And yet He welcomes You to His table.

He nurtures You and cherishes You.

For You are the most significant thing in the universe.

—

Reflections of The Damned

If there is some ideal state for the universe (call it God’s will, utilitarian optimality, or something we can’t begin to comprehend), change will be essential. And as long as there is capacity for change, there is capacity to achieve God’s will.

As a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics, the universe will eventually run out of potential energy from which to enact change. We have only a few quintillion years before entropy prevents significant change. To an infinite God, a billion billion years is a mere blink of an eye to achieve perfection.

But we are the most efficient converters of potential energy to ever exist. Coincidentally, the Earth receives about the same amount of energy per day from the sun (~10^22 joules) as humanity has used in all our existence as a species. With just the energy the Earth receives in a day, we have done immense good, and immense harm. Which is to say: we are capable of enacting immense change.