The Author and the Tape

From Spring 2021 –

The human being has always existed in the present, yet its entire existence is due to the past, which collectively determines the future. Is it possible that life exists just as a videotape, where the patterns on the screen are all predetermined? In this manner, like points on a wave, there is an illusion of motion – a story – though the moments are all independently existent and fixed. If you think about it, such a life could account for a continued creation ex nihilo by the one outside of the film, assuming that the film hasn’t already been finished. He sees the tape from beginning to end perfectly, while we tell ourselves stories about the past and stories about the future – the illusion of narrative and choice…

However, when you really think about this conceptualization of God, you quickly realize that He is beyond comprehension. This perhaps is a central truth in understanding God, which is that you can’t – unless you’ve been told. Why not?

Try to understand the thoughts and strategy of the smartest chess master in the world, or the smartest physicist, or the smartest philosopher, then multiply the complexity by infinity.

Or better yet, think about infinity for a while. Try to understand it. Impossible.

So why do people make assumptions about God’s character when He is, at some level, fundamentally unknowable?

The only logical answer is that God has revealed something of His nature – through either indirect or direct revelation. As finite beings, we can in theory comprehend a few facts about God – what He is, how He operates, what He likes/dislikes, and what He expects from us. If this is the case, then we probably should try our best to understand these things.