Nothing is in the center of a doughnut

Okay the title may be misleading- I'm having these 'big thoughts' again- my inner geek is hard at work these days. A couple of things have fed my thought processes- one was a video by Rob Bell- Everything is Spiritual. Great stuff- questioning the creation and the randomness of the universe. Next would be a combination of random information gleaned from sources like Science Friday and Stardate (this 2 minute radio piece on interesting space stuff). Lastly, a quote from They Might Be Giants: "There is only one everything". Funny that. Everything is a singular noun. As is Universe. (Uni means one of course). Something very, very, big, that contains all, is summed up by a singular word. "Everything is coming together." Hmm. But 'none' requires a plural verb- as in "there are none who understand" instead of "there is none." Except in the south- we is a bit more lenient on proper verb-noun agreement.

So, anyway, I've been thinking about the immense-ness of the universe. How, no matter how small you get, there's something smaller- As the sun is to the earth, the earth is to a pebble, a pebble is to an atom and an atom is to a quark. (Yes, I'm talking subatomic particles). And similarly, as big as you get- there are billions of stars, (each with a solar system?) enclosed in billions of galaxies, grouped in clusters, across bazillion light years. Oh, and speaking of light- the constant speed that we use for measuring distance across this universe- they can now stop light. It has been done- they stopped a beam of light (something like a mile long wave that was turned into about 4 microns of length) in a super cooled cloud of atoms, then picked up the light and moved it a short distance and then started it on its way again. How cool is that? But it begs the question- if scientists on earth can create a cloud of atoms supercooled enough to stop light in an experiment on our temperate planet, then why would we think that light, as it travels through the immense dark spaces of the universe surrounded by void and dark matter (read very cold)- why would we expect light to continue at the same rate as it does in our warm world? And so, is everything in the universe as far away as we think it is, or if you want to go the extra dimension- is everything as old as we think it is?

Now if you are still reading and haven't reached for the aspirin or flipped over to the american idol page yet, then I know I've got you thinking. (Susan will most likely tag this as another reason I shouldn't be allowed to blog). So, here's the thing- the more I learn about the amazing complexity and diveristy and intricate nature of the universe- the deeper my belief in God gets. I can't fathom believing that human life on this little rock is just a random accident. My trouble comes when I think about those who consider these same issues and come to the opposite conclusion. For them, it is too complex, too random, too crazy to be part of any design or created by any entity. Especially not an entity that would let itself be known as the god of a war mongering tribe of nomads. (Gene Rodenberry, creator of Star Trek fell in this category, as do several other prominent voices of Science).

Here's my take on this- as good a Smitty theory as you are going to get after all that big thinking. So, it is hard work to open up your brain and take in the vastness of space- the denseness of a single cell- the power of subatomic particles (what is an atom bomb after all?). It takes alot of work to get your brain around all of that, and if anyone has the capacity to expand that body of knowledge, to make it understandable to the common person, to possibly even find a new part of the cosmic puzzle- well then they are probably justified in thinking highly of their intellect. But having done the mental work it takes to get to the point of discovering quarks (which were unconceivable when they discoved atoms)- how much more so does it take to say- "there is more." There is more to it- it can get smaller- the universe can get bigger- something could be in a dimension outside of time. It takes more mental energy to do that- to say that after all the work you have done and all you have discovered that you aren't the final word. There is something more there. It is human nature in all its proud glory that takes the arrogant position to say: if I can't conceive it- it can't exist. I for one, disagree- I am okay with God being bigger than my capacity to understand it. Doesn't mean I don't applaud those who are trying to find what lies within- what lies at the outermost reaches of the galaxy (if the universe is always expanding- what is it expanding into?) But I for one, while I can delight in their discoveries, I can rest in the knowledge that God is the biggest, the smallest and everywhere in between. There's also only one everywhere. Funny that.

Now- where did that doughnut get to? I'm hungry.