Oct 07, 2018

The Role Physics Plays in my Spiritual life

 

I have been asked many times why I believe that physics is important to my spiritual life. Besides just curiosity, does the examination of physics enhance my spirituality, or does it hinder it. What I have found it certainly increases my humility: physics spells out the incredible power of the universe; and the fine-tuning of the universe that has evolved over a period of 13.7 billion years to produce conscious beings like ourselves.

One of the problems of someone like myself who spends a lot of my time learning about such subjects as theology and physics, knowledge of these often obtuse subjects too often leads to an arrogance that puffs up the ego to believe “I am superior to other less astute folks: after all, I have all the answers to all the deep questions that can be asked (not)”. But when I study the immensity of the universe, and ponder the fineness of everything that produced this wonderous universe, I can no longer pretend to be the know-it-all.

Perhaps that most important part of learning all that I have learned about physics is to see how little we really know about the universe. That is one of the chief problems of theology: theologians apparently to know everything there is to know about God (just ask them), and their sure statements brim full of “this is how it is, as I know everything about God that there is to know.” Too often the arrogance implied by the seemingly sure statements of ministers, priests, learned and unlearned, is unnerving at best. They know it all; just listen to them. Those that study and are immersed in physics wonder anew all the time about how little they actually know about these forces that have produced the wonder of the universe. Oh yes, they can tell you to the finest degree (except when they can’t) all about what the forces seem to be, their strengths, their implications, but they do not have any idea at all as to why they are as they are.

That is the problem with deep learning: it is too easy to assume that once someone screams “Eureka!!!” that all is known: until someone find something else that up-ends or at least modifies what was previously thought. For instance, most physicists believed up until the 1960’s that the universe has always been here, and always would; even Albert Einstein argued for many years that the universe was stable. The theory of the universe erupting from nothing first came out in the ‘50’s, but was derided and mockingly called the “Big Bang” approach to an actual start to the universe. “Impossible!” they cried. But from that theory came the concept of a cooling universe that started off at almost infinite heat; even photons could not escape destruction due to their rapid movement or heat. A microwave background noise was predicted to be present throughout the universe as an echo of the moment when the temperature was reduced (due to the expansion of the universe) to the point that photons could exist and be free to travel – thus light appeared. Then in the early 1960’s two engineers from Bell Labs built a very sensitive receiver that sensed a background level of noise, no matter what direction it was pointed. They published their findings in a journal about radio engineering, and it was read by a young physicist who had also read a lot on the theory called the Big Bang, and once he brought the two together, suddenly this crazy idea of a real starting time of the universe became excepted by almost all physicists. I remember wondering about this in the mid-60’s when I first heard about it. Further work around the early universe revealed amazing parallels between what is described in Genesis 1, in very broad terms, and what is believed to have happened in the truth of physics.

Something similar occurred when Albert Einstein published his two Relativity theories in 1905 and 1915. They were rapidly accepted and became the dominant belief of all physicist, and changed the thinking on time and gravity.

Now religions are a totally different. They hardly EVER change (except to meet their own agendas – Christianity went from the base up, where God was to be found in the poor and destitute to only the kings knew God. Jesus went from the poor carpenter to King of the Universe, all because Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, and suddenly the top-down approach to God was the only answer – God became that powerful figure “out-there”, not the God of humble love that dwells here, within and without you, that Jesus taught. Christianity, by and large, remains at that kingdom and ruler concept almost everywhere. All the religions (Google states there are upward of 4200 different religions) don’t ever dare change ANYTHING! There was a monumental uproar from many conservative Catholics a few months ago when the Pope declared the death penalty could not be justified under any condition. Many considered it a hugechange in Church teachings, referencing that Thomas Aquinas had declared the final word in the 12^thcentury, and how dare the Pope consider himself to be greater that Aquinas!!

I look at the way my own thinking has changed over the past 60 years, to where I now believe many different things about God over and against what I learned in my 16 years of religious schooling. I am like the physicist, recognizing greater truths when presented, and am willing to change my thinking accordingly. This is why I consider myself to be more a Spiritual person, who in 80 years have learned to listen to the Spirit that dwells within. I believe that God led me towards a deeper study of physics to free my mind of constraints and to learn to live with change in all I believe.

It is through Your wonders of the universe as Your living grace that has filled me with joy, and allowed me to write my book, “The 12 Steps to Joy and Happiness, Finding the ‘Kingdom of God that Lives Within’. Luke 17:21”.

Meditation

Oh Wonderous Being, I am in awe of all that You have shared with me about the wonders of this universe, how perfect it is to accomplish the beauty and growth over an incredible period of 13.7 billion years. This staggering amount of time from the start of the singularity of nothing, bursting out to reach the beauty we call the universe that we are immersed in the middle. Your beauty moves through me to bring me joy and happiness in all things. I offer myself back in return to be Your flow point of Love and Joy for all around me.