A Place for God in the Living Universe
The Two Concepts of God
All people, whether religious or not, believe in one of two different but complementary concepts of God: the external god and the internal god.
At its most basic configuration, the universe is a mixture of electrons, protons, and photons that all possess a precise amount of kinetic energy due to their motions relative to space. The external god is separate from this arena of matter and energy. This god is not made from matter and energy like us, it is made from an all-pervading space like material that can best be described as a universal consciousness that can become so concentrated at locations like here on earth that it can communicate directly with the consciousness of human beings and maybe even animals, plants and rocks. Many believe that human consciousness actually stems from the external god’s consciousness and, like humans, that it can also feel emotions such as love and anger.
Those who believe in an external god see the universe as being composed of “dead matter”. The life-forms that thrive here on earth acquire their essence of life not from there internal structure but from a connection with the external god. This god created the matter and energy of the universe but is not part of them nor in direct control of them as much as it is in direct communication with matter and energy. God does not need to guide each individual photon along its path but it might know where each one is. Some believers in an external god see it as a single entity existing throughout space, where others believe in multiple and more local entities like the trinity or angels and demons. It is common to see it as a duality of good and evil with god pitting its consciousness against a complimentary devil.
Let There be Light
The basic idea of the Big Bang was first conceived several thousand years ago. This concept appears in the book of Genesis that eventually became the first book of the Bible. The first sentence has been translated into English as, In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light!” I certainly know of no other book that says so much in its first sentence. It is somewhat remarkable that this simple statement is so very similar to the way that modern science describes the Universe’s beginning. The only difference is that the author of Genesis uses the term “God” as the initial condition of the universe whereas the modern-day cosmologists propose that the universe began with the sudden appearance of not a god but a “singularity”. The concept of an external god at the beginning of Genesis is essentially identical to the external singularity god at the beginning of the cosmologist’s standard model of the big bang.
It would appear to a reasonable observer that the only real difference between a god and a singularity is merely one of spelling since both appeared from nowhere or everywhere at the beginning of time and caused the universe to rapidly become filled with highly energetic photons that then decayed into atomic particles.
From this point on, there are many opinions as to God’s continuing role after the beginning, as well as many ideas surrounding the dynamics of the Big Bang. The final result of all these ideas is that the original atomic particles remained unchanged for billions of years as they combined to form atoms, stars, and galaxies that eventually conscious beings capable of wondering about this whole chain of events. The whole process can be paraphrased by the following statement. In the beginning, God said “Let there be photons” and in the end, the photons said, “Let there be God”. The great paradoxical question to be answered here is this; Did God create man or did man create god?
The Internal Gods of the Living Universe
The internal gods are the two complimentary forms of consciousness that reside in the electrons and protons that make up the matter of the universe. When protons and electrons interact with one another a basic unit of consciousness is generated. Thus the basic unit of consciousness in the universe is not an external God but a hydrogen atom. This basic consciousness becomes more concentrated as heavier and heavier isotopes and elements are assembled. Then a whole new layer of complexity is added to consciousness as individual atoms join together to form molecules of greater and greater complexity. The flow of consciousness is concentrated again when great numbers identical molecules gather together to form crystal structures. In a small crystal, we have many billions of electron/proton interactions where the consciousness of each is joined together into a single mega-unit of consciousness. The level of consciousness is greatly increased again when different kinds of molecules are combined with DNA crystals within the structure of living cells. The ultimate level of consciousness comes when enormous numbers of many different kinds of identical but individual cells are joined together into living beings such as ourselves.
Even the most devout atheist must believe in the internal god of consciousness because to deny it would be to deny ones own thoughts. The great unknown surrounding the internal gods of consciousness is whether or not there is one more higher level of consciousness where contact and communication occurs between life-forms. It is this higher level of consciousness that the atheist would probably deny.
In fact, everyone believes in one god or the others. An external god and an internal god are complimentary and opposite to one another and we would not expect that both could exist. However, everyone has a somewhat different idea of god and many believe in combinations of characteristics of both the external and internal gods. An example would be the Christian who believes in the external Hebrew god and the internal divinity of Jesus.
Many wars have been fought over these kinds of questions and I would not attempt to answer them here, other than to say that after this first day in the history of the universe they become irrelevant. Whether or not a god existed at the beginning of the universe to view these particles or participate in their creation, it would not be necessary for that god to intervene in the evolution of the universe from that day on. Because of their nature and properties, a god could sit back and watch these two entities evolve into the universe of today without the necessity for any active participation in the process.
Those religious people who wish to diminish god’s power and doubt his ability to make such a beautiful self-replicating hydrogen atom may wish to see god’s external hand guiding each step in this evolutionary process. For the true believers in an omnipotent god as well as even the atheists and the physicists, the true miracle would be that these two marvelous particles that make up the hydrogen atom are able to replicate and create the Living Universe all by themselves. If you must give either a God or a singularity full credit for the creation of the universe, please at least consider the possibility that the universe might actually contain 2256 Gods and 2256 Goddesses.
For the true believer in the internal god of the Living Universe it the hydrogen atom that is the basic unit of this polytheism. Just what the original hydrogen atom really was or where it really came from are not questions that we need to answer at this time. This atom was a duality that contained a positron and antiproton. We will begin here with one atom and not question what came before. The atheist would say that these particles have simply existed forever, a monotheist would say that they were fashioned by the hand of God, and polytheists or physicist might say that one particle was god and the other goddess.