In modern 21st century western culture, we get the idea and the sense that God is an outdated outmoded, imaginary being that less intelligent people use to explain things that they don’t understand. To the secular atheist’s credit, we as Christians have not done much to tear this strawman argument down. Perhaps this is because we seem to have lost our voice in most mainstream media outlets, or perhaps it is because we have not applied the proper theological rigor necessary to push back against these arguments, but I’d like to apply my humble mind to the page and to offer up a short, succinct response to this all too common assertion in secular culture.
If we go back to first principals in Christianity, God’s first act in the Bible is one of creation. This begs the question, what did God create? Upon a brief survey of the text we observe at least 2 fundamental elements of creation.
God creates space and time (somewhat interchangeable in General Relativity)
Revelation 22:13 - I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end
Isaiah 46:10 - Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done,
Ecclesiastes 3:15 - Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account
God creates matter and energy (also interchangeable under Einstein’s equations).
Isaiah 66:2 - All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord
Colossians 1:16 - For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible
Now, under the model of general relativity* we classically treat spacetime as a four-dimensional manifold with three spatial dimensions and one-time dimension. An easy way to understand this is as follows
If we draw a straight line – we have one dimension – this is a space where shapes cannot exist
If we draw an X and Y axis – we have two dimensions – this is a space where a square may exist
If we draw a Z-axis – the space allows us to represent a cube
If we add a third axis of measurement to track changes or movement of shapes and objects over time we these 3-dimensions we get ‘spacetime’
According to the model of general relativity, this is where we live.
We exist in four dimensional spacetime.
Now string theory posits that there may be other dimensions, and here, we as Christians can whole heartedly agree. Oddly enough the core ideas behind string theory were first expressed by the Christian theologian, Edwin A. Abbott in 1884 in his novel, Flatland.
The story (and I quote Wikipedia rather than author my own book report)
…describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures…. The narrator is a square… who guides the readers through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The first half of the story goes through the practicalities of existing in a two-dimensional universe … the Square dreams about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland) inhabited by "lustrous points". These points are unable to see the Square as anything other than a set of points on a line. …Following this vision, he is himself visited by a three-dimensional sphere. Similar to the "points" in Lineland, the Square is unable to see the sphere as anything other than a circle. The Sphere then levitates up and down through the Flatland, allowing Square to see the circle expand and retract. The Square is not fully convinced until he sees Spaceland (a tridimensional world) for himself.
String Theory in essence postulates that metaphorically, we live in flatland. Our fundamental laws of physics are linked mathematically to higher or lower dimensionalities, but there are dimensions outside of the classical four-dimensional model.
To this end, any surface reading of the Bible strongly suggest that God not only created spacetime, but exists outside of it. This would mean that at the very least, God exists in a higher dimension. Moreover, if any intelligent being of a higher dimension were to interact with us, the experience would be utterly transcendent and appear to break our laws of physics. For example, as stated above, our classical model of the universe has 3 spatial dimensions and 1 time dimension, but it is conceivable that there are universes where there are 4 spatial dimensions and 2 time dimensions. Furthermore, an intelligence with access to 3 time dimensions would be effectively immortal and able to view all of our dimensional spacetime in the same way we observe a loaf of bread.
To the many scientific sceptics who regard the existence of God as either foolish or unnecessary, I ask you to consider that any creature unconstrained by a four-dimensional spacetime could perform the miracles of the Bible with relative ease and would appear to us as a god. Further, it is arrogant to assume that human existence as four-dimensional beings (or wherever we are in dimensionality depending on the physicist you talk to) is the sole location where intelligent life can exist.
For many, the idea that there is a God does not stifle scientific or intellectual curiosity – it is at the root of it. For example, Gregor Mendel first started experimenting with inheritance, not to defy or become God, but to learn more about God through the study of His creation.
To be clear, I’m not a physicist, nor a mathematician, nor a theologian, so if somebody wants to point out how wrong I am, feel free to do so in the comments.