to become so caught up in my own “suffering” again that I fail to remember that there are others out there that truly know what suffering is, and that I will be led to know how it is that I am to reach them myself, with the wealth that I have been given.

My idea of suffering is a pittance to what the majority of the world goes through, and I could have five thousand more events occur of similar magnitude to what I have experienced recently and still have not scratched the surface of what true suffering is. I’ve realized, even if I’m left with the sun above and the ground beneath my feet, I’ve been given more than I can even imagine – God has provided me with so much that it is sickening to me to think that I should be “left alone” and not have to “suffer” anymore.

~/A\V/

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God and the Multiverse – or – Why I Don’t Think the TARDIS Will Ever Exist.

On 11.28.09, In God and Christianity, Quantum Buzzkill, By Alexander

That’s a Dr. Who reference for those who don’t know XD.
If you haven’t already, you should read my exploration of the fifth (and subsequently, sixth) dimension here.  It will help form the basis behind this article and why i’m talking about all this multiple paths nonsense.
By default, the creation of a multi-dimension theory denies any possible presence of God – due, in no small part, to the fact that, if there are multiple universes, how could there be one God, and how could there possibly be anyway that He has control over our lives?
In short – He doesn’t.  He never claimed that He did.  He claims that we, as humans, have free will and that we can choose our own paths through life – He just happens to know beforehand what we are going to choose.  This does not mean that we are going to be able to make every decision in a snap with no forethought – when was the last time that you made a massive financial decision without weighing the options?  Think about it this way – you know that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, right?  And does you knowing what the sun will do force it to do so, or conversely, if you didn’t know that the sun would be rising tomorrow, would that prevent it?  No – you can know something will or will not happen – without a doubt, and this knowledge does not inherently make such an occurrence true – it is the event itself that makes the event exist.
This case, of course, brings us back to multidimensional thought – specifically, the fifth and sixth dimensions.
The existence of God and the existence of multiple universes – multiple dimensions (beyond 4) are not mutually exclusive.  We know that there have to be 4 dimensions – because we have the third dimension – the space we exist in – and we have the time that we move through in order to get from one point to another along the string of our lives (Do you see what i did there?  String?).  The fifth dimension is simply building upon the fourth – it is the branching possibility from a decision that we made in our life.  In our existence we only have evidence on a single path through time, and that is our fourth dimension, but the expanding possibilities of said points in time are the fifth dimension – the actions that could have taken us to other paths but didn’t.  God simply knows what we are going to do – but conversely, even in the event that the other possibilities were in existence (as in we had actual evidence of their existence) they would still fit in the thought of a single God in existence over everything, for if God is capable of knowing every action that we are going to make, then He is also aware of each and every consequence of our actions, in effect, proving the existence of a fifth dimension.
Whether or not those dimensions actually have substance is debatable.  By virtue of the fact that you can imagine the existence of the additional possibilities that could occur does not necessarily mean that they exist – just like you knowing the sun will rise does not prove its occurrence – one would have to assume that God’s knowledge of the additional branches doesn’t make them exist, however, God in Himself is far more a powerful being than we – and it’s possible that through the power that is God, He could create single strings of lives that are constant through all realities – in the event that the possibility of their existence proves their existence, allowing for the final culmination of all existences to be the same (or remarkably similar) in accordance with our belief.
This in turn, of course, proves the existence of the sixth dimension – the combination of the previous five within one single point.
That said – it would be incredibly improbable that a TARDIS or similar time and dimensional hopping device would be able to exist without disturbing the existence of these additional dimensions – if the fifth dimension is the possibility of other realities based on our own actions – wouldn’t the creation of a device that can traverse dimensions create an irreparable rupture in the dimension in the first place?  If one were to go and adjust the traversal of the fourth dimension by traveling among the various fifth dimensions create an issue with the actual creation of these dimensions, combining all dimensions into one common dimension?  By the nature of of the fact the the other dimensions are created by the thoughts and possibilities of actions within one dimension (and each other one thereof) it would be inherently impossible that one could create a device that would unify two or more different realities.
I think i broke my brain.
/A\V/

That’s a Dr. Who reference for those who don’t know XD.

If you haven’t already, you should read my exploration of the fifth (and subsequently, sixth) dimension here.  It will help form the basis behind this article and why i’m talking about all this multiple paths nonsense.

By default, the creation of a multi-dimension theory denies any possible presence of God – due, in no small part, to the fact that, if there are multiple universes, how could there be one God, and how could there possibly be anyway that He has control over our lives?

In short – He doesn’t.  He never said that He did.  He says that we, as humans, have free will and that we can choose our own paths through life – He just happens to know beforehand what we are going to choose.  This does not mean that we are going to be able to make every decision in a snap with no forethought – when was the last time that you made a massive financial decision without weighing the options?  Think about it this way – you know that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, right?  And does you knowing what the sun will do force it to do so, or conversely, if you didn’t know that the sun would be rising tomorrow, would that prevent it?  No – you can know something will or will not happen – without a doubt, and this knowledge does not inherently make such an occurrence true – it is the event itself that makes the event exist.

This case, of course, brings us back to multidimensional thought – specifically, the fifth and sixth dimensions.

The existence of God and the existence of multiple universes – multiple dimensions (beyond 4) are not mutually exclusive.  We know that there have to be 4 dimensions – because we have the third dimension – the space we exist in – and we have the time that we move through in order to get from one point to another along the string of our lives (Do you see what i did there?  String?).  The fifth dimension is simply building upon the fourth – it is the branching possibility from a decision that we made in our life.  In our existence we only have evidence on a single path through time, and that is our fourth dimension, but the expanding possibilities of said points in time are the fifth dimension – the actions that could have taken us to other paths but didn’t.  God simply knows what we are going to do – but conversely, even in the event that the other possibilities were in existence (as in we had actual evidence of their existence) they would still fit in the thought of a single God in existence over everything, for if God is capable of knowing every action that we are going to make, then He is also aware of each and every consequence of our actions, in effect, proving the existence of a fifth dimension.

Whether or not those dimensions actually have substance is debatable.  By virtue of the fact that you can imagine the existence of the additional possibilities that could occur does not necessarily mean that they exist – just like you knowing the sun will rise does not prove its occurrence – one would have to assume that God’s knowledge of the additional branches doesn’t make them exist, however, God in Himself is far more a powerful being than we – and it’s possible that through the power that is God, He could create single strings of lives that are constant through all realities – in the event that the possibility of their existence proves their existence, allowing for the final culmination of all existences to be the same (or remarkably similar) in accordance with our belief.

This in turn, of course, proves the existence of the sixth dimension – the combination of the previous five within one single point.

(This last paragraph is pure nonsensical ramblings.  Read at your own risk)

That said – it would be incredibly improbable that a TARDIS or similar time and dimensional hopping device would be able to exist without disturbing the existence of these additional dimensions – if the fifth dimension is the possibility of other realities based on our own actions – wouldn’t the creation of a device that can traverse dimensions create an irreparable rupture in the dimension in the first place?  If one were to go and adjust the traversal of the fourth dimension by traveling among the various fifth dimensions create an issue with the actual creation of these dimensions, combining all dimensions into one common dimension?  By the nature of of the fact the the other dimensions are created by the thoughts and possibilities of actions within one dimension (and each other one thereof) it would be inherently impossible that one could create a device that would unify two or more different realities.

I think i broke my brain.

/A\V/

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Thinking in the Fifth Dimension

On 11.28.09, In God and Christianity, Quantum Buzzkill, By Alexander

This is based on what I understand the multiverse to be.  It may be wrong – this is all theory anyway.
We are all familiar with the first through third dimensions.  These are elementary – the first dimension is simply a point – imagine a one pixel square on your monitor.  It’s hard to see, and kind of not-really-there.  The second dimension is simply something that has a length – say, a line between two points.  When you draw something on a piece of paper – it’s essentially in two dimensions.
Three dimensions, that’s easy to imagine, because we live in it – the third dimension allows us to move within an area of space.  You, the computer you’re reading this on, the desk, couch, chair, whatever you are sitting at, these all exist within three dimensions – when you walk or move, that is within three dimensions.  The fourth dimension, however, is where things get a little complicated.  Your life is in the fourth dimension, and is represented by a line that follows you from birth to death, kind of like a blurry smear through time.  Imagine that you have someone cataloguing you with a camera that captures your position in three diminutional space every minute of your life, and they then put that frozen you statue up behind you after they’ve taken the shot.  You’d end up with a very crowded life, for sure, as there would be all these statues – probably quite creepy – piled up behind you, but you could get a look at the path your life has travelled in the past.  When we look at photos from the past and catalogue them in a memory journal, we are building such a line in time.  To complete the image, though, that same person stalking you would have to be able to go into the future and plot all the statues that are going to exist for you on your current path.  Now, to make things more complicated, they have to do this all at the same time, so instantly, your life is laid out both before you and behind you.  Imagine that you are, at this point, hopping from the last statue to the next along this path.  That’s the fourth dimension – a line in time, from beginning to end.
We can extend our own lines, before our birth and after our death, because the atomic matter that makes each of us up both came from somewhere, and goes somewhere – it never ends.  you mother and fatter produced you, those cells are matter, your mother ate food whited helped you grow in utero, and after your death, the worms will munch on you in your grave, making your matter continue on the path of lives.  Somewhere in you you probably have an atom that came from Lincoln or something.
But that’s neither here no there.
When you think in the fourth dimension, it’s like casting your mind forward to a known point in time.  If you have an itch, and you scratch it, but before you scratch it, you know that you are going to feel relieved, you have thought forward along the fourth dimension.  If you jump off of a 15 story building, but before you do so, you imagine yourself smashing into the concrete below, you have identified the last point on your living fourth dimension.
Now, let’s jump to the fifth dimension.  Fun right?
In the fifth dimension, we have all of the possible outcomes of every action that could be made in the fourth.  We humans think in the fifth dimension all the time, when we weigh consequences of our actions.  Lets go back to the rooftop, and assuming you aren’t in a drunken state of mind, you decide to stop and think about what you are doing.  Instead of just imagining the fall and subsequent splat that comes afterward, you decide to imagine the other possibilities that are available to you.  You could jump off of the rooftop, and go splat.  We’ll call that possibility 1.  Let’s say that the second possibility is that you grab a bedsheet to make a crude parachute before you jump – still likely to result in a splat, just a less messy one.  The third possibility is that you could turn around and face whatever is chasing you to this precipitous point in time – say… the cops.  This will result in you probably going to jail.  Fourth possibility is that you could maybe hide behind something on the roof and hope that no-one finds you.  You’ve just imagined in the fifth dimension, however, since we are only third dimensional beings, we can only take one of those possible outcomes to fruition.  The fifth dimension is where all the other possibilities happen.
Now, let’s imagine Mr. Creepy Stalker with the three dimensional camera comes along, and he takes pictures of not only the current timeline of whatever you decide – whether it be splat or jail – but all the other possibilities as well, thus making them a reality – all of them are happening.  Now, imagine that he has done this for every possible situation in every decision and movement of your entire life.  Not only would you have a very good grounds for a very awesome lawsuit, but he would have catalogued the sixth dimension of your life – every possibility of every event of every second of your life – all happening at the same point – notice point, not time – we’ve graduate past time here.
Damn.
Read the second article on this topic here.

This is based on what I understand the multiverse to be.  It may be wrong – this is all theory anyway.

We are all familiar with the first through third dimensions.  These are elementary – the first dimension is simply a point – imagine a one pixel square on your monitor.  It’s hard to see, and kind of not-really-there.  The second dimension is simply something that has a length – say, a line between two points.  When you draw something on a piece of paper – it’s essentially in two dimensions.

Three dimensions, that’s easy to imagine, because we live in it – the third dimension allows us to move within an area of space.  You, the computer you’re reading this on, the desk, couch, chair, whatever you are sitting at, these all exist within three dimensions – when you walk or move, that is within three dimensions.  The fourth dimension, however, is where things get a little complicated.  Your life is in the fourth dimension, and is represented by a line that follows you from birth to death, kind of like a blurry smear through time.  Imagine that you have someone cataloguing you with a camera that captures your position in three diminutional space every minute of your life, and they then put that frozen you statue up behind you after they’ve taken the shot.  You’d end up with a very crowded life, for sure, as there would be all these statues – probably quite creepy – piled up behind you, but you could get a look at the path your life has travelled in the past.  When we look at photos from the past and catalogue them in a memory journal, we are building such a line in time.  To complete the image, though, that same person stalking you would have to be able to go into the future and plot all the statues that are going to exist for you on your current path.  Now, to make things more complicated, they have to do this all at the same time, so instantly, your life is laid out both before you and behind you.  Imagine that you are, at this point, hopping from the last statue to the next along this path.  That’s the fourth dimension – a line in time, from beginning to end.

We can extend our own lines, before our birth and after our death, because the atomic matter that makes each of us up both came from somewhere, and goes somewhere – it never ends.  Your mother and father produced you, those cells are matter, your mother ate food which helped you grow in utero, and after your death, the worms will munch on you in your grave, making your matter continue on the path of lives.  Somewhere in you you probably have an atom that came from Lincoln or something.

But that’s neither here no there.

When you think in the fourth dimension, it’s like casting your mind forward to a known point in time.  If you have an itch, and you scratch it, but before you scratch it, you know that you are going to feel relieved, you have thought forward along the fourth dimension.  If you jump off of a 15 story building, but before you do so, you imagine yourself smashing into the concrete below, you have identified the last point on your living fourth dimension.

Now, let’s jump to the fifth dimension.  Fun right?

In the fifth dimension, we have all of the possible outcomes of every action that could be made in the fourth.  We humans think in the fifth dimension all the time, when we weigh consequences of our actions.  Lets go back to the rooftop, and assuming you aren’t in a drunken state of mind, you decide to stop and think about what you are doing.  Instead of just imagining the fall and subsequent splat that comes afterward, you decide to imagine the other possibilities that are available to you.  You could jump off of the rooftop, and go splat.  We’ll call that possibility 1.  Let’s say that the second possibility is that you grab a bedsheet to make a crude parachute before you jump – still likely to result in a splat, just a less messy one.  The third possibility is that you could turn around and face whatever is chasing you to this precipitous point in time – say… the cops.  This will result in you probably going to jail.  Fourth possibility is that you could maybe hide behind something on the roof and hope that no-one finds you.  You’ve just imagined in the fifth dimension, however, since we are only third dimensional beings, we can only take one of those possible outcomes to fruition.  The fifth dimension is where all the other possibilities happen.

Now, let’s imagine Mr. Creepy Stalker with the three dimensional camera comes along, and he takes pictures of not only the current timeline of whatever you decide – whether it be splat or jail – but all the other possibilities as well, thus making them a reality – all of them are happening.  Now, imagine that he has done this for every possible situation in every decision and movement of your entire life.  Not only would you have a very good grounds for a very awesome lawsuit, but he would have catalogued the sixth dimension of your life – every possibility of every event of every second of your life – all happening at the same point – notice point, not time – we’ve graduated past time here.

Damn.

Read the second article on this topic here.

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