Perceiving a Spiritual World

So today in my Nature of Mathematics class we had a really cool discussion.

We are in a section of geometry and today were talking about dimensions.

Imagine a flat world in which there were only two dimensions (up and down, left and right); if it helps, imagine a world existing on a blackboard. Imagine how difficult it would be to describe to someone in that world that there is actually a 3rd dimension (depth--out and in). They wouldn't understand how you could go farther "into" the board, or how you could go farther "out" of the board. In fact, it may be so hard for these 2 dimensional people to understand that they completely deny the existence of this "3rd dimension"; we would think they were foolish. Because of course, we live in a 3 dimensional world. We taste, touch, see, and feel it every day.

Now take that and apply it to us. We live in a 3 dimensional world. We perceive height, width, and depth. Now, imagine someone living in a 4 dimensional world trying to explain to us what the 4th dimension was. I know, it's confusing. They would use words to describe the position of this dimension (just as we would use words like "in" or "out" to describe a 3rd dimension) that we couldn't even wrap our minds around. Yet, if we denied this 4th dimension, the people in that world would see us as foolish; just as we would see a flatlander who denies depth as foolish! You see what I am getting at?!

Now let's apply that to the spiritual world. God is bigger than our perceived universe--we know that. He tries to explain to us a spiritual world of heaven, hell, demons, and angels. As people living in this physical world we have a hard time believing in this. We can't see angels or demons. We can't see or be in heaven or hell. We read about these things in the Bible but in our physical world we just can't perceive of them.

This leads some to deny the spiritual world, does it not? People say, "I can't see it, I can't feel it, so it must not be true." Well, isn't that the same thing a flatlander might say about the 3rd dimension: "How can there be more than up, down, left, and right. I can't see this 'out' or 'in'. So it must not be true." Sounds pretty dumb, huh?

All this to say, it's okay if we can't totally conceive of God and the spiritual world. Our understanding of the whole universe is based on our perception of reality. For us to perceive of a "4th dimension" or a "spiritual world" is quite unnatural for us--and understandably so; a flatlander would have to live by "faith, not by sight" in order to believe in a 3rd dimension--because they of course could not experience it. But just because the truth is difficult to understand, doesn't mean it is invalidated.

Imagine how foolish people who deny the spiritual realm look to angles and demons who taste, touch, and feel that world every day. Imagine how foolish the same people look to a God who created both the spiritual and the physical world.

That we somehow consider ourselves to have wisdom in our own right...seems laughable now, doesn't it?

Think about it....