Strong-law cosmology

Always go towards God, even when the devil is driving.

…My own formulation.

We all have a devil in us. This was, of course, a classic trope of Gurdjieff’s: each person, he said, has an angel and a devil in them… the devil, you can trust.

My wife asked me what “the devil” in us is. The devil, of course, represents temptation. In his classic guise he works as an agency for God, testing mankind’s faith and resolve. According to Swedenborg, devils or spirits are continually testing man in order to provide opportunities for inner development… “going towards God.” In Swedenborg’s cosmology—a strong lawful cosmology, of which more in a minute—the choices a human being makes are what determine his or her eligibility for heaven or hell. Those choices, furthermore, cannot be in any way compelled by God—for example, by the exhibition of miracles—because to compel would be to invalidate the laws whereby individuals must choose for themselves and by themselves in order to qualify. 

This act of choice relates closely to Gurdjieff’s wish, what one cares for. One has to, as they say, give a damn one way or another. And one has to own that property within one’s self, not as an implant from some outside agency.

If God’s omnipotence was as absolute for doing evil as it is for doing good, it would be possible for God to lift the whole of hell to heaven. He could turn devils and satans into angels. In a moment he could take all the ungodly people on earth, purify them from sin, make them new, holy, and reborn, and justify them…

God cannot do this with his omnipotence. It’s against the laws of his design for the universe. It’s also against the laws of his design for human beings, which dictate that the individual and God have to form a mutual partnership. 

—Emmanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity (edited for brevity)

We had many talks about the idea of miracles, and about the fact that the Absolute cannot manifest its will in our world and that this will manifests itself only in the form of mechanical laws and cannot manifest itself by violating these laws. I don’t recall which of us was first to remember a story in which we at once saw an illustration of this law. The story is about an over-aged student of a seminary who, at a final examination, does not understand the idea of God's omnipotence. 

'Well, give me an example of something that the Lord cannot do," said the examining bishop. 

"It won't take long to do that, your Eminence," answered the seminarist. "Everyone knows that even the Lord himself cannot beat the ace of trumps with the ordinary deuce." 

Nothing could be more clear. 

—In Search of the Miraculous, P.D. Ouspensky

This feature whereby God cannot interfere with the action of choice in his own creation indicates a cosmology of strong laws: that is, laws that cannot ve violated, even by the deity. This subject of God’s ability, and whether it has any limit, is an old one. In Swedenborg’s True Christianity, the chapter on  creation and its limits—God’s Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence— he finds common ground with Gurdjieff’s comment to Ouspensky about the seminary student’s remark that even God cannot beat the ace of spades with a deuce. This equally indicates a universe of strong laws, that is, laws which not even God Himself can break. And Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales lays out an elaborate, highly structured universe wholly governed by laws, not just of physics but also metaphysics.

The difference between a cosmology of strong laws and a universe of weak ones is simple enough. In strong-law cosmology, God cannot interfere directly with His creation. Creation stands apart from Him as an independent entity in which the action of deus ex machina does not exist. This conception is also, I believe, consonant with Sufic law in which there is a permanent veil between God and His creation—an inviolable separation of power.

In a universe of weak laws, magic—actions that violate what would otherwise be obvious laws—is functional. God (or Gods) can have many direct effects on the universe, and even individual humans. This is the preferred cosmology of Western Greco-Roman cultures (Swedenborg even mentions this), and its threads still run deep through western society. The literary tradition of fantasy, notably, proposes cosmologies of weak law, even though the affection of such works is that there are laws, just ”laws of magic.” In short, cosmologies of weak law engage in a lot of wishful thinking—just like human beings. They consistently present unexplained situations where obvious laws of nature are casually violated using superhuman powers.  

Any serious review of Swedenborg and Gurdjieff will reveal that they both present cosmologies of strong laws, in which God does not and cannot interfere directly with His creation; yet in both of their cosmologies, angelic creatures—including satan—act as significant agents. Beelzebub’s Tales is heavily populated with angels, including Beelzebub himself.   

An additional note to readers:

...New installments from The Inherent Wave of Being— A Treatise on Metaphysical Humanism will begin Jan. 2020. 

If you haven't read the original series of posts, it published between September and November 2018.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.