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Summary—This essay identifies two different layers of reality—perceived and innate. The big bang theory also comes in the same two flavors. These two layers are like melodies playing in parallel—point and counterpoint. This essay concludes with the notion that innate reality is true and perceived reality is an illusion. Alfred Whitehead (1861-1947) once suggested that all philosophy after Plato is merely a footnote. Plato (428-347 BC) was obsessed with the idea of transcending the physical world and achieving eternal existence. He used his famous allegory of the cave to illustrate the difference between common perception and certain knowledge. Imagine prisoners chained inside a cave such that they only see the appearance of shadows projected through the eternal objects onto the wall from the fire behind them. For the prisoners, the shadows are their whole reality. According to Plato, Souls and Forms are objects or phenomena that exist eternally. Going from back to front is a row of fire, followed by a row of Souls and Forms, followed by a row of prisoners, and finally followed by a cave wall. The light of the fire is like a projector in a movie theatre. It shines through the Souls and Forms (ie. the movie film) onto the cave wall (ie. the movie screen). A prisoner named Socrates breaks free of his chains and climbs out of the cave into daylight. After a time his eyes adjust to the light and he returns to the cave intending to free the prisoners. But back inside the cave Socrates now has trouble making out the shadows. And his attempt to liberate the prisoners only angers them for revealing the illusionary nature of their existence. They become so overwrought with anxiety that they proceed to kill Socrates for it. The Perceived Big Bang Theory. According to Edgar Allan Poe in his 1848 book Eureka “The universe begins when God creates a primordial particle out of nothing. From it matter irradiates spherically in all directions in an inexpressibly great yet limited number of unimaginably yet not infinitely minute atoms.” Poe was a century ahead of his time from when George Gamow produced his big bang theory in 1945—which I am calling the perceived big bang theory. Instead of arguing that God creates a primordial particle out of nothing—it is much more likely that God is the primordial particle Herself. The perceived big bang theory is the most commonly accepted explanation for the beginning of the universe. It proposes that the universe was once a single particle that was extremely dense and scorching hot. The perceived big bang came into existence sixteen billion years ago and accounts for the formation of the universe. Scientists believe that there are a trillion, billion stars in the universe that originated from the perceived big bang. The question is where did all those stars come from? I would argue that they are not actually there. The stars are nothing more than a show put on like the image of stars inside a planetarium. Saint Augustine (354-430) claimed that miracles happen not in opposition to nature but in opposition to what we know of nature. While it may appear that God miraculously pulled a rabbit out of Her hat, the innate big bang theory offers a much more plausible explanation. The Innate Big Bang Theory. According to John Boslough—The universe operates according to several different sets of rules that act in layers independent of one another. The two layers are represented by perceived reality and innate reality, which is also known as subspace. Subspace is a mathematical construct that underlies the spacetime continuum. While Boslough stated that the two layers are independent, I would argue that perceived reality is dependent on innate reality. The two perspectives reflect on the complementary principle put forth by Niels Bohr (1885-1962) which argues that there are two different, incompatible ways of looking at the same phenomenon—in this case, reality. The innate big bang theory is simply the process of cell division. A single particle of light or photon divides into another photon which then divides into an electron (ie. matter) and a positron (ie. antimatter). Scripture, like physics, can be interpreted on two different levels—literal and allegorical. Consider then Adam and Eve as actual people (ie. literal) rather than particles of light (ie. allegorical). From the allegorical point of view, Adam disobeys God’s commandment not to eat the apple—and is expelled from Eden by splitting into particles of matter and antimatter. In accordance with Ockham’s razor, I would argue that God and Eve are one in the same photon or being of light. The Illusion of Reality Argument. Mystics, Tantrics and Idealists have argued for centuries, if not millennia, that reality is nothing but an illusion. Bishop George Berkeley (ie. Berkeley, California) said it best “All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth—in a word all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world—have not any substance without the mind. So long as they are not perceived by me, or do not exist in my mind or in the mind of any spirit, they have no existence whatsoever.” Einstein asked the metaphysical question—Does the moon really exist when no one is looking at it? According to the illusion of reality argument, the answer is no. Some have argued that the moon exists all the time because God is always looking. But God, being eternal, only sees the eternal—ie. Souls and Forms. The moon is not a Form because it does not exist eternally. If God were to see all things all the time then reality would be objective. However, we know from both relativity theory and quantum theory that reality is subjective. The Ontological Argument. Saint Anselm (1033-1109) formulated the ontological argument as an a priori proof for the existence of God asserting that the conceptualization of God actually brings such a being into existence. In other words, an essential condition of perfection is that such a being must necessarily exist in order to be perfect—for otherwise the being would lack a crucial component of perfection, namely existence. And what could be more perfect than a being of light or photon? I would then argue that at the very moment Anselm conceived of the ontological argument in his mind—God came into eternal existence. William James (1842-1910) said belief in the thing creates the thing. This is the essence of Anselm’s argument. The synchronous events are God as an eternal being of light and the conception of Anselm’s ontological argument. The perceived big bang theory claims that all the stars came into existence out of nowhere. The innate big bang theory claims that a single conscious being of light came into existence as the result of a mathematical argument. Galileo proved that gravity and inertia are mathematically equivalent. Einstein then proved that gravity and inertia are actually equivalent—meaning that mathematical equivalence equals actual equivalence. Creating Perceived Reality. Because of the nature of creation, the universe must bootstrap itself into existence. Starting from nothing, the universe needs a source of energy—which is provided by consciousness. Conscious energy is created in two ways. Firstly, conscious energy is created when two conscious beings produce offspring. Secondly, creative thinking literally creates conscious energy like the interest earned on a mutual fund. The fact that energy is created from nothing violates the conservation of energy law—which states that the total energy contained within a system does not change. If the conservation of energy law was not broken, the universe would not exist. The ego or consciousness shines its beam of energy on innate reality which then produces perceived reality. Consider the allegory of a computer. When a person turns to look at the moon, the moon’s equations and parameters are accessed from the innate reality hard disk and then put through the computer processor which then calculates the image of the perceived moon onto the screen. In effect, consciousness generates reality. Einstein said that God is the sum total of the laws of nature—which means that God is a mathematical processor. If this sounds a little too fantastic, just remember that God has immediate access to all the mathematical and technological discoveries ever devised by man—past, present and future. Eternal Existence. Plato was obsessed with the idea of attaining eternal existence. The 1993 movie Groundhog Day has the excellent Canadian actor Bill Murray repeating the same day over and over until he finally gets it right. It speaks of reincarnation or what Nietzsche called eternal reoccurrence. When we worship the soul we come back after death as a human being. When we do not worship the soul we come back as a lower form of being or we cease to reoccur and our existence comes to an end when we die. Worshiping the soul is the same as worshiping God in that Socrates said that we should make our souls as good as God. Buddha tells us to work out our salvation with diligence. By recognizing that reality is divided into two layers leads us to understanding our being in reference to the universe. By asking the question of why God and the laws of nature are putting on a show for us also compels us to accept our place in the universe. The universe gives us a safe place to develop our minds and souls for which eternal existence is the ultimate payoff. Conclusion. I would argue that a Supreme Being is putting on a show in order to grow our minds and souls. Starting from the big bang, reality is divided into two layers. This represents a paradigm shift in going from a literal interpretation of reality as an illusion to include a true interpretation of innate reality. I would also argue that consciousness is the perceptual apparatus by which we comprehend reality and the essence of reality is fundamentally different than our conscious perception of it.
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