Imagining the 10th Dimension

Imagining the 10th Dimension as a Tool to Approach Infinity

Imagining the 10th Dimension is actually a series of videos which neatly packages a lot of current scientific understanding of quantum physics into a simple line-art video.  That is, the artwork is simple, but the concepts are still very difficult to grasp.  While the Jewish understanding of the infinite creator is, I think, a bit different, and I’m pretty sure we don’t believe in multiple timelines, at least, conceptually, this helps us broaden our understanding and come closer to understanding what is “infinite”, which, as beings stuck in finite bodies, is hard for us to understand.

Here is the video:

Sometimes I picture “The World to Come”, that is, what happens when our bodies decay and we are left with just the “self” (the neshama / soul) who has a much greater expansive viewpoint, as if we are currently the two dimensional “flatlander” of the video, who then suddenly experiences the third dimension.  We currently experience the third dimension and move linearly through the fourth (time), while meanwhile, there are particles that seem to move backwards in time (this is actually testable, from my understanding) and particles, on the quantum level, that seem to appear and disappear, and of course, there’s what Einstein called, “Spooky action at a distance.”

Seeing the Hand of the Creator in the Universe

All of this, when used properly, helps us understand some more of the depth of creation.  Skeptics will say “this isn’t evidence of G_d”, but to quote Rav Nota Schiller, “One who looks for G_d will find G_d everywhere, whereas one who doesn’t, will find G_d nowhere.”  Jews believe that the man is the intersection between animals that are physical and instinctual based (animals cannot choose to become anorexic or choose to save a village from destruction out of any moral choice) and the melachim (usually translated as angels) who are purely spiritual, without body (who see the truth of creation so clearly that their free will is so limited as to usually, in what I’ve come across, to be referred to as non-existent; they sing praise to the creator all day).  Man, on the other hand, is the intersection between both, having free will, while being connected to the ground and standing upright towards a creator. Man, the sole creature to use fire, uses fire which is connected to a physical source by extends upwards, away from it’s physical source.

How Some Physicists See a Creator in the Universe

He also has an interesting discussion of, what he calls, “God 2.0”.  In short, he explains how on a quantum level, he, quoting plenty of other physicists, sees the hand of an intelligence, a creator, behind everything.  He even quotes Michael Shermer, the editor of Skeptic magazine, as saying:

. . . and his God 2.0 is a deity worthy of worship. But I am skeptical that it will displace God 1.0, [Hashem], whose Bronze Age program has been running for 6,000 years on the software of our brains and culture.

Anyway, here’s the video on G_d 2.0:

“G_d 2.0” is “G_d 1.0”, Lacking One Thing – The Creator Cares About Us

So in short, there are those in the secular world of physics who very clearly believe in a creator.  The difference seems to be in whether or not the creator cares what we do.  While it’s nice to see that the “What?” question that modern science is capable of asking is converging with Torah, still, these scientists lack the ability to test, “Why?”  However, if you’re going to go so far as to say there’s a creator, how can you then jump to the conclusion, without evidence, that the Torah is not true, and that we should all believe in “God 2.0” only?  How do you know “God 1.0” isn’t the same one you’re finding now?  Wouldn’t that be the simpler, more elegant conclusion?

I can attack this on another, logical front: Again, returning to “Why?”  If you believe, as Micahel Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine believes, that there is, in fact, an infinite creator “worthy of worship”, well, why would this creator, create us?  If this creator doesn’t care what we do, what’s the point of sustaining the universe at all, if it’s purposeless?  Wouldn’t it also stand to reason that a creator who created us might give us some guidelines, and communicate with the creations?

While I believe the most logical answer to my questions posed, especially based on the depth of Torah and everything in my learning of it points to a creator who cares about us and did, in fact, give us an instruction book, it’s hard to make someone else see what you see.  They have to experience it for themselves.