DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. The essay defines God as “that which deserves to be worshiped, one to whom we will be willing to direct prayers, to be obedient to, to hold in away and be faithful to.” Do you agree with this definition. If not, do you have another?

2. The essay defines our universe as ending where our senses end. How can science prove its theories, such as the Four-Dimensional Universe Theory if we cannot sense things which can be used to support or challenge the theory?

3. Can you form a mental image of a Four-Dimensional universe?

4. Several theories of how our universe began were reviewed in the essay. Do you have any other theory?

5. The Big Bang is described in the essay as a singularity. Such as singularity has been defined as a point where space and time curve in on themselves, making it impossible to distinguish the future from the past. As such, nothing gets through it. As such, what went on prior to the Big Bang probably has no effect on our universe. Do you think it is important for us to determine what, if anything, existed prior to the Big Bang? If so, why? If not, why not?

6. The essay defines Intelligent Design (ID) as the proposition that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, and that some features such as the human eye are so complex that a theory which depends on natural selection falls short and some intelligent designer had to “build in” the process that leads to these complex entities. ID accepts evolution but believes that evolution is not entirely random and some intelligent designer built a framework for the process to guide it. Do you agree with such a view?

7. Do you think there is a purpose to the universe of universes? Can we even discern such a purpose without having any idea about Ein Sof?

8. Why do you think our universe was created?

9. If you could change one thing about our universe, what would it be?

10. If you could change one thing about God, what would it be?

11. The concept of God seems to be the point where science, religion and philosophy intersect. Do you think any one of these disciplines could exist without the other at this intersection point? Or, could science or philosophy exist without a God-type concept?

12. The essay suggests that each of us forms a mental image of God which probably differs from the mental image formed by others because we can only “see” part of the whole. Do you have any other theory as to why people’s views of God are so different from each other?

13. The essay suggests that God could have folded Himself into time and exists in the interstices of time. Do you agree with this possibility?

14. Is it reasonable to believe that God exists? This is not a question of whether or not God exists, but is a question of whether there is some reasonable basis for this belief.

15. Are the concepts of God and chance connected? Would chance (probability) exist if there were no God?

16. Several theories of how our universe began were reviewed in the essay. Do you have any other theories?

17. Since all of the theories discussed in the essay consider that our universe had a beginning, can you envision an end to our universe? If so, what would it be?

18. Does death take a human being out of our universe and place him in another universe? If so, should we even care what happens to this universe?

19. The essay discusses the Higgs Boson and notes that the discovery on July 4 2012 at CERN of a particle that is consistent with the Higgs is not definitive as the mass is 126 GeV. If the mass were 115 GeV, the Standard Model would be confirmed, but if the mass were 140 GeV, the Standard Model would be denied. The mass is nearly in the middle. Which way do you think it will go: Standard Model or Multiverse Model?

20. Some scientists believe that the multiverse model would be chaos. Do you think Ein Sof would allow chaos in the universe of universes? Or do you think He would create order out of chaos in the manner of Yahweh in Genesis? Since we know nothing of Ein Sof, and cannot know anything of Ein Sof, to you think it is possible for Ein Sof to create something out of nothing in starting the universe of universes? How would you envision the multiverse….your guess will be as good as anybody else’s guess.

21. Some scientists believe that if the multiverse model is used, the Higgs will be the last particle discovered. Could it be that in this case, Higgs will be the last particle discovered in our universe? This does not mean that Higgs will be the last particle.

22. Given the nature of the Higgs and it position, could one say that the Higgs particle is at the intersection of science and religion as to the nature of God?

23. Further information about the Higgs Boson can be found in literature such as Searching for the God Particle, The Higgs Boson, a Scientific American publication, copyright 2012,Higgs & Bosons & Fermions…Oh My! By Robert L. Picconi, Real Science Publishing (Westlake Village CA, 2013). A fascinating movie about the discovery of the Higgs Boson is “Particle Fever” released in 2014.

24. How has your image of God changed as the circumstances in your life changed?

25. Assuming God is eternal, what do you think changed God’s mind and persuaded Him to create our universe? Could this imply that there is (or was) an entity that is at least as powerful as God?

26. If God is the creator of our universe, how did He become a Jewish God?

27. If God has no form (per Maimonides), then what did Moses see or hear on Mt. Saini?

28. The essay discusses the extent of our universe as being between the Planck length and the cosmic horizon, and notes that beyond these limits we have no ability to observe and hence our imagination is rendered useless because our imagination builds on what we already have observed; hence, beyond these two limits we must rely on faith. The essay mentions that both science and religion converge because both rely on faith at and beyond these points. Since science relies on observation and empiracle evidence, isn’t science useless in this area? However, religion relies on faith that something exists which makes it applicable to this area. Thus, once we get to and beyond the physical limits of our universe, can’t it be said that science must rely on religion, and thus both science and religion are the same?

29. The essay discusses consciousness. How do you define consciousness? Does this definition help you determine if something (such as a machine, or proto-life) is “conscious”?

30. The essay discusses the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and states that our science is only as good as our intruments. Does this mean that scientific inquiry is limited and some questions can never be answered due to the ultimate limitations of scientific instruments? What happened before the Big Bang and what lies beyond the cosmic horizon are examples given in the essay, can you think of others?

31. In the essay, it is suggested that there might be life in some other universe, and this life might be similar to ours. Is such “life” in God’s image? Would the “life” in other universes be “in God’s image”? Does the “life” have to be carbon based? Do you think there is “life” in our own universe? Again, there might be, it just might be too far away for us to reach it in a practical manner. Do you think we could actually detect it (rather than simply detecting if a planet has the indicia and the conditions that might support life)? “Life” does not have to be similar to human life as we know it. Given this suggestion, what form do you think “life” in other parts of our universe, or in other universes, might take if it is different from our form of “life”? Note that the project known as Breakthrough Listen Initiatives has been listening for evidence of alien life, but has not reliably detected it.

32. If there is life outside of our solar system in our own universe, or in other universes, would you like to meet it? Do you think it would be friendly? In this regard, your attention is directed to a series of books written by Cixn Liu (The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End) where earth is discovered by aliens and it is not an amicable meeting (to say the least). Perhaps the best and safest course of action is to hide and certainly not broadcast your presence, which is the exact opposite of our Voyager Project.

33. Further to the above, the essay discusses the thought that there might be other forms of life in the universe and ponders the form that alien life might take. This raises the question of whether or not that such life would be friendly or antagonistic toward us …assuming they even knew about us. In a dark and dangerous jungle, one never knows if another life form is friendly or dangerous and hostile. It might be the the most prudent step to simply eliminate any life form before it has a chance to eliminate you and don’t wait to find out if it is friendly or hostile. Given such a possibility, how would you go about letting a superior alien life form know you are friendly and not hostile before they had a chance to eliminate you? Two problems arise: (1) how would you communicate so they would even understand you? And (2) how would you communicate in a manner that they would believe you and your claim of being friendly? These questions are central to the Cixn books.

34. Is the universe finite or infinite? What shape is the universe: flat, curved inwardly, curved outwardly? Or some other shape? Does it matter whether space is infinite or finite? If space is considered to be finite, that means that time is also finite. Hence, the theory of this essay that given sufficient time, it will be inevitable that a particle will appear that will give birth to our universe as the Big Bang. Hence, what would the cause of the Big Bang look like in a finite universe? Could such an approach use the multiverse concept to explain how that initial particle appeared out of nothing?

35. In the essay, it is theorized that in an infinite universe, it is possible that there are exact duplicates of ourselves in some universe. If that is the case and there are duplicates of yourself somewhere, who is the real you? Are you the real you, or is someone else  in a universe located far beyond our cosmic boundary the real you?

36. The essay discusses an element that the essay calls a “quark” of time. Can you envision this “quark” having some duration, yet not being further divisible? Can there be movement during this “quark”? It would seem that time does not exist during the “quark” but without time there can be no space. Without space, can there be movement? If there is no movement during time “quarks” how can there be macromovement that we experience? Even considering macro time a series of time quarks strung together does not solve this problem because there would be no movement during the time quarks so stringing together a series of time quarks will not produce overall movement. Could one possible answer be that in the time quark, neither time nor distance as we know it exists, and hence since objects, even the subatomic paricles such as the quark, require space to exist, these objects do not exist in time quarks and thus can move past them?

37. The essay suggests that due to the infinite nature of time, even an infinitesimal possibility of life occurring, it is inevitable. However, if the ingredients for life are present somewhere in some universe, and there are astronomically large numbers of stars and planets where it is possible for life to have arisen, it should be expected that there is at least one instance in which intelligent aliens rose to prominence well before the advent of human life on earth; such beings should have had plenty of time either to have colonized our galaxy or designed a broadcasting system that would be unmistakable as a sign of intelligent life. Yet we haven’t discovered a shred of credible evidence favoring the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials. Where are they (this is a form of the Fermi Paradox that poses the question: “if alien life exists, where is everybody?” However, according to Cixin Liu in his novel Dark Forest, the aliens would avoid contact for fear of destruction.)?

38. Could an eternally-expanding universe create multiverses?

39. Do you think the basic laws of physics (quantum mechanics, general relativity, maybe even string theory, etc) as we know them apply in other universes of a multiverse?

40. The essay discusses time and states “time is meaningful only in the context of a finite entity”. However, according to quantum physics, and Einstein, there is a space-time continuum and time is a fourth dimension which must be accounted for. With the concept of a space-time continuum, many phenomena, such as gravity, are explained. How does this work if time is meaningful only to a finite entity? Especially if it is assumed that space is infinite.