After centuries and millennia of...
Illustration
After centuries and millennia of reflecting upon the order of creation, one would think we
have a pretty good handle on it. Certainly, since Rene Descartes (philosophically) and
Isaac Newton (scientifically) laid the foundations for a mechanical view of the universe,
we have made huge strides in understanding and engaging life with great inventions,
inspired by deeper insights into the nature of things.
For example, understanding the nature of gravity has helped us escape our own earth's gravity and explore the space between ourselves and neighboring planets. Discovering electricity has engendered a whole different work schedule and empowered the computer age. Splitting the atom has changed war and politics.
Yet, the wisdom of God's creation goes deeper than our former mechanical view of the universe. Now there is a whole new worldview that perceives reality as "a dynamic web of interrelated events" (Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics). What has been called the "bootstrap" hypothesis contends that the universe is not constructed "from a set of basic entities with certain fundamental properties" (like constituting particles called atoms and neutrons and protons). Rather, life is a matrix of natural phenomena that influence each other on many levels, some of which we are only beginning to fathom. In some sense, everything contains everything else and there is a mutual influence connecting everything together (a cosmic whole, if you will).
Wisdom indeed calls to us, and we have so much more to hear before we can even claim to catch a glimpse of the "circle on the face of the deep."
For example, understanding the nature of gravity has helped us escape our own earth's gravity and explore the space between ourselves and neighboring planets. Discovering electricity has engendered a whole different work schedule and empowered the computer age. Splitting the atom has changed war and politics.
Yet, the wisdom of God's creation goes deeper than our former mechanical view of the universe. Now there is a whole new worldview that perceives reality as "a dynamic web of interrelated events" (Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics). What has been called the "bootstrap" hypothesis contends that the universe is not constructed "from a set of basic entities with certain fundamental properties" (like constituting particles called atoms and neutrons and protons). Rather, life is a matrix of natural phenomena that influence each other on many levels, some of which we are only beginning to fathom. In some sense, everything contains everything else and there is a mutual influence connecting everything together (a cosmic whole, if you will).
Wisdom indeed calls to us, and we have so much more to hear before we can even claim to catch a glimpse of the "circle on the face of the deep."
