At some point of time in our lives, we have all come across that one friend who has spoken so obsessively about a particular movie or TV show that we are left with no choice but to watch it. The said movie, around which this article revolves, is Interstellar (the TV show on the other hand is Supernatural but that’s a different story for a different day). So my friend/work colleague who is also a science student would come to my workstation each day explaining a different concept tied to the movie in the hopes that I would watch Interstellar sooner rather than later. Terms like Tesseract, Black Hole, Worm hole, Space-Time Dilation, 4^th Dimension, 5^th Dimension, Murphy’s Law etc become my companions long before I actually watched the movie.When I finally did get around to it, I found it to be out of this world. Literally.

However certain cues in the movie tickled my religious funny bone (because I tend to pick up certain cues, even when they seem to not exist to other people). Meh. As a Christian, we tend to look for God in everything so I was particularly delighted when I found him in Interstellar. My work friend on the other hand wasn’t particularly delighted when I shared my findings with him. I used the movie to explain to my friend how scientists and religion seemed to be looking for the same thing-they just assign different names and explanations to the things they are looking for. At this point my friend promptly put his foot down and said “Don’t mix science & religion”. It’s not just his notion. Majority of the world will agree with him, scientists & religious orders alike. He said that if you put a scientist and priest in the same room, they would never reach the same conclusion because whatever one believed in, contradicted the other.

So then we played a game of “Suppose” taking Interstellar as the base. I said “Suppose you put a scientist and priest in a room and asked them whether they believed the 4^th Dimension more likely to exist or Heaven, the scientist would choose the 4^th Dimension and the priest would choose Heaven. But if you go into details of what the 4^th Dimension means to a scientist and what Heaven means to a priest, you will come to the conclusion that both the scientist and the priest are looking for the same thing”. Let me explain.

Heaven at the end of the 10^th Dimension?

To start with, you need a basic explanation on what Dimensions are. This article in particular explains it well http://www.universetoday.com/48619/a-universe-of-10-dimensions/

Scientists believe up until this point that as many as 10 Dimensions could exist (for Fermions, 26 for Bosons).The 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd Dimensions cover length, depth and volume. When you progress from one Dimension into another, the characteristics of the previous Dimension also exists in the next Dimension. For e.g. when you go from 1^st Dimension into 2^nd you cover both length and depth. The Earth exists in the 3^rd Dimension i.e. it has 3 spatial dimensions and one time dimension. Everything beyond the 3^rd Dimension is mere speculation.

Time goes by so slowly

We see that when Cooper is on Miller’s planet, for every hour he spent on the planet he lost 7 years on Earth. How did this happen? Miller’s planet was located next to Gargantua, a massive black hole.

Black holes have greater mass and thus exert a stronger gravitational pull. For any planet located near a black hole, time would thus move slower as compared to a planet located further away from it. So while time moved slowly for Cooper on Miller’s planet, time moved faster on Earth. Now this was time outside a black hole.

Imagine if you stepped right into one-they say if one were to reach the center of a black hole time would actually stand still. It’s a different story that if a person were to enter a black hole, he would cease to exist because his entire being would be ripped apart. Since this was a movie, Cooper actually entered the Tesseract (which allowed him to exist in the black hole without being ripped apart) which was built at the center of a black hole, which meant that at that moment, time for him literally stood still.

Now coming to God, they say that a billion years seem like a second to him or maybe even less. Since he is eternal, we can assume that time stands still for him too. Which means that while we age, time for a divine creature doesn’t exist, their appearance does not alter (unless they want it to). As a Christian you sometimes may have wondered how time passes for God, or how God never seems to age. Science can help you make peace with these questions. One must not say that it’s wrong to use science to understand divinity. God created science. So why wouldn’t Heaven, for that matter, operate on a level of physics that we may never understand. I’m not saying that Heaven exists in a black hole, but you can use the concept of a black hole to try and understand Heaven. Also Fun Fact. Since people haven’t been able to enter wormholes, they believe that angels use these as portals to travel between Heaven & Earth. I love the way people think.

I’ve got time on my hands

The 4^th Dimension is time. They say that when you are in the 4^th Dimension you have the ability to see a single timeline of different entities. When you progress to the 5^thDimension, you can see many timelines of many entities at once. Many timelines exist because the future of the entity is subject to change depending on the choices these he makes. Since there are different timelines, we assume that there is more than one choice that a person can make, thus giving free will a reign here. In modern times, scientists are still debating as to whether free will exists or is just an illusion. The belief of Causality (theory of cause & effect) states that everything has been set into motion by the universe and that there is only one possible set of outcomes when two entities interact. This branch believes that choice is an illusion. However this article that I read said that while everyday choices may fall under the Causality theory, the existence of free will can be validated when we make difficult choices (http://www.actualized-self.com/Freewill.html). Now whether choice is real or an illusion according to science is debatable, but it does exist.

When you have mastered the 4^th and 5^th Dimension, essentially you can control time (http://www.bustle.com/articles/47537-what-is-the-fifth-dimension-in-interstellar-how-to-understand-the-films-complicated-physics). Cooper comes to the conclusion that the Tesseract is a 5 Dimensional space compressed into a 3 Dimensional space specifically so that he could exist within it to send a message to his daughter using gravity. By doing so, he alters her timeline and saves her generation. He does this because as he says, love besides gravity can flow through all the Dimensions.

Christians believe that since God is the creator of all things, he obviously controls time. This puts him in the 4^th or 5^th Dimension or a Dimension beyond even that. At the end of all possible thought of Dimensions.

Since he can see all our possible timelines, he knows the choices that we could make. He has given us the gift of free will that allows us to make choices- to choose between good and evil. Everyone including the devil is bound by free will until the end of days.

The choices we make will decide how our life on this earth will turn out as well the afterlife. God is also widely known for showing us signs and miracles (through the use of gravity as he uses nature to communicate most of the time) and speaking through people.

While Interstellar only covers use of inanimate objects to send signals, God exists in a Dimension that allows him to speak through people. While he allows us freedom of choice, he sends reminders to help us follow the right path, he does this because like Cooper wanted to save his daughter and humanity, God wants to save us.

He wants to save us because he loves us- and love as we know it flows through all the Dimensions.

In good form

Since human beings live in the 3^rd Dimension, the form that we inhabit is not compatible for us to be living in the 4^th Dimension or a Dimension beyond that. To live there we would have to have a different form altogether. When Copper entered the Tesseract he entered a 3 Dimensional space into which a 5 Dimensional space was compressed to allow him to be able to see from a 5D perspective.

Similarly since we live on Earth which exists in the 3^rd Dimension, to enter Heaven we would essentially have to die and leave our human form behind. When we enter Heaven/ Hell we transcend our human form and exist in another form which is compatible with that Dimension.

Murphy’s Ghost or “They”

Cooper’s daughter Murphy thinks her room is haunted by a ghost who is trying to send her a message. Cooper thinks that “They” are some superior form of artificial intelligence trying to send them some message from the future through gravity.

Later on when Cooper is inside the Tesseract he realises that he is “Murphy’s Ghost” and that he was guided there by mankind from the future who have gone on to exist beyond our Dimension. They wanted to use Cooper to try and save humanity since they have seen what their outcome will be.

While Cooper believes that “They” are superior human beings, consider this. We believe that God has created us in his own image and likeness. So in every aspect he is a superior form of human being himself but one who can exist beyond our dimension-which we have termed the divine. Since God’s Dimension is far superior to ours, he knows the outcome of mankind and he is trying to save us from it.

Now I see you. Now I don’t.

People living in the 3^rd Dimension cannot see people in the 4^th Dimension, but people in the 4^th Dimension can see them. When Cooper is in the Tesseract, he can see Murphy through the bookshelf, but she cannot see him which is why he uses gravity to send her a message. Murphy could sense his presence though and knew her “ghost” meant her no harm and that it was trying to help her even though she does not know that it is her father from the future trying to communicate with her.

Similarly in our human form we cannot see God because we are limited by the Dimension in which we live in. But we can sense his presence. We know that something exists that is higher than us. Even when Jesus came down to Earth he took the form of a human, because his divine state would not be understandable to us. The Bible speaks of a new heaven that will be formed at the end of Judgment Day where we will get to see God’s face. To see the face of God you have to undergo a transformation of sorts that allows you to exist in his Dimension. It is also a widely known fact that God uses nature to communicate or signs- this is nothing more than the use of gravity. He uses what is within our Dimension to communicate with us.