Where are we?

Yohannes began the discussion with a funny question.  

Yohannes: Rabbi, is our world made of fire? A friend of mine told me so. He said that the world we live in is like a large ball surrounded by fire, and what we call stars are really pinholes through which we see the fire, and occasionally the fire enters the world in the form of lightning. Rabbi, what do you think about this?

Rabbi: What our world really is-- that is your question. Do you remember what we discussed last Saturday? Our ancestors compared the world to a large farm. We always understand something new by comparing it to something we already know.  Our ancestors knew what a farm is, and they tried to understand the world by comparing it to a farm.

To understand something in the best possible way, we have to observe it in every way we can. We have to perceive it with all our five senses. We have to see how it is similar to and different from everything else we know. Thus we get the best possible knowledge of it. Although our intention is to know what it really is, we can't know its reality because absolute knowledge of anything is impossible. What is possible is only relative knowledge.

Here what we are trying to understand is the world as a whole. It is so huge that we don't know where it begins and where it ends. We don't know when it began and when it will come to an end. We are in the world as a part of it. So it is obvious that we cannot stay outside the world and observe it.

Also seeking to understand the truth of the world, we need to consider the limitation of our senses. We hear sounds with our sense of hearing. What if we human beings lacked the sense of hearing? We wouldn’t know anything about the existence of sounds. If we did not have the sense of taste we wouldn’t know the difference between sugar and salt. We understand the world with our five senses. Can we be sure that these are the only possible senses? What if we had a sixth sense? We would be living in a very different world. From this we need to conclude that what appears to us as world is only a part of the real world.

People living at different places and times have tried to understand what our world is made of. There have been different suggestions from various viewpoints. What your friend said is one of such suggestions. Certainly there is some truth in it. Fire seems to be present everywhere in invisible form. Just rub two stones to each other, and fire appears from nowhere.

Our forefathers had a different view. They believed that the world came out of water. God separated water above and below, and created the space between the earth and the sky. That is what God did on the second day of creation according to the Hymn of Creation in Genesis. Hence the sky is water according to our ancestors. If you look at the ocean and the sky that touches it, you will see that they are almost the same in color. Moreover, we all know that water comes from the sky when it rains.

There has been another suggestion, according to which the basic material of the world is air. There is air everywhere, but it remains invisible. As water disappears in air when heated, we might think that water is just another form of air. And no living being can remain alive without breathing air.

There are also other views. One of them states that the world is not made of just one of these things, but by a combination of fire, air, earth, and water. According to another view, everything in the world is made of invisible minute particles.  

However, I would say that all these are wild imaginations without satisfactory proofs. Perhaps the future generations will be able to know better. At present we have to be satisfied with the little knowledge we have.

Yohannes: Can you tell us something about the shape of the world?

Rabbi: About that also our knowledge is at elementary level.  Wherever we go, we see a flat earth including ocean, covered with a curved sky. It is just like a flat plate covered by curved one. Our forefather’s view, which we see in the Hymn of Creation, is similar.  God separated water above and below, and created space. Then God made the land emerge from the water below. After that, God made the Sun, moon and stars, and placed them in the space.     

Such a simple view of the shape of the world is sufficient for our day-to-day life. However, anybody can see that it is far from the reality. How do the stars, Sun and moon set in the west, and then next day rise in the east? To account for this phenomenon, it has recently been suggested that the earth on which we live must be a large sphere, and the Sun, moon and stars must be revolving around us.  

Yohannes: Please allow me to summarize what we have discussed so far. We live in the world as its part. So we cannot go outside it and observe it. Our understanding is also limited and conditioned by our senses. We ask questions about the world such as what its shape is and what it is made of. We cannot have any absolute answers to our questions about the world; our answers are going to be relative. We always make use of a metaphor such as a farm to think of the world.

Listening to the discussion, I decided to join.

Esther: Rabbi, how important is our knowledge of the shape and size of the world? Is it something we need to worry about at all? How is it going to affect our life?

Rabbi: Our ancestors lived in a very small world. It was a flat world covered with a dome. The distance to the dome from the surface of the earth was probably less than a mile. Because their world was so small, they imagined God as a being living on the dome, appearing to the people in the world as He chooses.

Our world today is much larger than theirs. Today a lot of people believe that our earth is a sphere at the center of a very big world of spheres. Earth happens to be at the center because it is the heaviest element. Water is lighter than earth, air is lighter than water, and fire is lighter than air. The spirit is the lightest element, and it exists far away from the earth.  

This new view of the world has shaken the traditional view of God as well. A view of God is usually the foundation upon which people build up their lives. If we accept the modern worldview, we will have to reject the traditional view of God. We will have to modify our view of God to suit our view of the world.  If God is made of earth, God must be living among us. But we don’t see God here among us. It seems that God is made of spirit, the lightest element. Heaven must be a spiritual world.

Esther: I think I have the answer to my question. A change of worldview can adversely affect our life if we refuse to modify our view of God as well. We build up our life upon our view of God, and our view of God is closely related to and is based on our view of the world. Hence, our view of the world is very important.

We all enjoyed the discussion. It was interesting and informative.  


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1 comment:

  1. It looks like the view of God and world continuously changes for a person as his mind developes. Initially I thought God as a super being sitting somewhere up in the sky and watching every actions of all living beings. After some years when I gathered informations on space science, I thought He is not sitting in sky but may be hiding in some other far galaxies and observing us. when I further gathered informations from religious books that God's one day is not equivalent to human's one day, I thought
    For example, in hindu mythology it is mentioned that God's one day is equivalent to 4.32 billion human years. Then my logical mind started telling that this is possible only if heaven exist somewhere near to a super massive black hole where time and space is warped very heavily compared to our earth. Thus I assumed that God might be living on a planet which would be existing near to some black hole.

    My current assumption:
    Now I believe that God is present within me. I dont have to search Him in other galaxies or somewhere near to black hole. I just have to look within me. A simple proof that God exist within me can be mentioned here. Take a knife and make a wound on your hand. What will happen after 10 days even if you dont apply any medicine? It will gradually heal itself. So this means that there is a source of intelligence that works within me which is constantly working for the wellbeing of my body irrespective of my caste, religion, complexion and money. I believe this intelligence is present everywhere and in every living being like a cosmic fluid and might be the source of all creations in our universe. I believe this intelligence is judgementless and the source of unconditional love presented by our Jesus through the story of prodigal son.

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