Waxing Theological: I postulate God is a Hive Mind...

I have often tried to perform thought experiments on the nature and aspect of God. I consider myself a Christian for a great many reasons that are well beyond any simplistic "Just because" belief system. I will say that my belief is somewhat predicated on the idea that God must have some sense of plausibility. I accept that a great deal of these questions cannot and will not be known with absolute assurance until I have more information. But none the less I MUST have some semblance of reason that I can wrap my head around before I can believe. I must have something that makes sense within the confines of all I know however incomplete a picture of the actual universe it is.

The following questions haunt my belief:

-Why would an omnipotent God have any use or need for us or our unconditional love? What benefit could he possibly garner out of us?

-If unconditional love was all that he wanted why not create a species that did just that? What purpose is gained by our life here? Ceritanly creating a perfectly obident species is within the bounds of an omnipotent creator. What benefit does our free will have for him?

-Why would he let a devil or any great deciever have any authority to corrupt us at all? If we are made stronger by the presence of such a being, to what end would our being stronger benefit an omnipotent creator?

-If we are created in the image of God, what is it we lack that prevents us from being omnipotent? Why are we not Gods?

-Why is the quelling of weak and meek not acceptable to him? Why the philisophical funnelling toward "brotherly love" and community? Wouldn't the strongest, smartest and fittest be of the most use?

-Why are we encouraged to love one another and not compete with one another for his favor? What benefit does our love for one another have for a God?

-Where did God come from? Where are his brothers? Where is his brotherly love for beings like himself? How is it that such a being could create himself in light of the fact that we were created "in his image" (we most certainly can't/didn't consciously self create)?

God is a Hive Mind

I postulate the following as a "plausiable" answer to these questions: God is a Hive Mind created from beings much like ourselves who communicate with each other instantaneously, the consciouness of all of these indvidual minds form a meta mind that manifests as an omnipotent God. In this way the original beings (our "in his image" conterparts) would have had a way to self assemble or rather create God from themselves. The ability to communicate instantaneously with others without the confines of language, or rather direct neuron to neuron communication would blur the lines of where one being begins and another ends. In a sense all would become one. There would be no need for self interest only interest in God. No need to compete with other beings as all would contribute to the body of the one manifest God mind. Our right hand has no way of expressing jealously toward our left hand, since they both compose one singular body. In a similar way this Hive mind wouldn't/couldn't express those types of characteristics internally.

Sin is a virus to a Hive Mind

We could plausibly correlate what we define as "sin" to those characteristics that are counter to a Healthy Hive Mind. Bearing false witness, murdering, lying, envy, hubris, etc, all of these constitute and comprise selfish and individual interest over that of others. These would be opposite of the necessary internal characteristics of a Hive Mind as they run counter to the concept of unity. When we say "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", this would be precisely the type of mental change that would be necessary for highly individualistic beings to form a singular common consciousness. You in fact would be doing unto yourself (the community formed hive mind) when you did anything to your neighbor.

Our current progression towards Hive Mindedness

Since before the tower of babel we have known how important communication is. Without it we are simply like ever other species though debatable a little smarter. Our ability to communicate allows us to chain our efforts together and for each individual to build upon and augment the greater whole. But much like a cluster of computers communicating with each other at 2400 baud modem speed we are largely held back by our own language and the inability to communicate at neuron speed.

This changes daily however, you only need to look around you to see how rapidly it is all changing. You see growing numbers of people walking around permanently connected to other people via Bluetooth headsets attached to their ear. Extrapolate out to what happens when we no longer need words to communicate. What happens when our neurons are directly connected to everyone else's and communication is instantaneous. Is this type of future fiction so far fetched? I not only consider this plausible but almost inevitable. The advantage you would get by "linking in" to this vast network of other humans would be enormous. How many more questions could you ask or answer in a day if you could do the asking and answering all instantaneously. Knowledge and truth would be instantaneously viral. The idea of self and individualism would cease to exist after awhile.

What does a Hive Mind need? More minds?

A hive mind would be another step up the species ladder but the step up would be exponential in growth. Almost like adding another physical dimension to our consciousness. The only thing I can imagine that would improve on such a mind is more minds added to the community mind. If we accept that Wisdom is at least partially a result of experience. It could be conjectured that the more life experiences added to such mind (in the form of individuals willing to be connected to the community mind) the greater the amount experiences that could be drawn upon for wisdom. We might also speculate that adding more minds increases computational power in the same way that adding a single machine to cluster of computers increases overall computation power.

If you were to apply evolutionary theory to such a being (a hive mind), it would seem logical that those hive minds that showed an innate desire to add to the collective might would be more fit for survival than those hive minds that did not. Assuming sustenance for each extra mind isn't an issue than adding computing power and raw experience to the collective would likely only make it stronger and more fit for survival.

If we were to assume that God is indeed a Hive Mind and that he has an innate desire to expand his mind. Then our very existence could have very profound benefit for God. We are in essence the fuel for such a beings growth.

Heaven and Hell. Are some minds incompatible?

I often found it curious when some religious people say that Hell is simply the absence of God. This concept seems to fit the Hive Mind postulate quite well. If there were certain characteristics that prevent one from "joining" such a mind, what would they be? Selfishness and self-centered behavior seem to be high on the list of things that would prevent one from having the desire to join such a mind. Its impossible to know if desire to join would be necessary, but its hard to imagine it wouldn't be. Part of the reason I found star trek "Borg" so unreasonable (despite the concept being exactly what I am postulating here) is that forced connection to a hive mind "seems" unreasonable (though admittedly I am having trouble putting into words exactly WHY such a prospect seem unreasonable). At the very least voluntarily joining such a mind would/should have benefit over involuntary joining. To continue our thought experiment lets just assume that individuals can't be "forced" to join such a mind.

This concept would explain a great deal as to the nature of heaven, hell and eternal life. If we were to associate Heaven (being with God) to joining the hive mind then Hell (the absence of God) would be rejecting or being rejected by the hive mind, this would seem to fit the biblical idea very well (assuming a non literal interpretation). I also think its plausible to extrapolate that an eternal life focused entirely on self, knowing that you can not be apart of the most powerful being that has ever existed (extreme speculation here) could be potentially very tormenting. I can imagine loneliness on an unprecedented level setting in eventually.

The caveat to this would be that this doesn't seem like an irreversible situation. What would prevent one from joining later if you couldn't accept joining now? If we associate judgement with a 'yes' or 'no' vote on joining the hive mind what exactly drives this decision point to immediacy? Why if I say 'no' now can't I say 'yes' later after I have thought about it?

Perhaps God knows we won't change. I have often heard others say that people never really fundamentally change. Is there some fundamental mental law that says as time approaches infinity the energy needed to change an individuals thought process also approaches infinity? Assuming you live forever are you unchangeable after a certain time threshold? Has God in trillions upon trillions of years of life grown wise enough to determine who will and who won't change just by examining your life and how you lived it? Is this the final judgement?

Is this concept compatible with biblical interpritation?

I personally think it is. The bible is very vague on the exact nature of God and the descriptions of Heaven and Hell seem at least compatible. It somewhat depends on how literal or interpretive you want to be with the word. Admittedly with enough interpretive imagination you could get the bible to say a great deal of things that are likely untrue.

So you really think man can become God, isn't that the whole cause behind original sin?

In the context of this speculation I think hubris is a characteristic that would be incompatiable at an individual level with a God Hive Mind. Thinking you are God or better than God and believing that you will be with "God" someday are two distinctly different ideas. If you assume Genesis is true than you already have some ground to believe that you can be like God ("in God's image"). Believing that you individually are better or equal to God is what I think leads to sin/incompatibility.

Do You really believe this?

If I only had a few words to answer I would say "Not Exactly" but I do believe it is possible explanation. At the very least I think it might provide a great allegory for the actual truth.

Personally in terms of what I need to "believe", I needed a plausible idea however full of speculation it maybe. Something that seemed elegant to me. I can't and won't speak for anyone else. If I can plausibly answer the nagging questions in this way then I can reasonably say that there is an answer. Even if I am wrong (which no doubt I am at least partially) just knowing that there is a plausible speculative solution gives me hope and faith that a real solution exists (IE God Exists). I short, my mind is open to the truth however it may come since I now able to imagine a reasonable alternative. I don't expect those words will make sense to everyone.

I apologize for my ineptness at communicating this idea. At the very least hopefully someone found this an entertaining read :).