Physics and Christmas.

Physics and Christmas

THE MORE deeply you penetrate into science, the more mysterious things become. Lucretius and George Santayana notwithstanding, the fundamdental fact of the universe seems not to be "matter" but energy. And when quantum physicists study micro-particles much smaller than atoms, peculiar things emerge. In a recnt article, Tom Bethel quoted the late Cal Tech Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman: "I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will go 'down the drain' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped." According to Feynman, the electron "does anything it likes." It goes "forward or backward in time." In this micro-world, the common-sense experience of Newtonian physics does not apply.

And now we come to the macro-world of astro-physics and the origin of the universe. As we now understand it, astronomers have recently detected a light that comes close to the edges of the universe and the beginning of time. Scientists at Bell Laboratories had previously measured the radiation of the Big Bang when the universe began some ten to twenty billion years ago. But then scientists started studying quasars, and an element of mystery emerged. The light emitted by these cosmic objects seems to indicate that the quasars existed when the universe was only 7 per cent of its current age. What happened between the Big Bang and the formation of the galaxies is shrouded in mystery. The emergence of large cosmic structures defies current scientific understanding.

The more advanced science becomes in its micro and macro senses, the more mysterious it seems to be. The "laws" and the calculations of Newton operate only locally. The "matter" of Lucretius and Santayana does exist, but does not have the last word. The pragmatism of William James and John Dewey is "true," but not the last word either. The last word might well be an unintelligible equation. As the human mind presses onward, the universe seems increasingly to resemble thought. But thought must take place in a Mind. Is Hegal smiling?

"In the beginning was the Logos," wrote Saint John, meaning by that term the "thought" that is the foundation and form of all things, the thought that was there "in the beginning."

Contemporary Biblical scholars argue an interesting interpretation of the Magi or Wise Men "from the East" who brought gifts to Bethlehem (the ancestors of our Christmas presents). The scholars think that the Wise Men were astrologer-priests from Syria or Persia, that the "gifts" they brought were the astrologer's tools, and that the appearance of a strange heavenly body, probably a comet--the "Star" of Bethlehem--had made a mishmash of their cosmic charts. We see here a parable, at least, of the conflict between necessity and freedom, with the astrologers holding up the surrender flag of necessity.

And a Merry Christmas to all.