Tim's blog

The universe, if that word truly fits its nature, could be finite or infinite.

If the universe is finite, the universe exists like a program and runs once. There will be one outcome or type of end. The existence of us proves that this one-time run may lead to, for most of the universe, some sort of strange unusual beings with self-consciousness.
However, since we know the size of the observable universe is already so absurdly large compared to the maximum speed of travel of matter, which is incredibly slow, our existence is very limited. We or any other self-conscious being may be doomed, with our self-consciousness, to be like a castaway on an island without any real chance to escape. Or a pickup situation will happen a long time after we are gone. I do not mean we are bound to our current planet but in terms of the whole universe we are bound to some very small fraction of the universe. In other words, a finite universe is much less able to produce super highly developed outcomes. Let me call this an “interesting outcome” compared to the whole universe.

The infinite universe triggers for us, first of all, the question about its development. In case of an infinite nature of the universe, all sorts of things will happen that are possible within the limits of natural law. Infinite means all things which can happen will happen. That is very different from the finite universe.

More to our universe: the universe is expanding currently. It could theoretically expand without end, but due to its infinite nature, all sorts of states will happen. It is logical that the universe will eventually collapse. It does not matter how much time it would take.

It may be that the universe, as we experience it now, would be just a very small fraction of existence compared to the whole time of expansion, and the overall nature of the universe is a hopeless vast space of almost nothingness with not really anything much happening. The energy density is most of the time just too low for higher beings to exist.

But eventually, the universe will collapse. The energy density will increase more and more again. The collapse might continue until the smallest possible size, limited by certain natural laws, or bigger than that.

The thing is, the infinite universe will expand and collapse again and again. This is due to the nature of infinite runs. All will happen. It is like breathing. One breath may be smaller than the other, and the outcome of one cycle may be very different compared to other cycles. However, the breaths will lead to a sort of restart of the universe with its content, deadly to all beings in it.

After many breaths, the universe will eventually not just produce higher beings with self-consciousness, but a type of being which will be able to survive the breaths of the universe. This part is my wild guess: I guess such a thing is possible within the limits of natural law.

This type of being will eventually occur because the infinite universe will have all possible states. This type of being must be so powerful, and compared to the whole universe, is being a sort of almighty, that the survival of all breaths of the universe is possible for this higher being. That type of being is, by our definition, God.

This leads to the conclusion that God will eventually occur in an infinite universe. The main question we could have as humans: did this already happen by the time of our existence or not yet? Do we live in a godless universe or not?

Since we are limited beings compared to an almighty being which can survive the deadly breaths of the universe, we cannot ask a god-being of its existence.
We can also not prove it on our own. We are doomed to hope it is not a godless universe and that God will eventually reveal its existence to all of us.

You may think it is enough to reveal it to one of us, but history shows clearly how unreliable we are, and it is unreasonable to think God would rely on one single human only for such an important message. That way of thinking leads to the situation of us not being able to know if God exists or not.

God, in the sense of an almighty being in the universe. A being still bound to natural law and not a being of magic, but a being so powerful that the whole universe, or a bigger part at least, is a kind of the body of this being.

By the way, if such a being exists, it probably will ensure no other equal being will exist. …but this path of thinking is a different story.

And here I am agnostic: I accept that I don’t know if God exists or does not exist. Being agnostic, for me, is tied to the belief in an infinite universe with the nature of deadly breathing.

Another word on “the universe is the whole body of God”: imagine we are like one foot. We may even have self-consciousness and be able to talk to another foot, but we are limited by our nature as a smaller part and therefore unable to prove the existence of our whole body — doomed to remain in the unknown.