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Chaos and God's Abundance: An Ontology of Variety in the Divine Life
Author(s) -
Huchingson James E.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/0591-2385.00109
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , creatures , ontology , epistemology , chaos (operating system) , field (mathematics) , communication theory , philosophy , sociology , communication , computer science , mathematics , biology , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics , computer security , paleontology , natural (archaeology)
The primordial chaos of Genesis 1 may be understood as the Pandemonium Tremendum (or PT), the infinite field of variety or abundance within God. The concept of variety is taken from Claude Shannon's theory of communication. Especially significant is Shannon's notion that communication is the limitation of variety through decision processes. In one model of the divine life suggested by the theory, the PT is the boundless source of potential reaped by an agential God in the act of creation as a communication process. Other models for creation include the PT in a biased mode and creatures themselves as decision agents.