God and physics discusses how paradox, general and special relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos theory may be connected to the mystery and majesty of God.
I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space — Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2
What Shakespeare is saying is this: If we were a tiny, little dot inside of a nutshell, the space around us would seem infinite. In other words, our life is relative to what we can see, know and imagine. That’s what I am writing about here. So come and imagine with me.
Critics say that when Winston Churchill wrote histories he included those events that interested him and left out those events that didn’t. Likewise, my nutshell physics discusses those phenomena that interest me and leaves out things that don’t.
Zeno’s Arrow: Zeno of Elea (490 BC) postulated that at any single instant an apparently moving arrow doesn’t travel any distance because the arrow is at rest during every instant. Therefore, the arrow cannot be moving at all.
I like Zeno’s arrow as an example of a paradox–a statement that despite apparently valid reasoning from a true premise leads to an apparently-self contradictory conclusion. Paradoxes are valuable in promoting critical thinking. And…they may give us a better understanding of God.
Almost all philosophy contains paradox. Religion is filled with paradox: For what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is eternal. To gain your life you must lose it. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
There are numerous Bible verses that support predestination and just as many that confirm free will. Furthermore a miracle–a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature–is also a paradox.
Paradox completes poetry, literature, history, biography, art. A story is not a good story and art is not good art without paradox. All great artistic contributions allow us to see things that are not there.
Medicine, too, has paradox. One example: Amphetamine is used to treat attention deficit disorder because amphetamine stimulates the brakes of the brain. Some things that we consider good may be bad for us: Certain diets may cause vitamin deficiencies. And some things we consider bad may be good for us: Remember that bad tasting medicine we took as children that cured our bronchitis.
Democritus the atomist: Democritus (440-400 BC) was 2500 years ahead of his time. He said,”Nothing exists except atoms and empty space: everything else is opinion.”
Democritus used a sandy beach to illustrate his point. From a distance the beach looks like a single substance. Up close we see granules of sand. Sometimes when I have nothing else to ponder I am reminded that the chair I am sitting in is mainly empty space.
Occam’s razor. Because he is famous for writing “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily” a 14th century damsel should have given William of Occam a KISS (Keep It Simple Scholar). Since then scientists have been using Occam’s “razor” to cut away tiresome verbiage while leaving the simplest explanation.
Some people confuse verbosity with intelligence. Those who use Walker’s Law of Discombobulation do not. This law states, “Long winded explanations muddle the brain.” Or as Polonius said, “Brevity is the soul of wit” (Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2, Line 90). This statement is akin to Walker’s Law of Presentations: “Always leave them wanting more” and Walker’s Law of Preaching: “A sermon lasting longer than twenty minutes causes unholy thoughts.”
The Three Laws of Thermodynamics:
First Law–the law of energy conservation states that energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can never be created or destroyed. The energy of motion can be transferred into sound and/or heat; and sound and/or heat can be transferred into motion.
The Second Law–any process will tend to increase the total entropy of the universe. Entropy is disorder; it is chaos. Randomness. Laziness. Iron rusts; paint flakes; skin wrinkles. The total amount of confusion, disarray, clutter, jumble in the universe is always increasing. The law of entropy explains why your son’s room is always messy.
The second law causes me to consider our spiritual well-being. A declining prayer life, scripture apathy, evil, worldly things and corrupting companions can cause spiritual entropy.
A personal relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Christian love whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, all of these things can provide holy power and stop spiritual entropy. Godly love is the miraculous force that defies the natural law of entropy. We can’t prove, but we know there is no entropy in the heavenly realm. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (II Corinthians 4:16).
The Third Law–as temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system slows. At absolute zero (0 degrees Kelvin; -273.1C or -459.67F) all heat is lost and particles come to a complete stop.There is no motion or emotion. Perhaps hell is not fire, but ice:
Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
Special Relativity: Einstein’s special relativity is not called special because it is an extraordinary theory (which it is) but because it is concerned with certain special situations–objects traveling in perfectly straight paths and at constant speeds.
Einstein found that the speed of light is constant and unchanging. If light speed is constant everything else is relative, including even the perceptions of time and space. Nothing is what it seems.
Einstein gave the example of a person dropping a ball inside a lightening-fast train. To the person inside the train the ball seems to drop straight down. To an observer outside the train the ball’s trajectory seems to curve because of the speed of the train.
Because light travels at a constant speed some weird repercussions result. Time gradually slows the closer one gets to the speed of light. When a twin travels through space at 150,000 miles per second time in the space ship has been cut into half. For every second the twin spends in the spaceship two seconds pass on earth. The rocket twin returns to earth much younger that the earth-bound twin.
I don’t understand it, but that doesn’t mean that special relativity is not true. I don’t understand God’s ways either, but because I don’t understand God doesn’t mean that God is unfair.
Here’s something else that boggles the mind: If we were able to travel at the speed of light time would shrink down to absolutely nothing. Einstein’s equation tells us that at the speed of light time stops. Therefore, time travelers put aside your H. G. Wells’ novels. We will never be able to travel at the speed of light.
While we are thinking about light, contemplate this: the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second or 671,000,000 miles per hour. If we could travel at that speed we could get to Mars in a little over 3 seconds. It would take 2.54 million years traveling at the speed of light to get to the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest galaxy outside of the Milky Way. That means when we observe the Andromeda Galaxy we are seeing something that happened 2.54 million light years ago.
Consider this: 186,000 miles/sec x 60 = one minute x 60 = one hour x 24 = one day x 365 = one light year x 2.54 million years = the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy.
The diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years. That is a long bus ride. But when you get there the trip isn’t over. The entire universe is considered to be infinite and forever expanding. Astronomers believe that the universe is 10²³ bigger than what we can observe. The length and breadth of the universe explains how God can see the past, present and future all at once.
Imagine this: What if all the stars in the sky represent atoms that combine with the space around them to make a chair that God is sitting in thinking about the universe that he can see. I am not being sacrilegious here: I am just pointing our that the universe is so vast that even our imagination cannot stretch around it.
The prodigious size of the universe indicates with absolute certainly that there exist other lifeforms in galaxies far and near, but we will never come in contact with those lifeforms because of the inconceivable distances between us and them.
The astounding size of the universe also reflects the unimaginable, the unbelievable, the incredible, the implausible, the inconceivable splendor of God.
General Relativity: From 1905-1915 Einstein expanded his special relativity to all objects. He used non-Euclidean geometry to show that space and time curve. Gravity is caused by acceleration.
Otis gets into a space elevator. He punches a small hole in one side of the elevator that allows a light beam to shine through. Otis then fires all the rockets propelling the space elevator up. The force of the acceleration forces Otis to the floor. Because the elevator moves up at incredibly high speeds the light coming through the small hole seems to bend. Because light has no mass, gravity can’t cause it to bend. Acceleration does.
If we are driving on I-10 from San Antonio to El Paso, we may think we are driving on a straight line. Because the earth is round, however, we are actually driving on a curve. (Pot holes have nothing to do with it.)
Contrast Interstate-10 with the moon’s path. The moon does not rotate around the earth. The moon’s path is straight. It seems like the moon rotates around the earth because of space-time indentations.
A bowling ball sitting on a trampoline would cause an indentation. Likewise the earth sitting on the fabric of space-time causes an indentation in the universe. Space-time curves. The larger the object, the bigger the curve. Space-time curves, the moon doesn’t.
Likewise because objects–planets, stars, moons–cause indentions in space-time our straight-line trip from earth to the Andromeda Galaxy would curve. Because of the curve in space-time we might be able to take a shortcut called a “wormhole” from one point to another point that bends toward us.
Relativity allows global positioning systems to find us by precisely syncing the time and position of all the satellites keeping up with us.
When I was in kindergarten I had difficulty understanding how God could keep up with every individual on earth. Several years ago I punched in the GPS address for the Greensboro Colosseum to meet Brad and Alex for the ACC Basketball Tournament. Halfway there Brad called to suggest we meet at a restaurant so I punched in that address changing the GPS coordinates. At the same time I noticed all the vehicles whizzing by, exiting on ramps, using the cloverleafs. Suddenly it dawned on me that all the other cars had a GPS. Wow! God is like a GPS.
If navigation gadgets know where all the rush-hour cars are going, God certainly does. God is the ultimate, loving GPS. And if Alexa is listening, so is God.
E = mc²: Einstein’s most famous equation shows that a tiny mass can be turned into a lot of energy. Radioactive elements can be turned into atomic energy. But even more interesting is the idea that all matter–you, me, a desk, a tree–everything is composed of pure, intense energy.
Most people who report life after death experiences recall being pulled through a long dark tunnel toward a powerfully bright light that surrounds them with love and joy. Is that tunnel a time-space wormhole? Is the light God’s pure, intense loving energy? Does Jesus somehow turn our soul into impassioned energy?
There are 61 Bible passages that connect spirit with light. God’s word, Jesus, spirit and light seem to be connected. Light and death seem to be linked together. I don’t know how these puzzles connect but relativity and quantum physics seem to be giving us hints. I don’t know. Just a passing thought. As for me and my household, we will embrace the word of God.
Quantum Physics: Max Plank’s mathematical study of heat radiation gave birth to quantum physics. His mathematical formula E = hv proved that light exists as particles. E represents heat radiation; v is the frequency of the electromagnetism being released; and h is a constant. Planck’s constant was found to represent the smallest possible unit of radiation. This constant eventually became known as a photon, or a particle of light. While light behaves as a wave it is at the same time broken up into particles–photons. Plank had “quantized” light.
The scientific community discounted Plank’s formula because it failed to adhere to classical physics. Five years later in 1905 an unknown patent clerk showed what Plank’s constant meant. Although Planck never fully accepted the quantum physics that he helped discover, he nevertheless won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.
If Max Plank cannot completely comprehend quantum physics, I certainly can’t. Nevertheless, quantum physics is extremely encouraging to me. Quantum physics is like God. I can’t understand quantum physics. I can’t understand God either. The universe is a great mystery. So is God. Somehow the mystery and majesty of God comforts me.
Wave-Particle Duality: Quantum physics deals with the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior of light and the interaction of energy and matter.Certain experiments show that light can be a wave. Other experiments show that light can be a particle. Quantum physics shows that all matter can have an associated wave function.
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal: When we try to find the position of an electron we think of it as a particle. When the electron is moving it is a wave. We might be able to measure the position of the electron but when we do we can’t measure the speed of the electron. We can’t measure a particle and a wave at the same time. At any given time we are uncertain what and where it is. The waves in quantum physics are not physical waves, but waves of pure probability. We can only measure the chances of where an electron will be.
Question: Since humans are made-up of atoms, electrons and such does that indicate that we–you and me–are nothing more than probability??? When I tell Vicki that I will probably be home for supper at six-o’clock does that depend on my electrons?
Schrödinger’s cat: Is a thought experiment devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger to demonstrate the paradox–the absurdity–of quantum mechanics:
A cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If a single atom decays, the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. Because radioactive decay is subject to probability, we cannot predict exactly when a single atom will choose to decay. There will be equal probability of opening the box and finding either a dead or a live cat. Quantum mechanics implies that the cat is simultaneously alive and dead.
This thought experiment shows that reason and logic cannot be trusted in quantum mechanics. By association reason and logic cannot be trusted in explaining God. Faith explains God.
Can I propose, then, that without faith there is no God? This question is a variation of the query if there is no one to hear does a falling tree make a sound? Contemplate this: Can we say God does not exist for the person who doesn’t believe? If so, the intellectuals and scientist who deny the existence of God are correct. God does not exist for them. I don’t know. Just a thought to ponder.
Some of my very best friends are theologians. They are incredibly intelligent, bright and well read. What I like about them is not their prodigious intelligence, but their child-like faith and that the Bible is their authority.
God is like quantum physics. We must believe quantum physics and God by faith alone. Well…with quantum physics a little math helps, but you get my point. When it comes to God, I will take the Bible-believing little church in the wildwood over all the theology books ever written.
Chaos Theory: Some of my theologian friends are staunch Calvinist. They believe in predestination. Because they are so serious about election, I call them the frozen chosen.
I believe both in election and free will. Niels Bohr, the father of quantum physics wrote, The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. This statement fits with quantum physics and with the election-free will paradox.
Chaos theory backs me up. Several years ago I was watching Dr. Who with the grandkids. Dr. Who called time travel wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey science. I told myself that was a good description of chaos theory.
Another explanation for chaos theory is deterministic nonperiodic flow: A hurricane heads directly toward Miami but because of atmospheric conditions it may change course devastating Virginia Beach. This deterministic nonperiodic flow theory has generated this cliche: A butterfly flapping its wings in London causes a tornado in Mule Shoe, Texas a month later.
In my view, predestination becomes free will when a freedom-loving angel flaps its wings in heaven. Free will-predestination arguments are fun and funny but not essential. As Paul wrote Timothy, Don’t have anything to do with stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful (2 Timothy 2:23-24).