Lately I’ve been reading Don Ray’s, “The Reassuring Universe”, and it has surely reassured me of the guiding force of the universe. However, I’m not quite sure that is the author’s primary intent. Regardless, it got me thinking, and maybe after sharing some of my insight, the purpose of it all will perhaps make a bit more sense than it does at this very moment.
This nonfiction and fairly easy read, available for free on iPhone eBooks, starts off discussing the nearly inevitable clash between science and our “spirit”, our feelings and our emotions.
“Science has nothing to do with spirit and soul. Science is black and white, sharp, verifiable, not a thing of heart and intuition and desire…. and this is good.”
“Expressing in words the profound meaning of mathematical equations is often a futile exercise. Expressing in logic the experiences of the heart is often a hopeless gesture.”
“Surely our intellect and our heart must remain locked in combat for our loyalty, and surely intelligence precludes faith; education exorcises
Belief.
This is a notion with which I assume most readers can and will agree. However, Ray goes on to introduce his thesis; that is, that these two can (and shown later, do) work together, in peace.
“Surely our intellect and our heart must remain locked in combat for our loyalty, and surely intelligence precludes faith; education exorcises belief?” No.“Set sail with confidence from either shore, for mind and intellect need not be threatened by explorations of the heart, and the heart can still securely hold on to its foundations when intellect seems to founder on the rocks.”
On the side of science, we know that most things can be explained: from quarks to atoms, matter to human beings, thoughts and feelings and actions to entire civilizations, and even, to a certain extent, free-will, conciousness, and the universe. The black and white, logical science that has both a reason and an explanation for all things, referred to as “clockworks science”, that a vast majority of people believe in to this very day, despite endless refuting theories and even facts, simply because as the human creature, many do not want to admit that we may very well know almost nothing at all.
“Science says: ‘We looked into space. There is no Heaven above us.’ Genetics assures us that all your wants, loves, desires, emotions, and feelings are programmed behavior honed by natural selection to optimize species survival. Biochemistry describes all your thoughts as cascading electrochemical reactions.”
Not only does this leave out any possibility of the existence of anything other than what science is able to explain, but it also does not take into account the human being as a whole. If we were to scientifically create a genetically identical clone, an exact replica of the average human being, we can all agree that there will be something about that “individual” that is not real, because it is not “alive”. And as we know, the parts alone cannot make up the whole. There will be something missing, the essence and energy and the source of life. Ray continues on:
“But for no small number of people, faith in clockwork science has proven synonymous with emptiness and purposelessness and nagging, even gnawing, dissatisfaction.”
Since I am already a firm believer in both science as well as my own spirit, this alone was more than enough to reassure me of the guiding force of the universe, as the title of the book suggests. However, Ray goes on for the rest of the book referring to the most popular and widely accepted scientific “theories” in attempt to point out how little we really do know about the universe and beyond, using only science. Below are a few examples, referring to quantum mechanics, Einstein’s theory of relativity, the M theory, and many more leading up to the concept of dark matter.
“Quantum mechanics wrecks the fine tuned workings of the clockwork universe.”it frees you, frees the universe.”
“In only considering quantum mechanics, science has already begun to lose its street cred as an argument against anything. In fact, it is science sheepishly proclaiming that anything is possible.”
“(Quantum mechanics) describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. So I hope you can accept nature as She is…. Absurd. ”Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winning physicist”
“And why is it called “relativity”? Because what we perceive, mass (kind of like weight), length, speed, and time, all depend on how we move relative to what we observe.”
“And that term “our universe” takes on a new meaning in that some M theory models make other universes look quite possible……other universes……other realms of existence not even connected to or detectable from ours.”
“Quantum uncertainty is unsettling, relativity bends our perspectives, and M theory forces us to look at the possibility of realms of existence out of our control and our understanding.”
“To make a fascinating and long story very short, dark matter was discovered to be the stuff holding galaxies together. This discovery was no small trick as dark matter cannot be seen, measured, felt, smelled, tasted, directly detected or bought”
“It turns out our universe has almost six times as much dark matter as “regular” matter.”
“The essence of your being, your personality, and all your life is recorded throughout the universe (or is an integral part of the universe), and does not disappear when your physical life ceases.”-holographic theory
“Look at the shape of the Universe from every individual’s perspective! You are at the center! You are the focus of a perfect symmetry! All time comes to you! You are the leading edge of time itself! The most distant past lies at the edge of your universe! All events through all time coalesce onto your consciousness at this moment of now! This is not poetry or allegory or religion or spirituality, this is the literal, incontrovertible fact of physics!”
Ray gives an example of a world with only one dimension, no left, right, up, down, or around, simply back and forth, straight. If two people were to walk towards each other, and look into eachothers eyes, they would only scientifically see eachother’s eyes. Although they would perceive that there is something else, a greater force, they would not able to prove it through science. We live in a universe of only 3 dimensions; what we often percieve and cannot prove through science could easily be other dimensions we do not yet know of.
“In a one dimensional universe we could not see all of the “other person”, but only their eye staring back at us. Likewise in our three dimensional universe we can see only our bodies. We cannot see our heart, soul, essence.”
If things can be random and unpredictable in science, which is supposed to be black and white and entirely predictable, is there not an obvious conflict in the world of science alone? If everything we know and see is relative to our own existence and experience, how is science able to so clearly state what is factual and what is not? And if there are other universes, not just planets and galaxies, but universes that can possibly exist and be entirely and unseen, and therefore, unknown to us, how can anyone suggest that science has all the answers? Perhaps most importantly, if everything we know through science, all that we think, feel, do, experience, and know is real and in existence, is only 4% of the universe, what constitutes the other 96% of black matter about which we know nearly nothing?
When scientists logically and reasonably “prove” the existence of an idea or object, they use the mind, and the five senses, in this one three-dimensional universe. And they admit there is much more out there than cannot yet be understood through science. When those that have become spiritually enlightened, those that believe in a higher power and the guiding force of the universe, try to prove the existence of something that science has not explained, those of the science world do not understand because their “proof” is inside of themselves, unable to be fully and accurately expressed to anyone that is not willing to open themselves enough to the possibility. After reading this book and others that delve deeper into the scientific theories that leave room for the “impossible”, it seems nearly impossible to me for one to be unable to live in true peace in a world of both science and spirit.