God's Debris: An Agnostic Thought Experiment by Scott Adams

Sermon

June 28, 2020

“God’s Debris”

In 2001, a man named Scott Adams wrote a 132-page book. He wasn’t sure anyone would want to pay for it, and he wanted as many people as possible to read it, so made it available free online.

Every year quite a few writers with more hope than talent make things available for free online, so what was so different about this short effort?

Well, Scott Adams is the same Scott Adams who has become internationally famous for drawing a funny comic strip called Dilbert, and this book wasn’t funny.

In fact, this book wasn’t like anything he had ever done before.

In an interview with The Tech Adams said: “God’s Debris is the first non-Dilbert book I’ve done. It’s not a regular book; it’s a thought experiment as I like to call it. Since I’m a trained hypnotist, I tried to write a book to screw with peoples’ heads. What I’ve gathered from test audiences is that it will either freak you out or make you very angry at me, which is a good sign. It’s part science and part religion. None of it is right, it’s just for you to figure out what’s wrong.”

So many people downloaded the free version that Adam’s publishers brought out a hardback copy within months. And then a paperback, and eventually a sequel. After almost 20 years, it remains #65 in Psychology & Religion, #31 in Religious Studies – Psychology, and #106 in Religious Mysteries (Books)on Amazon.

Scott Adams refers to himself as an agnostic, seeing atheism as too certain of itself. He is not religious, by any definition. He is, however, a former member of Mensa with a keen mind and a love of upsetting people.

And Adams loves to read. He likes to play with ideas, and to explore what rational and scientific people would say about almost any subject.

Bernard Haisch, a NASA PhD astrophysicist, wrote the book The God Theory in which he explains the creation of the universe as the transformation of god into the universe. This idea of the deity becoming its creation is called pan-deism.

Scott Adams doesn’t believe in pan-deism, but he believes in asking “what if.”

What if the simplest explanation is the best?

In the intro to the work, Adams dares readers to differentiate its scientifically accepted theories from "creative baloney designed to sound true," and to "Try to figure out what's wrong with the simplest explanation."

He dares you to think.

So what kind of book is God’s Debris?

It starts like any other novel, but it is not a novel. The work contains only two characters, the unnamed delivery boy narrator figure and an old man who reveals his name on page 122 as “Avatar”.

The delivery boy could be any one, he is the stand in for Everyone.

Tale begins when the delivery boy has to deliver a package at a certain address. The mail carrier who taught the delivery boy would always ring, wait 30 seconds, and then check the door- if no one answered he would set the package inside if the door was open. If the door was locked, he would mark the package as undeliverable and walk away.

The delivery boy ignores the rules, and when the door is open at this house he steps inside, only to find out that someone is indeed home.

Instead of complaining at the home invasion, the other man, Avatar, invites the young man in for a conversation and he begins with an odd question: “Did you deliver the package, or did the package deliver you?” The boy says that he delivered the package, but Avatar asks then whether he would have delivered the package if it did not contain an address. The boy denies he would, and Avatar then says that a certain cooperation from the package is required to deliver it. This type of Socratic dialogue is repeated throughout the rest of the book.

Then the man starts to talk about whether we have a free will or not. The package deliverer says we have, but after a few more critical questions from Avatar he admits we cannot be sure. Then Avatar switch to discussing whether god has a free will, and after a short exchange, the I-figure exclaims that the old man is an atheist.

Slowly Avatar explains his theory about god and the universe.

According to his theory, in order to be God, by definition, God must be both omniscient, or all knowing, and omnipotent, or all powerful.

He argues that an omnipotent being would have one question which prevented it from being omniscient- can I end? Can I be destroyed? And he posits that in order to answer this question and fulfil itself as God, the Divine being would have to choose to destroy itself, to cease to exist in order to know the answer to the question.

When god ceased to exist it’s “body” became the dust we and the universe are made from, becoming the title’s God’s Debris.

According to Avatar this debris from god consists of two things: matter and probability. This is not classic dualism where two things are eternally locking in opposition, not good/bad, God/Devil, Heaven/Hell. Probability is a process and matter is a substance. According to Avatar, probability is the remains of the mind of God, while matter is the debris of God’s physical being.

Reviewer Mordanicus says: “According to Avatar an omnipotent and omniscient being cannot be motivated by the same motivations as humans, for example an omnipotent god does not require food and hence is not driven by hunger as we do. In fact, Avatar argues, that such omnipotent and omniscient being can only be motivated by one thing: the desire to experience his non-existence. One might wonder if god has really ceased to exist, how can he experience his own non-existence? Here is interesting twist, and also a distinction between Haisch’s pan-deism and God’s Debris, the non-existence of god is temporary. According to Avatar we are part of the reconstruction of god. Since our universe is made from the same components as god, these components can re-arranged such that god will exist once more. However, we might wonder what god would do after his reconstruction, but on this Avatar remains silent.”

There is a strong resemblance between Avatar’s theory and the teachings of Hinduism. Some schools of Hinduism believe that our soul is actually a piece of god’s soul, Brahman, which had become separated from it. According to this view the purpose of spirituality is the recombination of our soul with Brahman.

Unlike some other religions, however, the god of God’s Debris cannot be reconstructed without human help.

Avatar claims that the invention of the Internet is a sign of the upcoming reconstruction of god. He believes that god cannot be reconstructed without us, that our purpose is to be co-creators, engaging in the reconstruction of the Divine.

Because of this, it is essential that we learn to coexist with one another. Since we are essential to God, as long as we exist God can be reconstructed. If humanity destroys itself, or allows itself to be destroyed, the Divine’s hope of reconstruction could be ended. Avatar is particularly concerned about the numerous conflicts in the world combined with the existence of weapons of mass destruction. All these might lead to a new world war with the great risk of human extinction.

Interestingly this theory could provide a strong motive for space colonization. Space colonization might ensure the continued existence of the human race, even if terrestrial nations destroy one another.

The delivery boy is uncertain about any of these arguments, and reverts to classical religious belief- asking whether people have to do anything in particular in order to “satisfy” god. Avatar answers by saying:

“Every economic activity helps. Whether you are programming computers, or growing food, or raising children, or cleaning garbage from the side of the road, you are contributing to the realization of God’s consciousness. None of those activities is more important than another.”

Live your life. Do what you do. Just by being yourself you are reconnecting bits of the Divine.

No Holy Books. No commandments. No important holy prophets or sacred sites.

The boy asks how do we know or understand good and evil then? Avatar says this:

“Evil is any action that might damage people. Probability generally punishes evildoers. Since most criminals are captured and jailed, overall the people who hurt others tend to pay. So evil does exist and, on average, it is punished.

The boy finds that this is quite close to the Buddhist idea of causality, and notes the resemblance to the idea of karma. As they begin to talk about the possibility of an afterlife Avatar explains:

“Over time, everything that is possible happens. That is a fundamental quality of probability. If you flip a coin often enough, eventually it will come up heads a thousand times in a row. And everything possible will happen over and over as long as God’s debris exists. The clump of debris that comprises your body and mind will break down and disintegrate someday, but a version of you will reappear in the future, by chance.”
“Are you saying I’ll reincarnate?”
“Not exactly. I’m saying a replica of your mind and body will exist in the distant future, by chance. And the things you do now can either make life more pleasant or more difficult for your replica.”
“Why would I care about a replica of me? That’s a different guy.”

Avatar explains that there will be many more replicas of ourselves in the future, but he also states that some future people will have some of our memories, not necessarily all. This idea is  similar to the Buddhist idea of rebirth, which is distinct from reincarnation. Reincarnation is the movement of the soul from one body to another and Buddhism denies the existence of an unchanging or eternal soul created by a God or emanating from a Divine Essence. The Buddhist idea of rebirth means that the sequential lives are related, but not identical.

But if the theory of everything as presented in God’s Debris is correct, what about different religious views. Are they right? Are they wrong? Is one less wrong than the others?

Avatar says that religions do matter, even if they are false. He tells the boy:

“The best any human can do is to pick a delusion that helps him get through the day. This is why people of different religions can generally live in peace. At some level, we all suspect that other people don’t believe their own religion any more than we believe ours. Four billion people say they believe in God, but few genuinely believe. If people believed in God, they would live every minute of their lives in support of that belief. Rich people would give their wealth to the needy. Everyone would be frantic to determine which religion was the true one. No one could be comfortable in the thought that they might have picked the wrong religion and blundered into eternal damnation, or bad reincarnation, or some other unthinkable consequence. People would dedicate their lives to converting others to their religions.

God’s Debris began as a simple conceit- Scott Adams asked himself “What if?”

What if I create an explanation?

What if I begin with simple questions, and look for big answers?

What if I examine religion from an outsider’s perspective?

What if we are all stardust?

Read God’s Debris if you get a chance. Engage in the thought exercise. Deconstruct religion and explore what it might look like if science and religion worked together.

God’s Debris is fiction, some of it is lies. Some of it is true. None of it is what Scott Adams believes.

At least that’s what he says.

What delusions help you to get through your day?

Amen.