Omnipresence
From Freepedia
Omnipresence is defined, in a general sense, as the ability to be present in every place at the same time; unbounded or universal presence. It is a synonym of ubiquity.
This characteristic is most commonly used in a religious context, as most doctrines relate the trait of omnipresence to the superior being that they believe in, usually referred to as a god or goddess. This differs from Pantheism in that an Omnipresent Divine is implied to be more aware and engaged. Whereas the Pantheistic Divine is literally the essence with which creation is made.
Brahmanism, and other religions that derive from it, incorporate the theory of transcendental omnipresence which differs greatly from the traditional meaning of the word. This theory defines an universal and fundamental substance, which is the source of all physical existence, but which, however, is unrelated to the fact that we exist. If a being ceases to exist, the structure of the world remains unchanged, but if the "it" somehow ceases to exist, existence as a whole would end in the traditional sense of the word, but the transcendental existence would remain.
Contents |
Historic origins
A common misconception is that the ancient Israelites believed they had an omnipresent deity. While in the Torah it is stated that, 'Heavenly Father sees all' (a novel concept at the time), it still had him very much in a body, such as when he wrestled with Jacob or had supper with Abraham. As late as the Book of Ezekial (550 BCE), the Lord of Hosts is seen coming from the Heavens in a Chariot of Fire. In fact, one of the largest historical conundrums in the Judeo-Christian dialogue was that the Jews of the 1st Century CE had no concept of an omnipresent God, thus any claim that "God died" would have meant that reality would have been destroyed. Through the concept of the Trinity, the ancient Judaic localized deity could morph into an omnipresent one by the inclusion of the Holy Spirit. It is in the adoption of the omnipresent facet of their God that ancient Christians demonstrate their Vedic roots, as the Vedic religion of the 1st Century was the only predominant omnipresent religion in the entire Old World. It is speculated this connection came from the Essenes, a mystery cult that some claim was intimately connected with John the Baptist, Jesus' mentor.
Many ancient people had no concept of an omnipresent being. Indeed, entire "advanced" cultures such as Babylon, Greece and Rome did not have such a concept, while most paleothic Native Americans, the Indian Vedics, and early Christians did. These all arise from a particular worldview not shared mono-local deity cultures: All omnipresent religions see the whole of Existence as a manifestation of God. There are two predominant viewpoints here: pantheism (God is the summation of Existence) and panentheism (God is an emergent property of Existence). The first is closest to the Native Americans' worldview, the latter resembles the Judeo-Christian / Vedic outlooks. This is most accurately portrayed through Colossians 1:17 and 18:
17 he [Jesus] is before all things, and in him all things consist. (ASV) 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
The reason why pan[en]theistic beliefs tend to universally have omnipresent deities is simply that if your God is Everything, S/he is Everywhere by default.
One Hell of a problem
While the majority of Christian religions ascribe to their god(s) the characteristic of omnipresence, it causes many quite some emotional and logical discomfort when they choose to ponder the absoluteness of this omnipresence. One place they would prefer that their god(s) to have nothing to do with is Hell — referred to by a great many Christian philosophers as the absolute seperation from God.
Can a god be both omnipresent and not present in Hell? This is just the beginning, if god is in all places god must necessarily be part of all things (at the very least, the emptiness that makes up the vast majority of space in atoms and particles, see pantheism and panentheism). In trying to rectify such logical paradoxes, Christian apologistis of the Middle Ages found even more paradoxes to be solved, the most important being Associated Consent: how a god[dess] that was omnipresent could simultaneously be wholly good; as they would of necessity be part of what is evil as well (such as Hell). Thomas Aquinas rectified this for most of the people in Middle Ages when he stated, evil cannot have an essential cause, or rather that no one commits an evil act for a purely evil motive: there is always some good to be aimed for, even if it is selfish. That good, no matter how small or short-sighted, is where the deity resides in any given act.
Noteworthy exceptions
An omnipresent deity by all intents and purposes appears to be evolutionary superior to the localized deities, in so far as that far more peoples and cultures have converted to an omnipresent framework than vice versa. However there a few notable exceptions:
- Islam — While it started as a 7th Century fork of Judaism (which had an omnipresent outlook by that time), it none-the-less lost its omnipresent deity in the mid-800s because of the positioning of its apologists in their philosophical dissertations in opposition of the Christian Trinity.
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — While Christianity almost universally attributed omnipresence to both Jesus Christ (son) and God (Father) at the First Council of Nicaea (325 CE), when the doctrine of the Trinity was first formalized, the LDS philosophy is that the Father and Son have very corporeal — and thus, localized — bodies. Indeed, it is said that their current residence (if not present locations) is on the planet Kolob in the Kolob starsystem, which is speculated to be at the middle of the Galaxy. In keeping with ancient Judeo-Christian philosophies, the Holy Spirit is, however, non-corporeal and thus, while localized, has an omnipresent effect on all life (in accordance with Colossians 1:17). In early versions of Mormonism, it was said that the Holy Spirit also served as the 'Mind of Christ', a theory which has been expanded to explain the psychic connection between both humans, Heavenly Father, and Jesus. In short, it is a mechanism for the same things that a Trinity would accomplish through physical non-locality.
