Tuesday 4/5/2016 4:44 AM
A couple of years ago I read the book Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality,
by Max Tegmark. Tegmark suggests that our universe is simply a mathematical
structure and living things, including humans, are nothing more than extremely
complicated braids in the fabric of this structure. At the end of the book
Tegmark addresses the issue of human significance or insignificance. After all,
if we are nothing but a braid in the fabric of reality why are we necessary or
perhaps even important in the grand scheme of things?
Tegmark writes, “It was the cosmic vastness that made me
feel insignificant to start with. Yet those grand galaxies are visible and
beautiful to us – and only to us. It’s only we who give them any meaning,
making our small planet the most significant place in our entire observable
Universe. If we didn’t exist, all those galaxies would be just a meaningless
and gigantic waste of space.” It was this same kind of feeling that led Lee
Strobel to become a Christian, which he documents in his book The Case for a Creator. Strobel looked
at the odds of having a planet in the habitable zone of a star, tilted at the
perfect angle allowing for even warming and cooling of the planet, with a moon
at exactly the right distance so that a total eclipse of the sun allows us to
verify the general theory of relativity, placed in a galactic arm in such a way
that we can see other galaxies through our telescopes, etc. He concluded that
the odds were too small to have it all be an accident and, consequently, came to the conclusion that a being
outside our universe must have made it. Tegmark claims we give the Universe
meaning; Strobel would argue that our meaning and significance comes from being
an intentional creation of God.
Tegmark goes on to suggest that at our stage of human
development we have the technology to self-destruct or to seed the cosmos with
life. He then writes, “If we end up going the life route rather than the death
route, then in a distant future, our cosmos will be teeming with life that all
traces back to what we do here and now. I have no idea how we’ll be thought of,
but I’m sure that we won’t be remembered as insignificant.” I wonder how
Tegmark gets from the viewpoint that he is nothing but a complicated braid in a
mathematical structure to having the need to have significance? The two
viewpoints seem incompatible to me. I think I would like to sit down over
coffee with him to discuss his views so I could better understand.
Like Strobel, I believe the universe and everything in it
was created and is sustained by a personal entity, which I call God, who is
outside of our known universe. He is a relational being and desires to be in relationship
with everything he has made, including me. Humans made my car and it runs best
if I change the oil regularly, perform routine maintenance, and follow other suggestions
made in the owner’s manual. Similarly, my life works best if I live in a
healthy relationship with God, with others, and with the whole of creation. If
I separate myself from God, live in conflict with others, or exploit the
environment in which I live, my life, and the lives of others are impoverished
as a result. If I want to experience life to the fullest degree I need to
acknowledge God, look to the needs of others, and protect the environment
around me.
In the book Abba’s
Child, Brennan Manning writes, “Living in the awareness of the risen Jesus
is not a trivial pursuit for the bored and lonely or a defense mechanism
enabling us to cope with the stress and sorrow of life. It is the key that
unlocks the door to grasping the meaning of existence. All day and every day we
are being reshaped into the image of Christ. Everything that happens to us is
designed to this end. Nothing that exists can exist beyond the pale of his
presence, nothing is irrelevant to it, nothing is without significance in it.”
While I have no more evidence of the existence of God than Tegmark has of the
evidence of his Universe as a mathematical structure, I certainly do not have
the same struggle he has with my own significance and with the significance of
others. From my perspective we are all made and loved by God, which gives us
ultimate significance.
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