Beyond the Cosmos

Hugh Ross

1. An Invitation to Soar.

p 16 List of "How" questions relevant to multidimensionality of God

p 17 "These discoveries offer new insights into God's mind-boggling capacities in His mind-boggling beyond ten (the newly proven minimum) dimensions of reality."

2. Takeoff from Ground Zero.

In this chapter he tries to give some geometrical perspective on multiple dimensions.

p 25 "Physicists have just uncovered strong evidence that extra dimensions do indeed exist."

p 26 Case that the Bible pointed to extra dimensions long before science.

3. Science Breaks Through to New Realms.

The subject is the space-time theorem of general relativity.

p 28 Points to big bang evidence that implies that the universe had a "beginning, a starting point in the finite past. Even Einstein recognized this implication and dared to say that it affirms the necessity of 'a superior reasoning power'". Quote from 1948 book "The Universe and Dr. Einstein".

p 28 from Ellis, Hawking and Penrose 1966 "any expanding universe governed by general relativity and which also contains at least some matter must possess a singular origin in the fine past."

p 28 "general relativity gaurantees a singular boundary not just for matter and energy but also for space and time."

p 29 Nobel prize for Hulsey and Taylor for binary pulsar PSR 1913+16 . References Taylor in Nature 1992 and Penrose in the book "Shadows of the Mind". Penrose quote about the measurements "makes Einstein's general relativity, in this particular sense, the most accurately tested theory known to science." I don't really understand the details. Ross quotes accuracy to 14 decimal places.

p 29 "Previous to Hulse and Taylor's work, general relativity had passed eleven independent experimental tests." Some discussion of the tests - need to review carefully and include in HyperPhysics. Refers to his "Fingerprint of God" book for details.

p 30 Introduction of "Einstein's rings" and "Lense-Thirring Effect"

p 30 Oscillations from spinning massive body like a black hole like a neutron star or black hole. Ref to Ron Cowen in Science News 1997.

p 30 Claims firm evidence of super-massive black hole A0620-00 xray nova.

p 31 Claims supermassive black holes at cent of galaxies has been established.

p 31 Describes Hyades cluster as the stars that were used in the 1919 tests of general relativity during the solar eclipse. Need to get image of Hyades Cluster to include with HP treatment of the bending of starlight.

p 31 Discussion and image of Einstein ring -references Hubble, so need to get that image and treat this subject in HP

p 32 Lense-Thirring effect

p 33 Argument for multidimensionality of God. Basis is cause of big bang outside of time and space, a cause outside time and space, and since effects emanate from causes in time order, this is like another time dimension. "Time, then, can be defined as a dimension along which cause and effect phenomena occur."

p 33 His thought on God having what is in effect another time dimension seems well thought out. There is a pretty unique paragraph here, the likes of which I haven't seen anywhere else.

"The creation event - the origin of the universe's matter, energy and dimensionality - is an effect that includes our time dimension. Whoever caused the universe, then, must possess at least one more time dimension (or some attribute, capacity, super-dimension, or supra-dimension that encompasses all the properties of time). To put it another way, God is able to interact with us in ways we interpret (through our time-bound experience of cause and effect) as the result of timelike capacities in the person or essence fo God or the existence of other timelike dimensions or properties through which God operates."

p 34 Unification of forces through strong force.

p 35 Introduces the quantum gravity impasse and mentions supersymmetry, brings in John Schwartz and the indications of more than three space dimensions.

p 36 Puts string theory on the table.

p 37 Points to Witten and Seiberg and their string equations. Brings in Andrew Srominger, Brian Greene, Juan Maldacena, Cumrun Vafa, David Morrison on the mathematics of strings. His bottom line is that it points to 10 space dimensions and one time in the physical universe, with the extra space dimensions manifesting themselves only in the beginning instants of the big bang.

p 40 Points to experimental evidence for strings, which I view as just intimations - not really hard evidence. Points to several lines of evidence, one of which involves the black hole GRO J1655S-40 which spins at 100,000 times per second!

p 43 Pins the "split" of the six other spatial dimensions to the Planck time 10^-43 sec. All this discussion suggests that he read Brian Greene's "Elegant Universe".

p 45 Makes point that only with three spatial dimensions is inverse square law gravity possible to create stable orbits for planets. You could make the same argument about inverse square electric forces and stable orbits for electrons.

4. Science's Tethers.

There are limits on knowledge from the fact that we are on the surface of the space-time sphere and can't locate the center. Other limits come from the uncertainty principle, thermodynamic isolation, the incompleteness theorem of Godel.

5. Extra Dimensions in the Bible.

p 55 from Genesis 1 and Hebrews the visible is made from the invisible.

p 55 Over 75 scriptures carrying the message that the universe had a beginning and God created it.

p 57 Jesus' appearances after the resurrection imply extra dimensions.

p 60 Other extra-dimensional miracles

6. Extra-Dimensional Doctrines.

Dealing with paradoxes and contradictions

7. God and Extra Time Dimensions.

p 73 If God created us, who created God? God is not on our time line, does not have to be created. Anything on our time line had a beginning.

p 75 Tuning in to simultaneous prayers.

p 77 timefulness vs timelessness

p 78 Interesting discussion of concept that God is timeless - spanning Plato, Augustine and Acquinas. Modern perspective is that time and causality are linked.

8. Extra-Dimensionality and God's Proximity.

p81 Good list of scripture quotes about God's presence with us.

p84 Invisibility and intangibility

9. Extra-Dimensionality and God's Triunity.

p 93 Trinity is an extra-dimensional doctrine.

p 94 Elohim is a plural form - lots of references to God in both singular and plural.

p 95 List of dozens of trinity-related scriptures.

Several pages summarize doctrinal positions on the trinity.

p 103 Several pages of using the "screen people" model to illustrate extra-dimensionality. Embodies some Flatland type concepts.

10. Extra-Dimensionality, the Incarnation, and the Atonement.

p 118 "Jesus' identity as God ...remained perfectly intact, but He voluntarily relinquished with only occasional exceptions the independent use of His divine powers and His extra-dimensional capacities. He accepted all the functional limitations of a human brain and body, all the needs, weaknesses, desires, sufferings, and trials of human life apart from sin (or sinning)."

Extradimensional possibilities regarding death and resurrection

p 126 Reflections on what Jesus might have suffered in paying for all humanity's sins. Factoring in multidimensionality may have added enormously to the suffering.

11. Dimensional Capacities of Created Beings.

p 136 The Spirit Beings - only humans created with the Imago Dei . Only humans can imagine other dimensions.

p 138 In prayer we exercise our multidimensional capacities.

p 141 Angels and ranks of angels.

12. God's Omnipotence Versus His Displayed Power.

p 145 Cannot vs will not distinction. Some philosophical questions.

13. Extra-Dimensionality and the Battle of Wills.

A more extensive chapter on free will.

p 152 List of verses on human free will and predestination

p 154 Brief discussion of the Calvin vs Arminius positions.

p 155 Symptoms of over-emphasis on free will.

p 156 Symptoms of over-emphasis on predestination.

p 160 Constraints on human choices

p 161 Extended example on the stages of Christian life and the changes in the influences on our choices.

p 168 God's cause and effect capacities, modeled on a multi-dimensional sphere.

p 171 Predestined and free

14. Extra-Dimensionality and Salvation's Security.

Presents the dilemmas of security given free-will.

p 176 History of t he highlights from t he Bible related to security.

p 181 Modeling the salvation threshold.

p 182 The One-Way Crossing, verses concerning whether or not believers can lose their salvation.

p 188 Bible verses concerning blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

p 192 Discussion of paradoxes

15. Extra-Dimensionality and Evil and Suffering.

p 195 Exhortations to humility and care in the face of one of the toughest questions.

p 196 Idea that there is too much evil to be accounted for by naturalistic models.

p 197 List of evidences against a naturalistic interpretation of origin and development of life.

p 199 Garden of Eden - very good but not perfect.

p 200 Analogy of the Exodus. The ongoing story of the human race. A training program model.

16. God's Extra-Dimensional Love in Hell.

p 208 Paradox of hell.

p 208 Extradimensionality of hell

p 210 Eternal rebellion, eternal torment

p 214 Is torment the right word?

17. Extra-Dimensionality and the New Creation.

Reflection on nature of heaven.

Review of implications of scripture

18. An Invitation to Soar Higher Still.

p 229 "Extra dimensions and trans-dimensionality are simply new terms to describe truths that have been known for as long as God has been known by any human."

p 231 Nice table of summary of the implications of multi-dimensionality in the Biblical context. All start with "What other God ... " to focus on the implications of the multi-dimensionality of God.

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