"Flatland" I am an atheist and a theist

Author: Edwin A. Abbott
Translator: Lai Yiwei Publishing House: Trojan Culture

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I am an atheist, but I do not deny the existence of higher-dimensional beings.

" Flatland ", first published in 1884, feels to me like a black hole. Although the volume (thickness of the book) is small, the density (amount of information) is very large. I am immersed in it unknowingly and deeply trapped in the collapse of imagination. .

The protagonist of the story, Square, first introduces you to the customs, social classes, politics, religion, education of his hometown " Flat Country "... and a revolution; he meets " Straight Line Country and Dot Country " in a brief dream, and the spectators are clear. He saw the arrogance and self-centeredness of the person in charge; then he met the so-called God Sphere, who took him upward (rather than north) on an amazing journey of " three-dimensional country " that liberated his mind; after broadening his horizons, Square even By analogy, we question the existence of " higher dimensional countries " in Sphere.

Square:
"Seeing this makes me feel as if I have become a god. The smartest person in our Flatland has said that only God can have the omniscient eye to see everything."

Sphere:
"Is this really the case? In this sense, the thieves and murderers in our three-dimensional country will also be worshiped as gods by the smart people in your country. What each of them can see is not as good as what you are seeing right now. Much less. Believe me, you smart people from Flatland are all wrong.”

You must know that the author Edwin A. Abbott is one of the theologians, but he contains such "disrespectful" remarks in his works! Following this analogy, the three-dimensional world we live in today claims that Buddha, Tao, Allah, and Jesus are all our gods. Is it possible that they are all the same person (or "creature") in the four-dimensional space? words), and he’s just a nobody? Of course, this is viewed from their perspective.

＊

There is a vivid explanation in the book, which uses a schematic diagram to describe how the Sphere in the three-dimensional country can show teleportation. In fact, he just decides how many parts of his body to "submerge"; but for Square in the flat country, what he sees is the other party ( Appearing as a line) getting shorter and shorter, eventually converging into a point, then disappearing, and suddenly appearing in another place.

oh! If this is not a "miracle" what is it?

This "miracle" is just a metaphor, or we can look at it from another angle - upward instead of north - and break away from the original black and white two-dimensional ideology; although in this life the body can only be imprisoned in A three-dimensional country, but thinking can be multi-dimensional and open, accepting the discussion and existence of other possibilities.

Because I do not deny the existence of higher-dimensional creatures, I am a theist.

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