Dear Friends,
I have just finished reading the book The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss by David Bentley Hart. Though the book is not written from a specifically Christian perspective, it has been quite helpful to me in thinking about the nature of our universe and in articulating how science and faith compliment rather than contradict one another. It has also served to draw me into a place of awe at the beauty and mystery of God. This week, I would like to share with you one more passage from the chapter on "being," which is, in my opinion, by far, the best chapter of the book.
Hart comments that it is foolish for physicists to claim "that physics has now discovered how the universe can have spontaneously arisen from 'nothingness,' without divine assistance." He goes on to explain why, saying,
"Without exception, what they are actually talking about is merely the formation of our universe by way of a transition from one physical state to another, one manner of existence to another, but certainly not the spontaneous arising of existence from nonexistence. . . . As a matter of purely intellectual interest, it would be wonderful some day to know whether the universe was generated out of quantum fluctuation, belongs either to an infinite 'ekpyrotic' succession of universes caused by colliding branes or to a 'conformally cyclic' succession of bounded aeons, is the result of inflationary quantum tunneling out of a much smaller universe, arose locally out of a multiverse in either limited constant or eternal chaotic inflation, or what have you. As a matter strictly of ontology, however, none of these theories is of any consequence, because no purely physical cosmology has any bearing whatsoever upon the question of existence. . . . The 'distance' between being and nonbeing is qualitatively infinite, and so it is immaterial here how small, simple, vacuous, or impalpably indeterminate a physical state or event is: it is still infinitely removed from non-being and infinitely incapable of having created itself out of nothing. That the physical reality we know is the result of other physical realities has more or less been the assumption of most human cultures throughout history; but that, unfortunately, casts no light whatsoever on why it is that physical reality, being intrinsically contingent, should exist at all."
Hart makes a similar argument about physical laws, which I will sum up with a much shorter and easier to understand quote. "'Chaos' could not produce laws unless it were already governed by laws."
Thinking about these things gives me new imagination and new language for my spiritual experience that affirms my respect for the sciences and makes me want to share the good news about God's love for humanity even more. God, who calls himself, "the one who is" (Exodus 3:14) is that which has been from before all things, the mystery of existence, the origin of physical realities and physical laws. As Paul says, "In him, we live and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28). As a follower of Jesus, I have come to believe, based on the experience of his love, that this "being one" is not only sentient but good and desirous of relationship with his offspring
A prayer for today:
God, help me to be aware of your presence everywhere around me. Show me that you do, in fact, want to connect with me. Help me to respond. Amen.
Love in Christ Always,
Michelle
