5% of the universe is made up of matter.
95% of the universe is made up of “dark” matter and “dark” energy.
According to scientists.
So let me get this straight – according to the scientists so
many of you know and love (I’m talking to you Brandon Phinney Read
about him here) , 95% of the universe is made up of stuff we can’t see, can’t
touch, can’t observe, can’t understand, and can’t know if it really, actually,
truly exists. I don’t, of course,
appreciate the nuances here, but nuances don’t seem altogether important when
the numbers are so staggeringly large.
This means 95% of reality is stuff scientists know almost
nothing about and are, at some level, speculating is out there because of the
little we do know about the actual matter scientists can see. Recognize, too, that even that 5% we “know
about” is spread out over gazillions of miles such that scientists really don’t
know anything about 99.9999999999999999999999999999%[1]
of that matter because it’s so far away it’s only “knowable” through faint
echoes from scientific equipment that may, or may not, be truly observing what
is actually going on out there.
Moreover, simple logic tells me that our “local” observations of the
matter which makes up space do not necessarily correlate to what matter looks
like or acts like elsewhere. It’s not a
bad hypothesis, but until we get there, we just don’t really know. It’s like living in Hawaii and assuming that
Nome, Alaska has the same weather, all
the time. Not so much.
Think of the other, obvious implication of this scientific “understanding.” It means that most of reality can only be
observed indirectly. Now atheists like
Brandon Phinney claim to accept science as giving us the answers to life. Well, if most of reality can’t be observed,
and Christianity says that the “really” real is spiritual and you can’t see
spiritual stuff, except indirectly through the material world – good golly are
scientists just now coming to the top of the mountain only to find a Christian theologian
has been sitting there for years?
Hey, don’t blame me, the scientists you love to quote are
the ones saying this about the universe.
Now, before you get too wound up, I know the drill – I don’t understand
because I’m not a scientist and don’t have a degree in quantum physics (or is
even that already past its prime?) or some other such discipline and if I did
have such a degree, or (we’ll just throw this in for fun) half a brain, I’d get
that what scientists are saying is that dark matter IS in fact matter, we just
haven’t figured out a way to see it yet.
We will, in time. Sounds like a “science
in the gaps theory” to me. But what do I
know, I’m just a loopy Christian who sees a correspondence between what the
Bible teaches and what scientists are coming to learn about our universe and
our existence.
The Bible treats this world as a temporary blip on the
radar, not the final resting place for Christians. Jesus told his disciples he was going to
prepare a place for them (John 14:2 – 3); Paul explained that Christians are
citizens of another realm (Philippians 3:20).
Jesus spoke repeatedly of the spiritual battle raging all around
us. The book of Job examines the
sovereignty of God in light of Satan’s efforts to undo Job, which serves as a
warning to all that there is much going on we don’t see. Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Revelation all contain
passages describing the fall of Satan from the heavenly realm. The idea is the heavenly realm is an
enormously large place with many, many, many inhabitants.
Here’s the point. I
agree with the scientists that most of the universe isn’t observable, because
most of what God created is supernatural.
It defies ordinary, natural perception.
We don’t see it directly.
When Jesus was on this earth, much of that supernatural was
concentrated in him, which explains why demons were drawn to him (much like the
opposite poles of magnets are irresistibly drawn toward each other). He gave us a taste of heaven through his teaching,
his actions, his presence, and his resurrection.
There’s a reason the universe seems to run on principles –
because the God of the universe made it so.
There’s a reason so much of the universe can’t really be understood, or
catalogued, or analyzed or even known at all – because the God of the universe
made it so and he is beyond our ordinary understanding. God’s ways are higher than ours and different
than ours and the “heavens are higher than the earth.” (Isaiah 55:8 – 9).
Scientists are onto something – if only they would truly
follow the facts to where those facts might actually lead them – to God.
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