When I was a teenager, I remember hearing the question “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? – and thinking what a stupid question – of course it makes a sound. But the longer I teach science, and the more I learn about our world at the quantum level, the less sure I am about the true nature of reality. Like Neo in The Matrix – do I want the blue pill or the red pill?
Of course, when a tree falls in the forest it sets up a series of pressure waves in the Earth’s atmosphere that when interacting with the tympanic membranes in our ear canals, initiates a series of events that ultimately generate electrical signals that travel along the auditory nerve to the brain which plays a sound. But if no one is there to interact with those pressure waves, then no – it doesn’t make a sound because a sound is the result of an interaction or perhaps better stated, a measurement.
As I write, I am looking out my office window at a Tabebuia tree, its pink and yellow trumpet-like flowers in full bloom. They’re gorgeous even though the pollen has my eyes itching, and I am sneezing. But what is pink and what is yellow?
The colors are caused by photons of light emanating from organic molecules in the flower petals that upon absorbing sunlight reemit that energy as light predominately pink and yellow. (The flowers are colorless in the dark.) The emitted photons are vibrating in the red and yellow portion of the visible electromagnetic spectrum. These wavelengths interact with my retinas to trigger a complex, series of chemical reactions that ultimately produce an electrical signal along my optic nerve causing a movie to play in my brain of pink and yellow flowers gently blowing in the breeze.
I touch something and even with my eyes closed, I can sense whether it is sharp or smooth, hot or cold, wet or dry, round or square. Receptors in my skin send messages to my brain activating a mental rolodex of stored images. The same case can be made for our sense of smell: Aromatic molecules alight on olfactory receptor neurons in the nose allowing us to distinguish thousands of different odorants.
The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.
Proverbs 20:12 – KJV
What happens next after any sensory interaction with our surroundings is truly magical – a response – a memory is triggered, pleasant or otherwise, our fight or flight instinct is switched on as we see and hear something that places us in imminent danger, or perhaps something more banal; the aroma of roast chicken alerts me that my wife is cooking dinner or a different sort of pungent odor, that the dog has had an accident on the carpet again.
Apart from human interaction, reality is just a confluence of electromagnetic fields and invisible particles. In its harshest, most unfeeling characterization – mostly empty space. It is therefore not so farfetched to conclude that the universe with all of its unfathomable intricacies can only be understood through human interaction and therefore was made for us to be appreciated as a fantastical, God-given gift.
It is by science-faith that I state my case. And I’m in good company with the writer of the book of Hebrews who explained that the unseen things of this world could only be understood by faith which he characterized not as intangible but substantive and evidentiary: “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV).
The Apostle Paul also understood this, writing in Romans that the “invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse,” (Romans 1:20 KJV). Paul – the great theologian – waxing eloquent not just of the spiritual world but of quantum phenomena. And perhaps this is why the quantum world remains a mystery: It is there that the material intersects with the spiritual and can only be fully understood by both mind and heart; intellect and faith.
We humans of course are “the things that are made.” God has given us the ability to clearly see and understand the invisible things; even His “eternal power and Godhead.”
Clearly, we are without excuse.
Gregory J. Rummo is a Lecturer of Chemistry at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, FL.
“How came the bodies of animals to be contrived with so much art, and for what ends were their several parts? Was the eye contrived without skill in Opticks, and the ear without knowledge of sounds?…and these things being rightly dispatch’d, does it not appear from phænomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent…?”
Isaac Newton
– Opticks
Peter Forrest says
The essence of the dilemma is to recall that the the scenery, the script and the ‘we’ are simply spontaneous imagination out-of-time. Indeed, all occurs within the effortless dream that appears in consciousness whenever consciousness becomes aware in whatever body it appears in (e.g. in waking or dreaming states).
In effect, there is no choice when ‘trapped’ in a dream; only the outpouring of cause-and-effect across an ‘infinite bubble’ of possibilities. Nevertheless, lucid dreaming is possible; and is called ‘enlightenment’ when practiced earnestly by the committed seeker to the point of becoming ‘the Knower’ – one conscious of consciousness en route to returning to ‘wholiness’ – the unknowable, timeless, effortless, full intensity of beingness and impenetrable completeness with no-thing to know.
All is perfect at any point within the bubble, simply because the bubble is the reflection of the perfect stateless state of its undifferentiated Source; from whence the ocean of possibilities flows as limitless energy condensing in the E.M matrix as the Universe of Universes. Thus, dreaming of discovering endless possibilities may appear wonderful and/or horrific at any specific point; while always remaining a dream expressed in light and condensed in space-time with volume and duration.
To live in awe and gratitude (faith with hope) is to accept fearlessly that the One ‘I’ is the only Reality. Thus, discernment and reconnection to that Reality is the challenge of consciousness (God’s ocean of knowingness as The Knower) itself as it plays the soul of each dreamed character in the game. There are no victims; only characters choosing between real and false; light and shadow; the beauty and goodness of love of life (God) or the delusion and iniquity of terror and destruction (Deception).
A game fit for ‘the progeny of God’..
E. Calvin Beisner says
The view you have expressed is fundamentally pantheistic, not Christian. The Christian view is that God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three eternally distinct persons yet one spirit infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His wisdom, power, justice, holiness, goodness, and truth—is distinct from His creation and entered it via the incarnation of His Son to pay the penalty for sin that those who trust in Him rather than their own righteousness may be reconciled to Him and receive everlasting life (John 3:16). For a brief statement of Biblical principles of earth stewardship, see https://cornwallalliance.org/landmark-documents/the-biblical-perspective-of-environmental-stewardship-subduing-and-ruling-the-earth-to-the-glory-of-god-and-the-benefit-of-our-neighbors/.
Romans 1:16-32: I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.