Cosmic Doughnut
This one’s for you, Homer Simpson
And what if a giant doughnut moved into a two-dimensional world and stayed for a spell? Imagine the doughnut sinking into the flat plane of that world as if being dunked into coffee. What would the two-dimensional people see?
They would see two circles on their flat world. These would be much like other circles except when you moved one, the other would move as well. They would be circles with a difference.
Strangely enough, lots of the flat people would go about their daily lives and never give the circles much thought. Their ability to carry on as usual would be amazing to the flat people who can’t think of anything but the circles.
Those obsessed with the circles would fall roughly into two groups.
Some would observe the circles carefully. They would describe the nature of their movement with math. “If you intersect circle A and circle B with an imaginary line C and move circle A along line C, circles A and B will move at the same rate.”
They would discover that you could move circle A around circle B with circle B acting as a pivot point. There would be a mathematical formula for this too. There would be more formulae describing what happens to circle B when you move circle A at various angles to line C.
They would learn to describe the movement of the circles, but they would not be able to explain the mysterious connection between them. You and I know they will never understand that connection because it exists beyond them in the third dimension.
Some of the little flat people would link their arms around those circles and sing songs of praise to the mysterious connection between them. They would lay hands on the circles because the circles intersect something wholly other. They would weep with joy and be moved to write scripture poems.
I hope those little flat observers and those little flat dreamers would not fight over who is smarter or better or more worthy.
Mr. Scientist, I marvel at your mathematic language, which is babble to me. When I read you, I bluff my way to the end and accept your conclusions with joy because I trust you. I faith you. Your commitment to observable truth seems heroic to me - like a captain going down with his ship. Perhaps it takes that kind of commitment to achieve your ends. Perhaps you have no time for scripture poetry.
We are cut from the same cloth. Can’t you see that? Neither of us can think of anything but the circles.
But my eyes are ever on the horizon, just at the point where explanation eludes us and right at the end of the rainbow. I’m more of a “throw my arms around the circles and cry” kind of guy.
That is why I believe in things not seen. That is why I spend my time reading the scripture poems of days gone by. My faith is my offering to the great circles and whatever is beyond them, just out of our reach but never beyond our desire.
With love for all who seek,
The Preacher.
7:47:06 PM 
|
