The latest Speaking of Faith podcast had Krista Tippett interviewing Janna Levin, theoretical mathematician, philosopher and author of A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. She has spent her career looking into the realities of existence and truths of the universe. In the interview, she describes how the universe through mathematics is completely predetermined, and nothing can be considered “free-will” as we understand it.

Now, this might just be my American free-spirit predetermining my response here, but I have to humbly disagree with her.

With what little I know of Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) Fractals (see a totally sweet post on them here) they are a repeating rhythm based on a simple equation that ideally go on for infinity. They have infinite precision, but they are not touchable.

Arthur C. Clark (wrote 2001: A Space Oddessy) narrated a movie series on fractal geometry called “Fractals - the Colors of Infinity”. I’ve included the YouTube video (1st part) below. (A little cheezy, but you owe it to yourself to watch this…)

Fractals like this explain the motion of the planets around the sun, the shape and movement of clouds, continents, or trees, right down to DNA revolving around itself. What is so unusual about the M-Set is that is both complete and incomplete - both fully definable and fully indefinable. It is like islands of order in the sea of chaos. The M-Set is infinitely complex, organic, fluid, and yet completely definable and simple.

I believe the realities of the M-Set Fractal help us understand how parts of our universe is both revealed and concealed, both mysterious and definable. When we think about predeterminism, and free-will, no longer are we confined to choose one side or the other. Maybe through mathematics, we can understand that God allows free-will and yet knows everything. Maybe we can understand how God is both revealed and mysterious…

In my opinion, the Mandelbrot Set (nicknamed the “thumbprint of God”) offers a question to Jenna Levin, and invites deep questions into existence, consciousness, and organic reality in the universe.

“…You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to GOD HIMSELF, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to JESUS, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people…”

– Early Christian Sermon, Hebrews 12:22-24

This being toward the end of a powerful sermon on perseverance, I am amazed at the awkwardity (a new word a good friend mentioned to me and is working to get it into Webster’s!) of the circumstances surrounding this sermon. These Christians, possibly 12-15 men and women are huddled together in a small room of a multi-housing apartment complex. Some have lost their homes because they’ve been rejected by their Jewish parents or their pagan husband. Others have been beaten, lost their jobs, and lost their property (Heb. 10:34).

And yet this is how the preacher-man talks to them? Talking of high n’ mighty mountains, angels, and being in the presence of GOD HIMSELF?!? If I were one of these persecuted, low-life Christians, I’d be just about ready to walk over to the preacher jabbering on about such nonsense and smack him upside the head. The NERVE! And yet these words somehow made it into the Holy Writ.

Maybe its because Christians…the true followers of Christ who were hunted down for their beliefs, knew that it was precisely in their not seeing their earthly power and glory in the following-Christ lifestyle that they saw all the more how amazing was their God of the unseen world. Throughout the sermon, the author of Hebrews prefers the “unseen, unshakable” reality as opposed to the “world that will fall away”.

In the Roman and pagan world of the first century, temples lined the streets, and each of them were embellished with visible reminders of the gods watching over everyone. The simpler, the less adorned, and the humble gatherings of Christian worship that were blatantly lacking icons, idols, and bloody sacrifices may have been what was most inspiring about the early Christian faith. Many non-Christians at that time suspected Christianity to be a simple philosophy, others saw it as a dangerous cult. No one who stood outside the circle understood exactly what this little movement was all about.

Today, Christianity in America has taken on the aspects of many of the pompous pagan religions of the first century. We build bigger and bigger sanctuaries, and have more and more elaborate worship services designed to attract the overindulged, and over-entertained consumer. And we do it well. We truck them in by the thousands, and give the preachers of these mega-temples salaries that well surpass those of their pagan forefathers…TV air time, book signing deals…the works. We’ve bought into the lifestyle that kept so many first century Romans (Jews, and others as well!) so inoculated to the Truth - that this is not about a flashy event; its about a way of life.

We have not come to what is seen, to stages, praise bands, multi-plexes, and unchanged, unfulfilled, mediocre lives; but we have come to what is unseen: to a simple collective of friends who love their Lord, love each other, and are convinced that they are on a mission with their Lord to save the world. When we stop to think of the idiocy of it all: no leader but Christ, no temple but our hearts, no sacrifice but ourselves, worshiping our Lord God may seem simplistic. But do not be deceived. We have come to a mountain that is far more real than anything we can see with our eyes, we have come to the mountain of the LORD GOD.

Recently Katrina and I have been getting into the show “30 Days” (check it out here); the same guy who did Super Size Me (ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days) is now out to see other people try another life (usually a diametrically opposed lifestyle) for several weeks to see what personal changes take place. (e.g. A upper-middle class from NYC couple move to Ohio to live on minimum wage).

I was especially impressed with the episode Muslims in America, which reports on a Christian from West Virginia moving to Dearborn, MI to live with a Muslim family and experience Islam up close and personal. He engaged in political/theological dialogue with the Muslims he lived with, he went to Jumuah (Friday prayer service), ate Halal foods, and basically lived “on the other side of the tracks” for a whole month. It got me thinking about my own preconceived notions of who Muslims are - and what they believe as part of their faith.
Even beyond that, it reminded me that each religion of this world, while they share many of the same tenets, practices, principles, and even forefathers, are all going in different directions.

Buddhists are after enlightenment through emptiness.

Hindus seek the absorption and unity with the ONE.

Animism goal is cosmic harmony, and human well-being.

Islam’s religious end is total surrender to Allah.

Christianity’s ultimate goal is communion with God.

What does this say about the world’s religions? To me, it says that they are not necessarily “right” or “wrong” but it shows me what their aims are. After 30 Days, the man who had lived with Muslims learned to embrace the people, the culture and even their prayers/worship because he saw their aim as different from the aim of Christianity.
Can one aim be “better” than another? Sure! Before the world began, God existed in community. He is innately a relational God - he IS communion. Seeking communion with him through the salvation that Jesus Christ offers is the ultimate goal a “religion” can have. There are not many ways of being saved - because only Christ offers salvation. Salvation from self. Salvation from sin. We are only like God when we are tied in with God, and become communal just as God is by participating with God in communion with others. There are however many different genuine goals world religions can have which do not compromise the ultimate goal of communion with the one God.

If Christians took seriously the fact that they are fundamentally relational, then our outreach and good works would not come from a form of guilt, but from a deep sense of who we are as relational beings. As God is communal, so I am communal. We become the sacraments to the world.

I am sure that I do not have the authoritative voice on the issue of the world’s religious diversity. I do know that Jesus is the only one that offers salvation - and that is what I am desperate for. All other religious ends seem fickle in light of eternal communion at the Lord’s Table. In the end, a Buddhist gets what he is looking for: the end of existence. Could it be that Christ will offer then the ultimate goal of salvation in the moments after a Buddhist’s death? That’s a question I’m definitely not qualified to answer. …maybe if I got my doctorate…

Happy New Year!

I found out that the number one cause of injury in France is…you guessed it; flying champagne corks.

I’ve been reading a bit of cosmology lately (no, that’s not the same as cosmotology, pretty boy). It is a book that brings back together a field of study that hasn’t been approached in a long time. The best way to describe it is a mixture of astonomy, philosophy, physics and theology. One chapter explained the precise characteristics necessary in nature to sustain any sort of complex life. In a list of about 25 requirements each with their own infinitesimal percentages, one really stood out to me.

The balance between the universe’s electromagnetic pull and the force of gravity has to be so precise and stable from the instant our universe began. This precise balance must be within 10-37 percentage of the balance we find it to be today, or molecules could never form, thus denying any type of life from developing.

10-37 (10% with another 37 zero’s tacked on) is a pretty tiny number. The author explained this number with an analogy. If we covered the entire continent of North America with stacks of dimes, and then stacked them all the way to the moon…and then did the same thing to a billion other continents the same size as North America…and then painted one dime red, and hid it amongst the billion continents of stacked dimes. If someone were to come blindfolded and pick (on the first try) the red dime - THAT would be 10-37!!!! What slim chances life would grow only by chance!

If you want to find atheists, look among philosophers; the physicists are moving on to new theories…