Student Essay on the Common Reading

To Have and to Hold

From an England of the late 1800s emerged a literary work that was seen as bold and daring, but too fantastical for its time. Now that science and technology have supported Edwin Abbott Abbott’s ideas about a multi-dimensional world, his great work of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions has begun to garner widespread respect and study. This allegorical work revolves around a simple two-dimensional Square’s journey from ignorance to knowledge of the infinite dimensionality of existence, a journey which is facilitated by a visit from the third dimension in the form of an illustrious, enigmatic Sphere. But the deeper significance of the work lies below the surface of the story, in its allegorical context of a simple people trying to grasp the concept of an infinitely high, powerful and perfect God. The allegorical writing of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abott provides evidence for a faith in God through mathematical reasoning, rational logic, and the imagination.

Initially, the Sphere provides the Square with mathematical evidence for a multi-dimensional world derived by arithmetic and geometric sequencing patterns. When it becomes evident to the Square that the Sphere cannot see beyond three dimensions to the over-arching concept of multi-dimensionality, the Square eloquently reiterates this lesson on arithmetic patterning:

“Again, was I not taught by my Lord that as in a Line there are two bounding Points, and in a Square there are four bounding Lines, so in a Cube there must be six bounding Squares? Behold once more the confirming Series, 2, 4, 6: is not this an Arithmetical Progression? And consequently does it not of necessity follow that the more divine offspring of the divine Cube in the Land of Four Dimensions, must have 8 bounding Cubes...?” (Abbott 72)

In other words, there exists a pattern for growing dimensionality in which each of the shapes of each new dimension has two more increasingly complex sides than the last, until an infinitely complex shape is formed in the highest possible dimension. This patterning of increased growth in complexity supports the idea of multi-dimensionality and so, too, is able to support the claim for God, as the ultimately complex entity of the highest dimension or realm of existence.

After the basis of a multi-dimensional world is established through mathematics, the Sphere is able to negate a flaw in a belief in infinite dimensionality – that is, that higher realms of existence cannot be seen or measured – through logical reasoning. He does so by examining his own and the Square’s personal experiences of trying to communicate with lower dimensional worlds. “Do you not remember...how, when you entered the realm of Lineland, you were compelled to manifest yourself to the King not as a Square, but as a Line, because that Linear Realm had not Dimensions enough to represent the whole of you...?” (Abbott 58). Furthermore, he states, “...[Y]our country of Two Dimensions is not spacious enough to represent me, a being of Three, but can only exhibit a slice or section or me, which is what you call a Circle” (Abbott 58). The Sphere realizes that higher dimensional objects cannot be easily transposed into a lower dimensional world, that the object’s image can become confused or distorted based on the perceptions of lower realm creatures, even to the point of their not recognizing at all what they see. God is no exception: mankind can perceive Him only with the limited faculties and sight available to the three dimensional world, and so are unable to fully understand and comprehend his nature and character. But according to the Sphere’s rational logic, though higher dimensional beings may not be immediately obvious to the lower realms or dimensions, they can still be conceptualized through logical extrapolation.

Finally, the Sphere employs the human capacity to imagine and aspire in order to support a belief in higher dimensionality. The Sphere takes the Square on a visit to Pointland, a kingdom of merely a speck of dust, a single point who sees himself as the “all-in-all”, and teaches him an unforgettable lesson: that “to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy” (Abbott 75). The Sphere himself had originally doubted that there were more than three dimensions, saying, “Men are divided as to the facts” (Abbott 73), but he is able to realize that the imagination, the capacity to transcend beyond the three-dimensional world, is nobler than to limit oneself needlessly to a finite dimensionality. How could creatures have the capacity to imagine multiple dimensions if three is all there is? How does the complexity of the human imagination arise, if not from a higher realm? After the Square and Sphere finish visiting Pointland, the Sphere confesses to an unnecessary lack of ambition in limiting himself to three dimensions, and, in the words of the Square, “...as we floated gently back to Flatland, I could hear the mild voice of my Companion pointing the moral of my vision, and stimulating me to aspire, and to teach others to aspire” (Abbott 77). To believe in God is to imagine, to aspire to greatness, both of which are inherent needs of humanity. These needs have been placed in humans by a higher dimensional being so that this great entity, God, would be sought out, recognized and revered.

To believe in God is not a matter of blind faith, and the work Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott, is able to provide some rationally sound support for this belief through mathematical reasoning, logic, and the capacity for imagination. It is not, however, fair to say that these are the best or the only arguments to be made in regard to this topic. But, fortunately, there are many other means by which one can explore information using the mind, creativity, and the maths and sciences in order to become educated on the rationale of a faith in God. For the whole man yearns for Him, and He yearns for man as well.