Quantum Christianity: "Let There Be"
Genesis 1:1-4a
Sermon preached Sunday, April 17, 2005
By Rev. Patricia Pearce
Let me first start by acknowledging the danger of approaching the Bible and trying to make it fit with scientific understandings. That is not what the Bible is really about. The Bible is about the story of people, the Hebrew people, their experiences, their understandings of God, their experiences of how God was working in their lives. So we need to approach the Bible with enough respect to let it be a document of its time. And I also think that we can look at it through the lens of symbol and mythology and hear from it some deeper truth. Some deeper truth about what it is to be human, about what it is to interact with the world, and to come to know the divine. So I would like us to look at the opening of Genesis through that lens and from that standpoint, not trying to make it conform to our current understandings but to listen to what it is trying to say at a deeper and mythological level. I use the word "mythological" and let me just say that when I use the word "myth" some people may hear that and think "falsehood", but when I use the word "myth", I am saying a story that in fact conveys something that is deeply true.
So last week we talked about quantum weirdness and this strange phenomenon that two separate particles can act as if they are one particle. And some of you I know were a little disturbed because it wasn't making sense, and you wanted some outside reading which is fine and that is good. But just know that it doesn't make sense. The scientists are totally perplexed by this and in fact some of the most renowned scientists have said things like, if thinking about quantum mechanics doesn't make you dizzy you haven't understood a thing. Another physicist says there is no one on earth who understands this stuff. So, if it is not making sense to you, you've got really, really good company.. In fact it made so little sense to Einstein that he spent the last thirty years of his life trying to refute it, when in fact it was one of his theories that led to the whole revolution of quantum physics. It doesn't make sense, but we have to accept that this is what is being discovered about some deep fundamental layer of reality. So last week it was strange action at a distance, or Einstein, who didn't like this stuff, said it was spooky action at a distance.
Today, I want to talk about the fact that at the quantum level, quantum physics can not predict anything with precision. In other words, at the quantum level they can only deal in probabilities. There is no such thing at the quantum level as something that is predetermined. Things at the quantum level cannot be nailed down. Let me just give an example of this. According to Newton and Einstein, if you know where something is and the velocity with which it is traveling you can determine where it is going to be in a certain amount of time. But that is not so at the quantum level. An electron cannot be nailed down. They can not say that in such an amount of time the electron is going to be here. It's not possible. They can only predict the probability. The electron might be here or it might be here or it might be here or it might be here and we don't know and there is no way of knowing. There is no way of knowing where it is going to be, or even where it is until we observe it. In the act of observation then somehow it becomes-- it becomes solidified. It has to decide where it is going to be once we decide that we are going to observe it.
Now there is a physicist by the name of Brian Greene and Ginny gave me an article that was in the New York Times last week that was written by him. I have also read a book by him called "The Elegant Universe" and he is a wonderful writer who is a professor of physics at Columbia University. In his chapter on quantum weirdness, he has these two characters, George and Gracie, who have been traveling through the universe at light speed experiencing the reality of special relativity where space and time are not what we experience in this realm. So they have had a trying time flying through the cosmos and so they decide to go out for a drink when they have finished their travels. So they go to H Bar, and they walk into H Bar and sit down at the bar and order their drinks. George lights up a cigar, and then all of a sudden the cigar is no longer in his mouth and he is really perplexed by this. Gracie notices that the cigar in fact has fallen on the counter behind him, as though it has flown through his head. But there is no sign of any burns or hole in his head. She confirms that everything is okay. They order their drinks, and when they come they find that the ice cubes in the glasses are going every which way, jostling about. So they are trying to down their drinks with these ice cubes flying all around, and they see one ice cube fly through Gracie's glass. The ice cube flies right through the surface of the glass, but the glass is still intact. And then when they go to leave H Bar they mistake a painting on the wall that looks like a door for the real thing, and they just walk right through the wall not knowing that it is not a door. But everyone in the bar is used to this sort of thing happening so nobody takes any notice.
Well, this sort of reality that Brian Greene describes is what in fact happens at the quantum level. It doesn't fit the way we experience reality, and what it says is at that level nothing is predetermined. Nothing can be nailed down. At the quantum level what exists is a myriad of possibilities, that in fact anything can happen.
Now last week I suggested that when we look at the Christian scriptures and the Gospels and when Yeshua speaks about the realm of God, that much of what he says seems to parallel this quantum realm which pre-exists what we see in our material world. In other words, it is the churning chaos out of which things emerge into visible and manifested form. So if in fact at some fundamental level of the universe anything indeed is possible-does that echo anything in the Gospels for you? 'With God all things are possible'? Hmmmmm.
Now Greene talks about, yes, this churning haze of possibilities at the quantum level is true. So how is it that we experience a world in which we can make fairly accurate predictions of what's going to happen? Well, he says that as things grow in scale the possibilities become suppressed as one form becomes predominant. But the other possibilities are still there. And in this article from the New York Times he gives the example of Derek Jeter's batting. If you know how fast the ball is coming and how hard he is swinging, and the angle and all of that, you can determine with 99.999999% certainty where it is going to land. But he says what we have failed to really acknowledge is that there are those extremely rare cases when it doesn't land where it is suppose to land. In other words, there are cases in which the laws of physics don't come through for us.
So, this is a creation story. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Have you ever asked yourself, How does God create? How does God create? If we want to create something, we go to the hardware store and buy the lumber and the nails. Or we go to the painting studio and we've got our paints and our canvas. Or we go to the fabric store and buy what we want for out quilt. And then we create something. In other words, we use physical things to create something. The vibrations of a piano or of our voice. We engage with physical reality in order to create. But how does God create? God doesn't go to Home Depot and then head out to the garage and roll up God's sleeves and get to creating. How does God create? How does that happen?... (Holly responds, "Envisioning").
It is an interesting thing to me that in the opening of Genesis, we have the stage set for this chaotic thing happening, this thing without a form, a reality without form, and into this reality breaks this thought, this imaginative thought: "Let there be… light". It is the power of this imaginative thought that then allows this chaotic existence to grab hold of something. It is as though at the quantum level all of these possibilities are churning and they just need something to grab hold of. In the Genesis story what they grab hold of is God's intention, "Let there be light" and that intention, that imaginative vision, is the thing that begins to coalesce into a creation.
So there is this aspect that physics is also discovering, this interplay between energy and matter, and thought is a form of energy. Thought is a form of energy. And so there is this interplay between energy and thought and how things begin to take shape. Now I believe that that's an important knowing when it comes to prayer and we are going to talk about more of that next week. What is it that we are doing when we pray? How it is that the energy of our thoughts and our imaginations participate in this realm of possibilities, giving the possibilities and the probabilities something to grab hold of. We are going to explore that more next week.
But I want us today to think about how it is that we, in the image of God, participate in this envisioning action and through our envisioning call forth futures, call forth creations, call forth worlds. I believe that human consciousness and our imaginations are key aspects of who we are as co- creators with the divine.
I was really taken when during the Children's Time, Ben said, "In the future there won't be any trees". You see, we are giving our children a story. It is an apocalyptic story. It is a story that says this sort of destruction and devastation is a given. It's gonna happen, and there is nothing we can do about it. But that is not right because when we get down to this realm that I am talking about there's nothing that is deterministic. There is nothing written in stone. There is nothing that says an apocalypse has to happen. You see, it is all still emerging. Our decisions, our imaginations, our visions are part of that. And so what we have to do is to foster other visions of the future. We have to counteract the despair of the apocalyptic narrative with an alternative narrative that evokes and calls forth out of this realm of possibilities a future of healing and of hope and of reconciliation. That is our task.
One thing I thought about this morning when I saw Roger and Pat here today was Who could have predicted? Who could have predicted that they would be sitting right there this morning? You see, anything can happen! Anything! Can you let that in? - Can you let that in? Anything... can happen.
In our call to worship today the choir offered us the antiphonal experience of "Wholly One", spelled W-H-O-L-L-Y One... "I am who I am." "I will be who I will be." And in the Hebrew scriptures the name that is given for God that we pronounce Yahweh is a very enigmatic name. It is a name that cannot be nailed down. It has various possible meanings. I am who I am, I will be who I will be. And that is the reality of the quantum realm. Nothing is nailed down. The quantum realm will be what the quantum realm will be.
Now over the last few years, this church has set about establishing the Arts and Spirituality Center and I just want you to understand what that work is really about. It is not just about cementing tiles to a wall in a mural. It is not just about having children all over the world write poetry about water or about peace. It is about calling forth an alternative reality. It is about engaging people's minds and imaginations and hearts to give energy to this other story.
"Let there be". How creative can we get with that phrase? How beautiful a story can we create? Can we unbind our imaginations from this crazy story that has been dictating events for too long? Can we unbind our imaginations and lend ourselves and our vision and our energy to something that is promising and healing and loving and reconciling?
"Let there be".
Amen.
© 2005 by Patricia Pearce. All rights reserved. Please consult the author at tabernacle@tabunited.org if you wish to use the text of this sermon, in whole or in part.
