The Thin Line
In geometry we’re taught that the line is an infinite projection. We are taught that what we observe is a line segment, which is a finite sub-set of the greater, infinite line. The line segment is illustrated as a drawn line, with a dot at each end. Often this line is shown to have vertical hashes, or “tick marks” along it to indicate subdivisions of length.
A line segment’s length is arbitrary. It could be a mile, or a thousand miles. The person who needs to use the line segment gets to set the length and the units of measure. We often look at the line, in reference to the line segment, in terms of regression and progression. In other words, the line recedes back into infinity, and proceeds forward into infinity. We do this because we are looking at the line from a finite reference point.
We, as humans, are alive right now. We may be alive tomorrow. We were alive yesterday. Yet, the truth is, we are alive right now. We count our lives from moment to moment for many reasons, but chief among these is the certain knowledge that we only have so many moments to live. Death comes one per person: no exceptions. This is like looking at a line segment. We mark off the increments in seconds, minutes and hours, but our life begins and ends.
This universe is also a line segment. We know that this universe had a beginning. Conversely, it will have an end. We’d like to think that this universe is not a line segment, but a line. Science is trying to invent all kinds of ways that makes our universe a line, because if the universe is only a line segment, there are some very serious repercussions.
Most people look at eternity as though it’s a line. They like to think of God as the person who draws that line. That too has some serious repercussions. Think for a moment. Think of yourself drawing a line. The page stays still. You stay still. You grab a pencil and a ruler and you draw the line. The only thing that moves is the hand with the pencil. The person (you) who draws the line has no bearing on the line, other than the simple fact that you’re the one who’s drawing the line.
You see, God does not exist on the line, nor does he exist as part of the line segment. God is above, apart from, and superior to both the line and the line segment. This is the meaning of eternity. When we say that God is eternal, we don’t mean that you can trace God back through an infinite regression along a line, or forward infinitely along a line. What we mean is that God is superior to the line entirely.
This is the problem that naturalist science has; when the universe is a line segment, there has to be something that draws the line. Christopher Hitchens, the most famous of the “new atheists” uses, as one of the points in his arguments against the existence of God, the idea that science may eventually discover a model that precludes a singular, special creation for this universe. The truth is that science must find that model, or naturalism falls down completely. His assertion is not an assertion of fact, but rather an assertion of faith.
William Lane Craig, perhaps the most famous, and arguably the most well-traveled, Christian apologist states this principle in a very simple, logical form;
Everything that has a beginning has a cause.
The universe began to exist.
Therefore, the universe has a cause.
You see, if the universe is a line segment then that segment is derived from something else. Yet, we can go one step further. A line segment is derived from a line, even that line, itself, is derived from something else. A line is, within itself, finite in that it has fixed dimension and quantified properties. Thus, even if our universe is eternal, it has fixed dimension and quantified properties.
Lines are drawn by something, on something, with something. There is a pencil, a paper, and a ruler. Time is based on entropy, which in turn is based on energy, which in turn is based on gravity, which in turn is based on atoms. Time is based upon rules, written upon the very fabric of existence. Isn’t is all to obvious that there must be a third thing which then writes those rules, upon which the line is drawn? Is it not obvious that there must be a hand which guides the implement which causes those things to be written?
Isn’t it interesting that there are three parts to drawing a line, and three parts to the thing being drawn, and three means of expressing that which has been drawn, and three modes from which we can observe that expression?
Ever so much from just one thin line.
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