Another Jumping Picture
Today in church, our famous and controversial pastor talked about the Trinity, and went way more in depth about the concept than i've ever heard in church before. The Unitarian idea of God can be very attractive, since it simplifies our thinking about the Divine. Polytheistic ideas can be likewise simpler for our minds -- one god to make thunder, one god to bring crops from the ground. But a three in one God baffles the mind. Groups from Jehovah's Witnesses to Muslims reject the trinity concept as heretical, since God is One... plus, it doesn't make any sense.
But the eye (or "the I") cannot see itself, so without some kind of other-ish thing, how could it be that anything more than simply "I" have come to exist? That was kind of the point of today's sermon, that God's being is one, yet the three persons are involved in a selfless, Holy relationship of love. My buddy Keith talks eloquently about his approach to Christianity, which he refers to as Relational Theism. The whole theme of our lives, as a continuation of the story moving through creation, is to relate to God and others. Jesus' two most important commandments are all about relationships, after all.
Having spent a lot of time thinking about the Trinity and what it means for relationships, during church i thought about shapes. Three spheres on a table can rotate around and stay touching. With more spheres than that, at least two must not be in contact with each other. However, four spheres can make a pyramid and all of the four can touch. So if God had been Quatrune (um.... four in one...), would we live in a four dimensional universe?
It seems obvious that the reason we live in three dimensions is because God is three in one.
But we do live in a 4 dimensional universe if you count time. To quote Dr. Emmit Brown, Juanito, “You’re not thinking 4th dimensionally!”
-- Steve (URL) - 28 April '08 - 20:40