[Dialogue] Grand Design & Ontology

[jlepps at pc.jaring.my]

Colleagues.

Our discussion is very enlightening and fruitful. 
Thanks for all the participation and insights 
that keep on coming. Right now we seem to be 
ruminating about what does reality consist of, 
and that's an arena on which I've been brooding 
for awhile. Below is the Summary and Introduction 
to a paper that's been in the works for a couple 
of years. Your insights and interest (or lack of 
it) would be most welcome. If anyone is 
interested in the whole thing as it now exists, 
let me know and I'll send it. It's currently 
about 36 pages. The list serve does not allow 
attachments, so be sure to send your email.

Draft 6 July ‘08 – May. ‘12

DIMENSIONS OF ONTOLOGY
John Epps

Executive Summary

Human authenticity consists of being in a right 
relationship with reality. Reality consists of 
eight interrelated dimensions: Space, Time, 
Physical Matter, Technology, Socio-culture, 
Identity, Energy, and Meaning. They seem to occur 
in closely-related pairs: Space and 
Socio-culture; Time and Identity; Technology and 
Energy; Physical Matter and Meaning. Each of 
these eight dimensions is universal in scope. 
Each poses its own issues in terms of attaining a 
right relationship to it. Different dimensions 
are emphasized at different times, and the 
present seems to be a time of emphasis on space and socio-culture dimensions.

Introduction

Whenever we're wrongly related to reality, we are 
in a situation of self-destruction. In religious 
terms, it is a condition of un-faith or sin. 
Restoring faith means authentically re-connecting 
with reality. But conceptions of what constitutes 
reality vary considerably, and change from time 
to time. What I'd like to do is first, to attempt 
a quick summation of what constitutes reality in 
the contemporary mind-set, then second, to 
indicate the issues we have in relating to it, 
and finally, to indicate ways in which authentic 
relations can be re-established or at least 
communicated. The aim of the paper is to provide 
the basis for addressing the crises of faith that 
people experience today and offer the 
possibilities of encountering life as meaningful.

The matter of clarifying what is real, or what 
reality consists of, is an on-going effort. One 
of the latest from the point of view of science 
is super-string theory which posits that the 
ultimate entity of which everything consists is 
not a tiny particle (even a point-particle), but 
rather is vibrating energy strings. It’s a 
fascinating theory well-explained in the book The 
Elegant Universe by Brian Green[1]. In the 
process of describing this theory, its 
justifications, and implications, Green indicates 
that reality has 11 dimensions, not simply the 
three spatial and one temporal that we are familiar with.

I do not intend to further elaborate on this 
theory or even attempt to understand it, but 
rather I’d like to use the notion of multiple 
dimensions as a metaphor to attempt to grasp the 
common understanding of reality's components and 
the way that "spirit problems" consist of unhealthy relations to reality.

I’d like to begin by providing a sort of roadmap 
of reality, i.e., an indication of the multiple 
dimensions of reality that we assume in our 
normal operation. This is sort of a pop-ontology 
that attempts to get at the assumptions out of 
which we live. It's an attempt to state the 
"common sense of science" that is active these 
days. Once people thought reality consisted of 
four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. 
Everything else consisted of some combination of 
the four. That view now seems at best, 
"pre-scientific." Later, people lived in a 
“3-story universe” (and that was common sense, 
not religion, though religion used it to convey 
its particular insights); today we live in a 
multi-dimensional universe that must become the 
mode through which religious insights can be 
communicated, understood, and embodied.[2]

We’re all familiar with the diagram of an atom, 
that represents the relationships of its various 
components. I’d like to use it as a graphic 
portraying the relationships among the various 
dimensions that compose reality. Each of the 
“orbits” in the diagram affects all the others, 
though each has its own integrity. That is an 
important factor to note in our assumptions about 
reality. Now I’d like to describe the dimensions 
that we assume as constituents of reality.


[1] Brian Green, The Elegant Universe: 
Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest 
for the Ultimate Theory (New York: Random House, 2003)

[2] Some time after the 3-story universe 
collapsed, a more "scientific" view was developed 
in which reality was composed of the basic 
elements contained in the Periodic Table. Still 
later atoms and the sub-atomic particles 
surfaced. The point is that notions of what 
constitutes reality change. This paper attempts 
to mark the current milestone in that change process.


I. DIMENSIONS AND ISSUES  (Below is an outline of section one)

A. SPACE
"<http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/757.html>And 
remember, no matter where you go, there you are." – Earl Mac Rauch

B. TIME
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." – Groucho Marx
"<http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/564.html>Time 
is that quality of nature which keeps events from 
happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to 
be working." – <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Anonymous/>Anonymous

C. PHYSICAL MATTER
"Inanimate objects are classified scientifically 
into three major categories: those that don't 
work, those that break down, and those that get lost." –Russell Baker

D. TECHNOLOGY
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed 
to improve the quality of life, please press three." – Alice Kahn

E. SOCIO-CULTURE
"It is better for civilization to be going down 
the drain than to be coming up it." – Henry Allen

F. IDENTITY
"To be idle requires a strong sense of personal 
identity." – Robert Louis Stevenson

G. ENERGY
"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and 
wrote some blues." – Duke Ellington

H. MEANING
"How is it possible to find meaning in a finite 
world, given my waist and shirt size?" ­ Woody Allen


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