My Theory of Everything

Before you begin:  This has been percolating in me for awhile.  It has now boiled over.  All thoughts and opinions are my own mind at work as an armchair theologian and scientist.  I hope you take something away.

The Past: The Earth Was

There are two ways in which the Earth has a "was". Way one is that time is cyclical and progresses in an endless loop. This is one argument that physics is attached to. That there was no beginning and there will only be an "end" when the universe reaches maximum entropy and collapses upon itself starting the process again.  This might be the first or the 50th cycle.

The other way is that the universe has a beginning and an end. This way has two interpretations. Way one is the interpretation of science that says one can never know if there is a deity and, because a deity is an unnecessary complexity, its existence can be ruled out. Way two is the idea that there exists a being outside of time that created the entire concept of time, added rules and said "go."

God may be an unnecessary complexity but I believe that God's existence more fully explains the theory of a beginning and an end. It answers questions that science cannot because it steps less than a second in time beyond our understanding.  Science can, through curiosity and questioning and deeper thoughts than I will ever consider, tell me what happened fractions of a second after the Big Bang.  It cannot; however, tell me what happened one second before that.  Science has limits.  Our insight and intellect has limits.  Scientists push those limits all the time and I believe it to be a noble effort.  There are physical limits to our humanity and that does not mean we stop pushing.  I cheer on science as its movement forward moves forward my understanding of the universe and the creator.

God Created

God created is a theological statement. The Bible is clear that it was through God's action that the Earth, the universe and people were created. It doesn't go into detail about the cosmos, the methods or the ways. It is left as a divine mystery in the same way the miracles are presented.

My understanding and love for science augments and enhances my trust and belief in God. Science is not a threat to God or his existence. It is only a threat to literal interpretations of scripture and what a threat that is.  I want to posit that a literal interpretation of scripture limits God and then define a God who is not only unlimited but wider than I could ever have imagined.

An Unlimited God

I love Rube Goldberg machines.  If you haven't, go watch some YouTube videos of these machines.  They're amazingly complex and at the end produce a very simple result.  It starts with a single action, a marble rolling down a hill.  Pretty soon, there are contraptions flying here and there and in the end, a match is lit. So much process for such a small result.

Which creator more fully demonstrates creativity: The one who uses the side of a matchbox to light a match or the one who sets up a system the size of a warehouse and ends up striking a match?  When I look at God through a deep love of science, I see a machine so beautiful in its complexity and simplicity that I cannot help but wonder if, when time was set in motion, a marble rolled down a hill and now I'm looking at some lit matches and ignoring the process because the result is clear.  Science starts with the marble moving and can explain every step in the machine.  My faith answers the question of why the marble started moving in the first place: God created. Faith also answers the question of why it came together: God created.  The mechanism is fascinating and it's not bigger than the maker.

Literal interpretations of scripture start with a burning match and ignore the process.  A theology of an unlimited God coupled with an understanding of science enables me to see the motion of the act of the marble, the machine in motion, the match being lit and fit the pieces together.  It's flawed, clearly, but it fits.

Multiverse

One of my beliefs, backed up by some science is a belief in the multiverse.  That there exists uncountable universes that are parallel to this one.  It's out there but there are serious scientists who believe it to be true.  I'm in their camp for now.

I am going to take a theological leap and connect that belief to the sin-act of Adam and Even in the Garden.  I believe that sin was humans taking on the ability to create deviations in space and time and see the past and future of those deviations: knowledge of good and evil.  That sin is not just a separation from God but a separation from the timeline that God created.  Billions of years, billions of people, decisions by the second, leading to innumerable splits.  A multiverse torn to minuscule shreds by our own decisions.

Tears and Knits

And I believe that across all those innumerable splits, one act: the death of a person chosen to be the spark that starts the reversal.  In this timeline, his name is Jesus.  I believe that by participating in that sacrificial act, by choosing us over me, by choosing love over hate, I participate in that initial act of knitting together the fabric of space and time, torn since the first act.  I participate in unifying those disjoint threads.  I still rip, to be sure, but my motion of knitting is far more powerful than the motion of tearing and echoes further through eternity.  The knits are strong, the splits are weak and momentary.  Injustice anywhere rips this fabric everywhere.  The arc of the moral universe is long and it bends towards the timeline of God through my chosen participation.

The Present

The question remaining for me, if I profess Christ and adore science is how do I participate, in small and in large ways, in knitting space and time back together? In unifying the split past into a future?  This responsibility is not to be taken lightly.  It also means that when I rip, I have a choice to mend or to tear further and reconcile the split.

The Future: Heaven

Finally, I want to end with a brief discussion of an idea of heaven.  Heaven is a single timeline where the rips in the fabric have been repaired and I have memory of all the me's that ever existed.  The me who made the right decision and the me who made the wrong one.  The me who experienced tragedy and the me who was never born.  This is why I do not worry about being left out or missing out on something.  Somewhere there is a me experiencing that.  I can visit them in my mind, in my imagination, and someday we will embrace and become what God made me to be: in His own image, living in His timeline.  As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end.  Amen