Glimpses of advaita in the book - God's debris.

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

Recently I read an unusual book by the name: God’s Debris, by

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. It is a thought experiment

wrapped in a story. It was captivating in the sense that I could

not lay down the book until I seemed to comprehend the logic of

the arguments proposed by the fictitious character introduced

in the book. This character, an old man, argues very effectively

in a conversational style, and puts forth several surprising

ideas regarding the concept of God. His rethinking of the

concept is very untraditional. He is not saying that there is no

God. He believes in God but assuming all that we may assume

about an omnipotent Almighty, he proceeds step by step to

establish that the entire universe and all of us are possibly

the debris left behind by an Almighty who probably took up the

challenge of experimenting on what would happen if He tested His

own omnipotence by voluntarily losing His omnipotence, - in

other words, ‘destroying Himself’! The idea may be crazy or

funny, but by the way he proceeds in the book it all appears so

plausible; in fact the author challenges the readers to untie

the knot of ‘logic’ in the book. That is why I am posting it

here. Maybe some of you will be interested to read the book more

carefully than I have done.

Just to arouse your curiosity, I extract below, some portions of

the book, both for their novelty and for their tangential

contact with advaitic thoughts:

 

“It is not belief to say God exists and then continue sinning

and hoarding your wealth while innocent people die of

starvation. When belief does not control your most important

decisions, it is not belief in the underlying reality, it is

belief in the usefulness of believing.” (p.28)

 

“The human brain is a delusion generator. The delusions are

fuelled by arrogance – the arrogance that humans are the center

of the world, that we alone are endowed with the magical

properties of souls and morality and freewill and love.” (p.34)

 

“The concept of ‘importance’ is a human one born out of our need

to make choices for survival. An omnipotent being has no need to

rank things. To God, nothing in the universe would be more

interesting, more worthy, more useful, more threatening, or more

important than anything else.” (p.36)

 

“Importance is not an intrinsic quality of the universe” (p.37)

 

“Omnipotence means that nothing is a challenge. … Everything

that motivates living creatures is based on some weakness or

flaw. … I can conceive of only one challenge for an omnipotent

being – the challenge of destroying himself. …. But would his

omnipotence include knowing what happens after he loses his

omnipotence, or would his knowledge of the future end at that

point? …” (pp.42-43).

 

“ ‘Are you saying that God blew himself to bits and we’re what

is left?’ I asked.

‘Not exactly,’ he replied.

‘Then what?’

‘The debris consists of two things. First there are the smallest

elements of matter, many levels below the smallest things known

to science. ……At the lowest level everything is exactly the

same….Those are the bits of God.’

‘What is the second part of the debris?’ I asked.

‘Probability’.

…….

‘Probability is the guiding force of everything in the universe

living or non-living, near or far, big or small, now or

anytime.’…” (pp.45-46)

 

“But what makes evolution happen? Where did all the energy come

from and how did it become so organized?” (p.49)

 

“A billion years from now, if a visitor from another dimension

observed humanity, he might perceivee it to be one large entity

with a consciousness and purpose, and not a collection of

relativeely uninteresting individuals.

‘Are you saying we’re evolving into God?’

‘I’m saying we’re the building blocks of God, in the early

stages of reassembling.’

‘I think I would know if we were part of an omnipotent being.’

‘Would you? Your skin cells are not aware that they are part of

a human being. Skin cells are not equipped for that knowledge.

They are equipped to do what they do and nothing more. Likewise,

if we humans – and all the plants and animals and dirt and rocks

– were components of God, would we have the capacity to know

it?’

‘So you are saying God blew himself to bits – I guess that was

the Big Bang – and now he is piecing himself back together?’

‘He is discovering the answer to his only question.’

‘Does God have consciousness yet? Does he know he is

reassembling himself?’

‘He does. Otherwise you could not have asked the question, and I

could not have answered’. …” (pp.53-54).

The book goes on like this for 132 pages. Published (2001) by

Andrews Macmeel Publishing, Kansas City .

 

With my father’s training that I picked up fifty and odd years

ago, today I am in a mood to see advaita in everything I read.

Hence this posting!

 

praNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

advaitin, "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk> wrote:

> Namaste.

> Recently I read an unusual book by the name: God's Debris, by

> Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert.

 

Namaste,

 

Thank you, Krishnamurtyji, for exposing us readers to non-

traditional approaches to Advaita.

 

The book is also available for free, as an e-book, at URL:

 

http://tbd.yi.org/Gd/

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder