This is a theory of mine that I came up with in October 2001 while watching the PBS documentary Evolution. For some reason, while watching that, the gears in my head that had been drily grinding towards my very own personal Hegira (or enlightenment, if you wish) were greased and sped some distance towards the goal. This is possibly the most important (personally) essay I've ever written as it is how I personally account for such paradoxes in our Universe such as good things happening to bad people, human free will versus holy predestination, and such.
Keep in mind that this is more of a theoretical construct than anything else. I have no physical proof for this, nor do I even have any religious proof. The only thing I have to go on is the "sensation," a sort of involuntary reaction I have (call it intuition) when I come upon something of importance. It is a sort of numbness on the back of the neck and the upper spine that appears only in times of deep thought and only then if I think of something... true. It isn't much to go on, admittedly, but it works for me and might or might not for you.
My idea explaining the workings of the Universe is this: God, the supreme being that runs everything, is extra-Universal--that is, It doesn't exist in our Universe like everything else does. God created the Universe in the Big Bang fifteen billion years ago in order to achieve some good purpose--we must assume that anything that a supreme being does is good in the long run. The Big Bang is an indescribable event that can never be fully explained by science, and so that may be considered the point of creation by God. Thus, a divine creation.
In a previous version of this theory, I likened the Universe to a robot. This analogy is far too narrow to encompass the truth--the Universe is not a mere machine created by God, but an organism with a goal set for it. The Universe itself is practically God--perfect in an organic sense--infallible in the concept that it will achieve its goal, no matter what, and organic in the concept that it has to adapt itself not only to meet the parameters of the goal but also to the conditions inside itself. More on this later. For now, think of a determined immortal marathon runner who can get sick but cannot die.
Every free agent (you, I, and every other sentient being) can be likened to a cell of this Universal being much like any cell can be likened to the greater organism. Evolution does not end with the protocells in a billion year-old Earth's organic soups--the Earth is a byproduct of the Sun's birth, and the Sun was formed indirectly by hydrogen created from the extreme energies that existed just after the Big Bang--just after the birth of the Universe. Thus all things, including humans, can be likened to the greater and holier Universe, in exactly the same way that any given cell can be likened to the greater and healthier organism. Cells in a body do not "know" what they are doing, but, in concert, they can achieve the goals of the greater body. Running requires millions of muscle, nerve, and blood cells doing their things--each one acting basically autonomously except for recieving signals and nutrients from the others. Such with humans.
Look at evil as if it was a disease. At any given time, some cells in your body are sick. It may be only six out of fourteen trillion, but they are still sick and therefore you are not operating at full capacity. At any given time, some evil must exist in the Universe. Even if it is infinitesimal compared to the greater whole, it will still adversely affect the Universe's performance towards its set goal. Only at times where large groups of important cells are sick does the body as a whole get noticably sick. The same way for the Universe.
Back to our immortal marathon runner analogy. He's determined, so he will always move towards the finish line. He's immortal, so he cannot fail--he will always be moving towards the finish line and never stop, so he must eventually cross it. He can, however, get sick--and this sickness will make him slower. Sickness depends on the number of cells (free agents) who are healthy (good) or sick (evil). At times where his body is near perfection (a Universe full of good) he's scooting right along towards the end. At times where he is nearly crippled with ulcers, boils, rashes, and cancers racking his body through and through he will still be moving towards the finish line--albeit at a crawl. Thus, the more free agents who choose good speed up the Universe's procession towards its good end, while those who choose evil slow it down. This is the fundamental difference between good and evil and the fundamental reason why people should be good.
A revelation hit me a few months after I came up with this theory, at the same time I formulated the marathon runner analogy. The runner (and the track) are immortal, everything else is not. Logically, he will last longer than any disease within him because he can simply wait through it--the cancers will subside to be replaced with healthy cells, and any diseases he contracts will eventually be overpowered by his immune system. Originally, I thought that exceedingly good people like Jesus Christ, the Bhudda, Mohammed, et al were "divine interventions" by the extra-Universal God. I thought this with a small amount of displeasure as it meant that the Universe wasn't perfect as a whole, and it needed to be to make it work. However, if you imagine good people to be the Universe's immune system, then it falls into place. How does a Arab-Semetic carpenter become the center of a religion that has lasted nearly two millenia? Because in a time when people saw morals declining and were looking to anything for help, they saw Him and said, "That man is good, I should be like him." In that way, the "immune cell" Jesus helped lessen the "sickness" of evil.
The wonder of it all is that this great Universal organism achieves its homeostasis unconsciously--you don't think about your immune system and tell it to attack a given virus in a given organ, right? The simple fact is that your body has evolved in such a way that it can maintain itself without you having to spend precious time thinking about it. The Universe has evolved so that, through its various instumentalities of chaos, evolution, and the like, it can maintain itself within respectable parameters. What these parameters are or what they are intended to accomplish is beyond me. I only can guess that the end of the Universe is a good one (as it was concieved by God and anything God does is good) and it is therefore our moral obligation to speed things along by being good as opposed to evil.
Why did I come up with this? I've always been plagued by the
Paradox of Saint Thomas Aquinas--thusly, that if God is all knowing and has already
determined a Universal solution that works through or around everyone's choice, what is
free will? For example, let's take a conversation I've had many times:
Me: "Let's assume that God is omniscient and
therefore knows everything."
SG: "Of course He is."
Me: "Let us also assume that everyone has the
choice between good and evil."
SG: "Sure."
Me: "Does God know how someone will choose
before that person chooses?"
SG: "Yes."
Me: "Before that person is born?"
SG: "Yes."
Me: "Since before the Creation?"
SG: "Of course! He's God!"
Me: "All right. I want to choose
good."
SG: "So do I."
Me: "But God knows, has known, and will
know forevermore that I will eventually choose evil."
SG: "Alright."
Me: "Can I choose good?"
SG: "No."
Me: "So my only choice is evil?"
SG: "No; you can choose begin good and
evil."
Me: "But if God already knows that I
will choose evil, and what God knows is truth, I cannot help but choose evil."
SG: "The choice is yours!"
Me: "You said yourself I can't choose good
because that would make God wrong. My only option is evil."
SG: "That's not right!"
Me: "You can't have it both ways. If God
says I'm evil, then I cannot choose good. Free will is a crock. QED."
SG: "How is free will a crock?"
Me: "My options are: good and evil.
God says I'm evil, so that kills my option of good. Remaining option:
evil. I can choose between evil and... and..."
SG: "Good!"
Me: "Nothing! I cannot choose
good, remember? The 'free will' to choose one option out of one option is not 'free
will.' Choice is an illusion, and so I, you, and everyone else are simply fooling
ourselves."
SG: "That's not right!"
But with my construction, God can still have a plan for the Universe
but we can keep our free will. How? By the "random," chaotic nature
of the Universe! There are many paths to glory, allowing for all sorts of detours
and variations along the way as long as the destination is reached. The Paradox is
resolved because, in my construction, it is possible for God to ignore what
everybody is 'fated' to do. Think about it--there's stuff you know that you wish you
didn't, and so you push it out of your mind and don't let it affect your actions. If
you deny that, you're very good at repressing that unwelcome knowledge.
Well, that's it.