The Search for God Page 2.1.3.2.1.1
Human imagination is fertile ground. We write stories, whether in books or movies, where people see ghosts or travel to the realm of the dead. In Disney’s animated story of Hercules, in order to rescue his love, Meg, from the nefarious clutches of Hades, the heroic Hercules dives into the river of the dead, risking his own life.
The Higher Power.
Transcending The Barriers
For his bravery, the valiant Hercules is awarded immortality, rescues the fair maid, and punches Hades in the face.
We understand there are barriers within this universe. The sound barrier, the speed of light, the realm of death, and the river of time. We imagine breaking these walls. When we do, we transcend or cross those barriers.
For thousands of years, no human broke the sound barrier. But Carl Yeager transcended that barrier. Hercules, mythologically, transcended death. For those who see ghosts, their vision allows them to transcend the intangible world.
So when we speak of God and ask what it means to be transcendent, what we are talking about are those barriers no other creatures can cross. If we have a beginning, if we as humans or some other being began to exist, we are stuck within the river of time.
A transcended, timeless being, God, is able to cross the river of time, just like Hercules crossed the river of the dead. God would be transcendent over time, moving in and out of time at His will.
Beyond Our Domain.
What lies outside our universe? A transcendent being would not only know but be able to reside there. So, in addition, when we speak of transcendence we are also speaking of space and location. In physics, we speak of space-time and traveling wormholes.
A transcendent being could move in these different realms. Imagine a being able to be present at the subatomic level while yet residing outside our universe. If you were transcendent over time and space, your being could be present anywhere and everywhere.
We struggle with this concept because we are time-bound and physically bound. That is, we have a specific location in time and a specific location in space. We always possess a “where” and “when,” a place we are always at and a time when the event happened.
We cannot be in two locations at once. We cannot live at two times at once. A truly transcendent being can. A truly transcendent all-knowing being would be omnipresent, which means he would exist everywhere.
God Is Existence Itself
Is this even rational? Well, again, I cannot comprehend this ability or fathom such a being. On the surface, this seems illogical and irrational. Let’s first consider, only one such being could exist. If two such beings existed, they could not be everywhere inside the other being, they would be one.
Okay, so only one transcendent, omnipresent being could exist. Second, this being actually does not violate any law of logic or law of causality. This being is not an effect, but this God simply is. This God would be existence itself. This God would be:
- Eternally existent
- Non-dependent
- Uncaused
- Omnipresent
- With all-knowledge.
To Be Transcendent Is To Have Purpose Or Will
Transcendence is different than omnipresence, which we will cover in another article. Just note that any material could be present everywhere in the universe and outside. However, transcendence suggests purpose or will.
There is a barrier regarding human death that we want to penetrate, whether in time or space. For this information, we require a transcendent, all-knowing being to provide such information we require. Hercules wanted to pierce the river of death.
- Does God want to transcend time and space?
- Must God transcend time and space?
By God’s very nature, as we have elucidated and defined him, God must pierce time and space to know everything.
If God knows everything and God is omnipresent and God is transcendent, then God knows the human heart and the human desire. So either God stays silent and provides no communication to humans or God communicates to humans.
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- Transcendence is the ability to move through time and space for localized beings. But for God, transcendence is to be in all time and space.
- Why is that significant?
- God can know the human heart and future.
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.