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From Theosebia
It seems to me that a logical place to start is at the very beginning with the objectless plain of infinite potential, the canvass for creation. I am speaking of the original infinite and eternal emptiness where all things first became and still remain possible, and where anything which is possible must be. The nature of this emptiness is apparently dictating:
- that the entire range of sub-atomic particles shall exist in it,
- that such particles may interact with each other in a (?limited?) number of specific ways,
- that different arrangements of such particles shall be endowed with unique properties so that such arrangements may only interact with each other in a (?limited?) number of specific ways.
- that the arrangements of such arrangements may only interact with each other in a (?limited?) number of specific ways and so on, perhaps, ad infinitum.
As the complexity of the arrangement of particles increases, so does the complexity and number of different ways in which such arrangements may interact with each other. Some of these interactions are detrimental to the arrangements themselves. Thus in a complex arrangement of particles like a rational creature, the number of different ways two such arrangements could interact is naturally going to be very complex indeed. The number of ways to interact which are detrimental to the complex arrangement are also naturally going to be vast. At some point in history, although just as incapable as modern humans are of knowing all the possible different beneficial and detrimental ways to interact with other arrangements, primitive creatures grasped knowledge of this nature of things. At this point, such creatures made a step beyond simple trial and error of evolution through natural selection as their offspring started to learn strategies to avoid the detrimental ways of interaction and capitalise on the beneficial ways of interaction. Soon creatures with this awareness were prospering on the planet at the expense of creatures which were unable to learn in this way.
Rational deists may understand the discovery of such dictates of emptiness's nature as the process of learning the boundaries which the divine has decreed for its creation. Rational deists are likely to believe in the law of the jungle as it takes many years before a rational deist can learn that there are benefits to looking out for others before oneself.
The fundamental evolution of ways in which the probability of successful germination was increased might have led to the evolution of an inclination in most animated creatures to protect their offspring. At some point the inclination to protect one's offspring seems to have evolved into a desire to pass knowledge of the nature of things and strategies for success.
Theists may understand the passing on of knowledge of such dictates of emptiness's nature and passing on of strategies for success as the origin of messengers of the boundaries which the divine has decreed for its creation. While rational theists will always review the strategies which are being inherited and passed on, there might not always be time to review in every generation and thus traditions might become far removed from their original purpous, leading to irrational and magic/fantasy-belief mindsets.
But easily confused with the magical fantasy belief mindset is an advanced rational theory which begs exploration. Did all this begin with infinite possibility or not? If it did, perhaps it is not necessary to simply learn the will of the divine through careful observation of experiments for infinite possibility would not really be infinite if it did not include the possibility that it itself was conscious, intelligent and omniscient. If so then it could even know our deepest thoughts, and perhaps if one were to develop a close enough personal relationship with it, then it might respond to our hopes. Since infinite possibility is unlimited in its potential perhaps it could even become possible that our intentions could even bring about the occurance of phenomena for which there might be no known explanation.
So did it all begin with infinite possibility or not? If we have three occurances (A, B, and C) combine them systematically without infinite possibility, it will only be a matter of time before all the possible combinations have been exhasted. I.E.
- A
- AB
- AC
- BC
- ABC
If we throw in infinite possibility, we might never arrive at ABC, or we might arrive at ABC immediately, this is because the sequence is now random rather than systematic. If we believe intuition is a lightning subconscious sequential calculation of all possibilities which allows us to home in on the right answer, then we do not believe in infinite possibility (although we would probably have to believe in human omniscience and quantum processing capability). If we believe intuition is a more chaotic phenomenon than this, then we believe in infinite possibility. If the former, then we would also reduce all creativity and moments of inspirational genius to a calculative process comparable to quantum computing. The fact that not all other possibilities are accessible in memory indicates that creativity might be something more chaotic and might therefore lean us more towards believe in infinite possibility.
On this page I have described the rational options. To avoid the rational options is to opt for chaos which is to live under the rule of infinite possibility. For example to say, "I don't believe any of that" is to either ratify the existence of infinite possibility, or claim the ability to think in different dimensions which could not possibly be explained to creatures whose minds are limited to the rational dimension. If there are other rational approaches I would naturally be delighted to have my own consciousness expanded through introduction to such new ways of thinking.
Regardless of how we decide creation began, all of us are required to begin with the self-contained objectless plane in order to avoid the question "but what exists outside of that?"* This is all that existed before the beginning.
