The obsession with exactly two levels
September 16, 2018 at 2:11 pm
(This post was last modified: September 16, 2018 at 2:13 pm by robvalue.)
Any religion that involves gods seems to operate on basically the same model: there is our level of existence, and then there is that of god(s).
How and where the gods actually exist, and what it even means for them to exist has become more and more muddied as scientific knowledge has progressed. It seems clear to me that it was originally a case of us being "down here", and god being "up there". As it became apparent that space didn't operate in such a basic way, and our exploration and observation found no trace of this godly realm, it has been evicted to some other-worldly dimension.
Anyhow, my point is that there is never any consideration of more levels. As a simple example, what we consider to be "the universe" could be a manifestation of some process in another level of reality (such as a simulation), which was then in turn created by gods. It could go further still, to include any number of nested levels, before reaching the god level.
Why are there no religions which allow for this kind of possibility? My suggested answers would be:
1) People want simple answers to difficult questions, and extra levels just add complications
2) People want to feel special, with as close a connection with these gods as they can
3) God's motivations become even harder to account for with extra levels
Stepping outside of religion, there could be the possibility that there are multiple levels, but that the top one has either always existed, or just "came to be". This is essentially what the god layer is anyway, a stopper for an iterative series of questions to which some people will accept only certain answers. Or we could be the only level.
How and where the gods actually exist, and what it even means for them to exist has become more and more muddied as scientific knowledge has progressed. It seems clear to me that it was originally a case of us being "down here", and god being "up there". As it became apparent that space didn't operate in such a basic way, and our exploration and observation found no trace of this godly realm, it has been evicted to some other-worldly dimension.
Anyhow, my point is that there is never any consideration of more levels. As a simple example, what we consider to be "the universe" could be a manifestation of some process in another level of reality (such as a simulation), which was then in turn created by gods. It could go further still, to include any number of nested levels, before reaching the god level.
Why are there no religions which allow for this kind of possibility? My suggested answers would be:
1) People want simple answers to difficult questions, and extra levels just add complications
2) People want to feel special, with as close a connection with these gods as they can
3) God's motivations become even harder to account for with extra levels
Stepping outside of religion, there could be the possibility that there are multiple levels, but that the top one has either always existed, or just "came to be". This is essentially what the god layer is anyway, a stopper for an iterative series of questions to which some people will accept only certain answers. Or we could be the only level.
![[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg?rlkey=x1nmxbwrp...pouidnfvtl]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/a6a72vica8gsyddmkhtxp/extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg?rlkey=x1nmxbwrpk9dzrupouidnfvtl)
