QUANTUM THEOLOGY 101
The Rev. RANDY BUSH calls on people of faith to grow with the advances in science, which let us peer into ‘miraculous workings’
Many people first learn about God about the same time they learn about the solar system. In one classroom a Sunday School teacher announces that God is the Lord of heaven and earth and then asks, “Where is heaven?” — to which the children respond by pointing up to the sky. Meanwhile, in a different classroom, a science teacher announces that all the planets orbit around the sun and then asks, “Where is the sun?” to which the children respond by again pointing up to the sky. Before long the theological and scientific worldviews begin to merge and coalesce.
In time, children grow up and learn more about the universe. They learn how our solar system is part of a galaxy, complete with billions and billions of stars, and that our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies populating the known universe. Since the science teachers do not provide advice on where to locate God in this intricate model of the universe, people of faith often fall back on their earlier idea of God hovering in the heavens somewhere just beyond our planet’s atmosphere — a God who pays special attention to each of us and the particularities of our little solar system.
But in the larger scheme of things, this God is a static God. Perhaps not as aloof as Aristotle’s celestial “unmoved mover,” but still one who simply resides up in the sky, somewhere out in the universe. This wise God is credited with creating the laws of science,
establishing the gravity and geometry that hold our orbiting planet in its path around the sun, and inspiring (in the fullest sense of that verb) the miraculous balance that allowed human life to emerge on this planet. Ultimately, this vision of God is one that would fit comfortably both in the courts of Galileo and in any third-grade science classroom.
But today’s churchgoers and clerics too often ignore the fact that after Galileo came Isaac Newton, whose laws of physics manage to describe almost every interaction that happens in our universe. Newton was later followed by Einstein, whose theories of general and special relativity transformed Newton’s classical ideas through the insight that the universe’s gravitational field did not so much exist in space, but rather was space and time itself. Then in the 20th century, quantum mechanics entered the discussion, struggling to resolve the paradox about why the smallest particles and the largest phenomena in the universe refuse to fully abide by either Newton’s or Einstein’s laws.
Scientific work and discoveries have continued up through recent history. Astrophysicists grapple with concepts like dark matter and dark energy, while others have measured the gravitational waves that ripple in the fabric of spacetime. Together they have succeeded in peering back through the 14 billion years of our universe’s history to glimpse what happened prior to the Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago. Their work allows all of us to glimpse the very blueprints of creation.
Modern science has learned that the universe is far from static. It is ever active, turbulent and jittery, in the words of physicist Brian Greene. Our world is in perpetual motion, whether you consider the fragile-yet-resilient dance of light, air, heat and water over the face of the earth or the graceful movement of planets, Kuiper ring asteroids and Oort cloud worlds further out in our galaxy; whether you study the mysterious black holes or measure the cycles of astral births and deaths happening throughout space.
Theologians need to understand that science should not be denounced as undermining or debunking religious faith. If anything, science offers a glimpse into the miraculous workings and wondrous attention to detail that must be affirmed in any faithful doctrine of God as Creator.
Modern faith cannot turn its back on scientific advances, any more than religion could reject for long the wonders discovered through Galileo’s telescope. The extent to which people believe the church to be anti-science, or experience faith communities to be dismissive of what we are daily learning about the universe around us, only increases the number who respond “none of the above” when asked their religious affiliation.
That’s why we need to begin exploring a type of “quantum theology.” We need to worship a 21st-century God freed from the static models of third-grade classrooms — a God seen as participating in the vibrant conversation about the nature of life as we know it today. A God who is comfortable with the vocabulary of quanta and quasars, whose wisdom can providentially chart the ridges in space’s gravitational field and trace the wobbling oscillations in our galaxy’s orbit. A God whose spirit and grace move through all life in ways analogous to how quantum particles travel throughout the universe. A God able to provide for the lilies, sparrows, and human beings on this planet in ways that also reflect a loving intentionality and cosmic connection to every part of the universe far beyond our Milky Way.
This theological perspective would breathe fresh life into faith traditions too often allowed to become stilted, stuffy and science-phobic. And, if the truth be told, a 21st-century God would have it no other way.
Randy Bush is senior pastor at East Liberty Presbyterian Church (RandyB@coh.net). He and Arthur Kosowsky, a University of Pittsburgh professor of physics and astronomy, are presenting a two-week series on “Quantum Theology” at the church, Sept. 18 and 25 at 9:45 a.m.