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Old 04-03-2007, 09:10 AM   #22 (permalink)
warrrreagl
pinche vato
 
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Location: backwater, Third World, land of cotton
Carl Sagan introduced this idea to me during the Cosmos series back in the 80's. In it, he demonstrated how "Flatland" works. Imagine a world of only two dimensions called Flatland. The inhabitants are intelligent, but they only have concepts of length and width - they've never heard of "up." They don't have any reference point for it.

Suddenly, a creature from the third dimension visits Flatland. The third dimensional creature approaches flatland from above and he can see directly into their closed homes and rooms because they don't have roofs (He can be everywhere at once). If he tries to speak to them, the Flatlanders hear voices coming from inside their bodies inside closed rooms (He speaks to them with a voice from beyond).

So, the three-dimensional creature tries to enter Flatland, but the Flatlanders can only see him as a series of two-dimensional slices materializing one at a time before them (They can never see him in his true form). Finally, the three-dimensional visitor picks up a Flatlander and allows him to float gently back down to his home. To his friends, he was standing there one second and then vanished. Then, suddenly, he reappeared out of thin air. He has no frame of reference because "up" is a concept that is impossible to him. If he tried to explain to his friends what happened and what he saw, he wouldn't possess the vocabulary needed to fully explain it, and they would likely lock him up as being insane.

Increase all dimensions in this story by one, and you have a likely description for a human encounter with God.
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