Our physical Universe is bounded by time and space. It has no infinite dimensions that can be discerned by science. Not the size of our Universe in light years. Not its longevity in millennia. Not even its density just prior to the Big Bang. None of these items, nor anything else in nature have been shown to be infinite by science1. Infinity is purely a mathematical abstraction, or approximation, that comes close to, but never perfectly models anything in the physical Universe.
Absent any such infinity there is nothing in our physical Universe that did not have a beginning. Consider time. Regardless of whether our Universe was spawned from a single Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago or a number of Big Bang/Big Crunch sequences as theorized by some cyclic Universe models I believe our Universe does not have an infinite past. Just as I believe the cycle of reincarnation begins with an initial soul, then even if a cyclic Universe model is correct I believe there must have been an initial Universe at some point. And if time had a beginning then there must have been a creation event for time. I believe such an event was orchestrated by an intelligent creator because of the finely tuned nature of what resulted, not just in terms of time, but in terms of space and matter as well.
I believe this absence of infinity in our physical Universe is a statement from The Greatest Love. It is a statement that infinity can only be used to describe Their love and everything else in our physical Universe is finite. This in turn opens the door to such questions as “What came before time?”, or “What lies beyond space?” or “What exists absent matter?”. Of course The Divine need not be invoked to answer such questions but in Their absence, as well as the absence of infinity, another suitable first cause must be invoked. A natural, mindless first cause that can create something from nothing? And not just any something. Something that is so finely tuned that it would eventually produce loving, sentient, intelligent life?
I do not believe that such a natural, mindless, cause exists. Instead I believe a supernatural, intelligent, uncaused, first cause created our Universe. The material was borne, not from nothing, but from the immaterial Greatest Love Themselves. From within Them, The Divine conceived an initial creation event. Material no bigger than an atom yet with the mass of our entire present-day Universe. How great must the density have been? Vast but not infinite because it filled non-zero space. A near-singularity of material conceived from The Greatest Love, an immaterial being. How is this possible? I do not know. But I believe it to be true. I believe it to be true because of my past experiences but also because the alternative is even less believable for me: that the near-singularity that would expand to birth our magnificent Universe, came from nothing.
Before the birth however, the near-singularity would have been precisely arranged by The Hand of The Greatest Love. The arrangement would allow The Creator to define everything from which galaxies formed, to what solar systems developed, to asteroid impacts at precise times and locations. I believe it was here, by manipulating our Universe via the near-singularity that The Greatest Love could calculate certain celestial events. But such calculations necessarily extended beyond the celestial. The minds of future beings great and small could be manipulated beforehand as well. It was a materialistic, clockwork Universe which allowed The Greatest Love to manipulate its future precisely from it’s initial state.
However the calculations began to become impossible with the introduction of love and free will. Once free will was introduced The Greatest Love could no longer manipulate the near-singularity to effect a precise change in the future of our Universe. Free will prevented The Greatest Love from seeing past the minds of such beings. It prevented Them from knowing with certainty how such beings would act. And therefore They could not with certainty know how our Universe would unfold in the future regardless of what manipulations were made from within the near-singularity. Instead further interventions that did not violate a beings free will, would need to be performed in real-time as required. But these interventions were not guaranteed to deliver a specific result. Beings with free will can choose to disregard any such interventions.
Once the conception and subsequent manipulations were complete, the laws of nature were put in place. Among other items, the expansion of the near-singularity would be governed by these laws which our sciences are continuing to unravel today. It is these laws which even The Divine would never break. As such the imparting of the laws of nature upon the near-singularity was a dividing line. It is when time began for the Universe and it would start with the birth of the Universe via The Big Bang.
Once the Universe was birthed The Creator made a transition. They transitioned away from an atemporal existence outside of time and space, to a temporal existence within the time and space of that Universe. They freely chose an existence within Their created cosmos, constrained by the laws of that Universe in order that they may become closer to the life that would come to populate it. Today this allows The Greatest Love to have a personal relationship with us. The first step of which was Them experiencing time as a linear sequence of events just as we do.
I do not believe in an omnitemporal god: a god that exists in the future at the same time as they exist in the past or present. I do not believe in such a god for a couple of reasons. One is I do not believe the past will be changed by The Greatest Love. To manipulate the past is to disregard the free will of the beings which existed within it at the time. It results in beings that are less than truly free.
What is done, is done.
Given the past cannot be changed there is no reason for The Divine to exist within it at the same time as the present or future. This is not to say that The Greatest Love does not remember the past. They do. Their memory of the past is perfectly complete. It allows Them to understand why we are who we are. A complete memory of all our past lives, actions, thoughts, and emotions. Insofar as the past is a predictor of the future The Greatest Love can make predictions of our future actions. But such predictions are imperfect. Our free will ensures that.
Secondly whereas the past is immutable, the imperfect nature of future predictions makes the future unknowable. In granting us free will The Greatest Love made the future unpredictable even to Them. They cannot know with perfection our choices of the future and so They cannot exist within that future because it has yet to be determined.
But They can peer into the future. When they do so They do not see certainty but instead a spectrum of possibilities. They then intervene in the present as necessary to ensure that a path that closely aligns with The Divine Plan is the clearest path that comes into focus. But so long as we have free will The Greatest Love cannot force us along any path. The success of The Divine Plan was not preordained at the beginning of time. Instead it is a target that The Greatest Love is constantly trying to course correct for and steer us towards.
And the question becomes Why? Why do all this? Why something instead of nothing? I cannot know the answer to this question but I do believe that a god of infinite love, in which whose image we were made, would want to experience the love of other free souls. What would such a being do if They were alone, without any thing? Not just time or space, but more importantly beings capable of feeling and reciprocating Their love? It sounds like something I felt once before. It sounds like Hell.
A Hell which can only be conquered through the creation of loving life. Intelligently created life to share your existence with. If you were such a god existing by Oneself what would you not do to experience such love? I believe that love is the meaning of life, and so I believe there is nothing a being would not do to experience it, including The Greatest Love.
And so They would conceive a material near-singularity from within Their immaterial self. It would be birthed via a Big Bang. A necessarily virgin birth for there is only One god. It would grow to become a universal nursery. Give that nursery time and space in which a circle of life can take root. Nurture that life. Allow that life to grow and eventually evolve to become closer to Them through the emergence and progression of Their defining attribute, their infinite virtue: love. In other words I believe They would eventually create a Universe quite like ours.
Is that why there is something instead of nothing? I believe it is at least part of the answer despite how simple it may seem. Sometimes even the grandest of adventures begin for the simplest of reasons and to not be alone, to experience love freely, is a powerful and noble reason. Like us The Greatest Love wanted the love of others, and so They conceived and birthed a Universe so that They could have it. Bringing forth and nurturing new life is a primordial passion that originates from the dawn of the cosmos.
But there is more to The Divine Plan than just this. I believe that in progressing our love The Greatest Love is leading us on a journey. The next step on that journey was revealed by the second vision: our World coming together to share our love with distant planets. After which The Greatest Love will reveal more.
What comes after the second vision I have contemplated before in previous posts. But these have been merely my musings alone. I believe The Greatest Love will lead us along this journey but the path will not always be straight and sometimes we will step backwards. All the while we must remain humble by whatever wondrous destinations we reach. All the while remembering that despite whatever we may find, it is the progression of our love along the way, that is of greatest import.
In an earlier post I stated “Love is the meaning of life” and then in a later post I pondered “What is the meaning of love?”. I was not prepared to grapple with that question then and would lament “It is not possible to comprehend.” But I now believe that this is the question that forms the basis of Their Divine Plan. Our love was implanted on our hearts to mirror Their love over time, despite never reaching Their infinite extents. It is ensuring that humanity continues to explore love’s beautiful complexity that is The Divine Plan.
The Greatest Love created us from within Themselves to give Their existence meaning, and in return They are taking us on a journey of discovery that is meant to teach us the true meaning of love in the cosmos.
This is what I believe.
1 Although it is an area of ongoing research
A Love Story 