In Chinese philosophy, the concept of Yin Yang is used to describe how polar or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. Many natural dualities — e.g. female and male, dark and light, earthly and heavenly, cold and hot, wet and dry, empty and full, formless and structured, positive and negative, passive and active — are thought of as manifestations of Yin and Yang (respectively).
Yin Yang are complementary opposites within a greater whole, much like an atom is made up of electrons (negatively charged particles) and protons (positively charged particles). Everything has both yin and yang aspects, although yin or yang elements may manifest more strongly in different objects or at different times. Yin yang constantly interacts, never existing in absolute stasis.
In my previous blog, titled "Adam the hermaphrodite", I mentioned that the Holy Spirit represents the Feminine aspect of God, or the Yin; while the Son represents the Masculine aspect of God, or the Yang. Thus, the Yin is the author of all that is feminine, dark, earthly, cold, wet, empty, formless, negative and passive in God's creation. Not surprisingly then, when the Spirit of God was first mentioned in the Book of Genesis, the Earth, which was originally the exclusive domain of the Yin, was described as being formless, dark, void (or empty), and wet:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the [watery] deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
God's creation was completed and perfected only when aspects of Yang (like Light for example) were combined with the Yin:
Genesis 1:3 And God said , Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
The concept of Yin and Yang is often symbolized by various forms of the Taijitu symbol, for which it is probably best known in western cultures.
The taijitu consists of a symmetrical pattern inside a circle. One common pattern has an S-shaped line that divides the circle into two equal parts of different colors. The pattern may have one or more big dots. The classic Taoist taijitu, for example, is black and white with a black dot upon the white background, and a white dot upon the black background.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
In the beginning, God divided the infinite and boundless universe into two domains, namely:
- the primordial "earth" (or the physical universe, which was then the exclusive domain of the Yin - God's Feminine aspect)
- the primordial "heaven" (or the spiritual universe, which was then the exclusive domain of the Yang - God's Masculine aspect).
The physical universe is where God's infinite body and life force resides, while the spiritual universe is where God's infinite mind and imagination dwells.
Since the original Yin and Yang did not mix in the beginning, there was originally only one infinite Being, namely, God the Hermaphrodite, or the Almighty Father.
In order to create other beings in the physical universe, i.e., humans, animals, plants, etc., God has to infuse the physical universe with portions of His Yang (God's mind and imagination).
Similarly, in order to create other beings in the spiritual universe, i.e., angels and spirits, God has to infuse the spiritual universe with portions of His Yin (God's body and life force).
Since only a portion of God's infinite Yang was infused in the physical universe (where the infinite Yin resides), physical matter dominates the mind in this universe. Thus, created beings in the physical universe can use their minds to manipulate the laws of physics for physical matter to obey their will, but they can never break these laws.
Similarly, since only a portion of God's infinite Yin was infused in the spiritual universe (where the infinite Yang resides), the mind dominates physical matter in this universe. Thus, created beings in the spiritual universe can use their minds to bend the laws of physics for physical matter to obey their every will, and they can even create reality by simply using their powerful minds and imaginations.
God infused a portion of His Yang in the primordial earth, when He sent "Light", an aspect of Yang, from the spiritual universe to the physical universe:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the [watery] deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said , Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
This "Light", or the "Lesser Yang", which God sent to the physical universe in the first day of creation was the Word, or the Son of God:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made . 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
God infused a portion of His Yin in the primordial heaven, when He sent "Waters", an aspect of Yin, from the physical universe to the spiritual universe:
Genesis 1:6 And God said , Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
These "Waters", or the "Lesser Yin", which was sent on the second day of creation to the spiritual universe (located above the firmament called [second] Heaven), was the Holy Spirit. And this is the reason why Christ associated the Holy Spirit with water:
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the [watery] deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
John 3:5 Jesus answered , Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said , out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified .)
The Third Heaven
The Third Heaven is a spiritual division of the universe within Judeo-Christian cosmology. In some traditions it is considered the abode of God.
References to distinct concepts known as "Heaven" occur in the very earliest books of the Old Testament. The first concept of the word heaven, in Genesis 1:20 refers to the atmosphere over the earth in which birds fly.
The second concept, mentioned in Genesis 1:14, refers to outer space located beyond earth's atmosphere, which is the setting for the celestial lights, later identified in Genesis 1:16 as the sun, moon, and stars.
A third concept of Heaven, also called shamayi h'shamayim (םשמיה שמי: the "Heaven of Heavens") is mentioned in such passages as Genesis 28:12, Deuteronomy 10:14 and 1 Kings 8:27 as a distinctly spiritual realm containing (or being traveled by) angels and God Himself.
An Epistle of the Apostle Paul, included in the New Testament, contains an explicit reference to the Third Heaven. In a letter to the Corinthian church he writes,
2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
The entire Physical Universe as "Earth"
I believe that the primordial Earth was the "singularity" which started the Big Bang.
The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the initial conditions and subsequent development of the Universe that is supported by the most comprehensive and accurate explanations from current scientific evidence and observation. As used by cosmologists, the term Big Bang generally refers to the idea that the Universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite cosmological time in the past (best available measurements in 2009 suggest that the initial conditions occurred around 13.3 to 13.9 billion years ago), and continues to expand to this day.
This primordial hot and dense initial condition from which all matter in the physical universe came from is called the "singularity".
The most common current definition of matter is anything that has mass and occupies volume. But there is a special kind of matter called dark matter, which is inferred to exist from its gravitational effects on other visible matter and background radiation, but is undetectable by emitted or scattered electromagnetic radiation. I believe that dark matter has mass but does not occupy any volume of space (which is the reason why it is undetectable); and that the "singularity" which ignited the Big Bang started out as dark matter.
The Ideal gas law is the equation of state of a hypothetical ideal gas. It is a good approximation to the behavior of many gases under many conditions, although it has several limitations. According to this law, the volume occupied by an amount of gas is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas. Meaning, hotter gases tend to expand and occupy more space, while cooler gases tend to contract and occupy less space.
Absolute zero is the theoretical temperature at which entropy would reach its minimum value. The laws of thermodynamics state that absolute zero cannot be reached because otherwise this would require a thermodynamic system to be fully removed from the rest of the universe. By international agreement, absolute zero is defined as 0K on the Kelvin scale.
The ideal gas law states that:
- V = (nRT)/p
where p is the absolute pressure of the gas; V is the volume; n is the amount of substance; R is the gas constant; and T is the absolute temperature measured in the Kelvin scale. It is quite clear from this equation that when the absolute temperature of an ideal gas reaches absolute zero, then it occupies zero space; and when the absolute temperature even goes below absolute zero, then it occupies negative volume of space, meaning, space itself is contracted and removed (or hidden) from the physical universe!
I believe that the absolute temperature of singularities and dark matter reaches absolute zero, or even much below it, and which is why they hide not only matter, but also space. Thus, the Big Bang is simply the release of matter and space hidden inside these dimensionless entities called singularities and dark matter. Note that cosmologists are saying that the Big Bang is not an explosion of matter into space, but is actually an explosion of matter and space. This creation and rapid expansion of space during the Big Bang is what cosmologists call the inflationary epoch.
The Book of Genesis actually describes the inflationary epoch in its narration of the second day of creation when God created the firmament called Heaven, or more exactly, the second Heaven which corresponds to outer space:
Genesis 1:6 And God said , Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
God later on filled this created firmament (or empty outer space) with stars, planets, and moons:
Genesis 1:14 And God said , Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
I believe that what cosmologists are saying about the Big Bang is quite similar to what the Book of Genesis is saying regarding God's creation of the physical universe. I will be discussing more about it in part 2 of this blog.