Monday, October 29, 2012

Physics and Faith

I was watching an interesting show the other day. It was about the formation of the Universe. They had a small spot with Stephen Hawking. Hawking said something that got me thinking. I don't remember it word for word but the gist was, the better our understanding of the way our Universe came into existence the closer we can get to knowing the mind of God. 
I have always been fascinated with how the Universe works and how the stars and planets have been formed and nature in general. Another interesting thing I have thought about is the fact we are all made of the same elements, atoms, and sub-atomic particles as everything else in the Universe. The stars, our Sun, the Earth, the other planets all formed from the same building blocks as us. We are all truly children of the stars.
There are a lot of people who have written about or talked about how if you vibe on something positive good things will happen to you. I include myself in this group, you are what you focus your energy on. I think you could expand this group to include people who pray. Religion is perhaps the ultimate in focusing groups of people onto a singular thing. People flock to church and pray for the well being of friends and family members. They pray for God to help them through difficult times and help them with the concerns of their daily lives. I think you could say that is roughly the same idea as trying to send out good vibes. We send out our energy, or pray, for the people in our lives to have good health and great joy, or to get that new job, or to have our dreams fulfilled.
Now I ask are physics and faith all that different? Those who have religion often want little to do with an understanding of physics and those who study the Universe and physics often want little to do with religion. These two ideas seem at odds with each other. I wonder if they are more like 359 degrees versus 180 degrees apart. Now if you are looking out along a circle over the full 359 degrees that seems to be a long distance, but if you turn around and try to view it from the other angle it is really only one degree of separation.
Here is where I find some common ground. If we take the E=MC2 as fact, and we then take into account that we are all made of the same elements as everything in the Universe, who says that the energy we send out through prayer or vibes does not resonate through out the Universe.  Is God perhaps the manifestation of  all the collective energy people pour out from the matter they are made up of.  Is the spirit we leave behind the energy we release at the end? For me I think we can master our lives, I think we can pray and send out good vibes, and still look at things in wonder and awe. We do not need to stand at odds with understanding the world around us and having faith in something more.  Perhaps Hawking is right...

As always PARTY ON!!!!