Outsider (Paperback) | Released: 14 Mar 2022

The Outsider Model

Presented in a manner accessible to the general audience, the Outsider Model brings together philosophy, cosmology, and theology to produce a way of understanding life as a spiritual human being in the physical universe. There are two basic premises of this model. The first is that human life is not only physical; it requires a metaphysical contribution, such as a spirit or a soul.

As our model considers human life to be part physical and part metaphysical, we see life from a new perspective. The contributions of the physical and metaphysical may be separated. We regard all that is physical as existing within the physical universe, and from outside the universe comes our outsider, the metaphysical portion of our human life. And it is from this outsider's point of view that we develop our model of being human; we describe what it may be like for a metaphysical life form to experience a physical existence.

The second premise is that all that a human being is in a given moment is a result of prior decisions made directly and indirectly by our metaphysical selves. We will learn a way of looking at ourselves to help us understand why we say the things we say and do the things we do. Once we have a handle on our past actions, we may better control how we act in the future.

For the sake of easy reading, the model is developed in a series of three short books. The books are listed in a logical order, but they may be read in any order. Each book is written to stand on its own, with reviews of key points from previous work, so a reader may choose which topics interest them most.

Outsider: A Model of Being Human

There are three sessions, or chapters, in this first volume. We start with a thought experiment to give everyone the needed fundamental knowledge of the thought processes necessary for our model building. Some readers may skim or skip this part, while others will want to read more carefully.

In our second session, we build the basic model. At the end of the second session, each reader will have developed their own individualized model of what it means to be human, as seen from a metaphysical perspective.

In the third session, we put our models to the test by walking through a series of hypothetical situations to discover how we, as individual humans, would react. Our actions are explained through the actions of the metaphysical and physical contributions of our human selves.

Outsider: A Model of the Cosmos

The second volume, Session Four, provides some scientific backing for the models we have built. Recent centuries have seen enormous advancements in scientific understanding, and in the last century, there have been some particularly interesting theories put forth to describe the universe and reality. In this volume, we lightly cover a great amount of science to give each reader a foundation for an enhanced understanding of their models.

Everything comes together in this session to build a view of the universe as seen from the outside. We use science to guide our imaginations as each of us tries to understand what our outsider may see of the universe before they enter and after they leave.

Outsider: A Model of Religion

In the third volume, Session Five, we complete our models with some thoughts on religion. Ideas of a god, or gods, creating the universe and interacting with humans have been part of human culture since its beginnings. Even today, with all the advances in modern science, most humans consider themselves to be religious. We complete our models by adding the ideas of how a Creator God, or gods, may interact with human beings.

As Christianity is the largest religious group in the world today, we use its doctrines as talking points to develop our models; however, the reader may choose to use any religious doctrine in place of Christian teachings.