Opening Words
Come, let us worship together!
Let us open our minds to the challenge of Reason;
open our hearts to the healing of love,
open our lives to the calling of conscience,
open our souls to wonder and awe.
Astonished by the miracle of life,
Grateful for the gift of community,
Confident in the power of this living faith,
We are here gathered.
Come! Let us worship together!
CHALICE LIGHTING
We light our chalice.
Once more gathered,
this community of women, men, and children
rekindles the fervor and fire
of Unitarian Universalism made visible.
As this flame burns steadily,
so shall our vision of a world of good, truth, and beauty
be made manifest – in our lives, in our neighborhoods,
and through all nations on this dear Earth.
READING
From a New York TIMES article, November 30, 1999, by James Glanz, titled, “What Do Physicists Fret About? Nothing.”
...Just last week, a team of astronomers reported its observations of ripples in the gases of the young universe, before stars and galaxies even formed. ... The observations ... provided fresh new evidence of the distressing finding that something in the wastelands of space could be pushing against gravity. So scientists are reluctantly accepting the notion that something in the most fundamental theories of physics is terribly wrong.
To explain their observations, scientists say, they must answer a question that sounds paradoxical: How much does emptiness weigh?
Although the answer has eluded scientists since Einstein first raised the question more than 70 years ago, physicists are comfortable with the idea that a seemingly perfect vacuum could weigh something.
But when physicists try to use conventional theories to calculate how much energy should repose in emptiness, the result is a vacuum so monstrously heavy that it would blow the universe apart. Galaxies, stars, planets and life could never have formed.
Dr. Frank Wilczek, a particle physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., called the nothingness problem “maybe the most fundamentally mysterious thing in basic science.”
Some physicist have gone so far as to wash their hands of the search for a solution, suggesting simply that ... some other strange inhabitant of empty space could be pushing the galaxies apart. They call this shifting, flowing form of energy "quintessence".
MEDITATION
Let us enter a time of meditation.
Let us be attentive to the motion that is our lives;
the moving through time and space,
the going out and the coming back,
the letting go and the holding on.
We reach out,
yearning to feel the power of connection.
We seek to be included,
and then, as surely,
we pull in, detach, withdraw into ourselves.
We seek our own quiet authority.
In this flux and flow of our temperament,
let us meet and greet each other carefully;
let us be with each other fully and with understanding,
sharing our pain and our joy,
crossing into each others’lives as fellow travelers,
as unconditional companions
in the ongoing motion that is Life;
the constructing and reconstructing of meaning
that is the essence of our being.
May we rest in the motion;
may we know that the journey is home,
as we pause now, together, in silence.
SERMON
Well, far-be-it for me to pick something easy to talk about! I have to choose a subject that physicists, and astrophysicists, and cosmologists are intent on right now. A subject that represents a cutting edge in scientific discovery. A subject far from my grasp. But, I’m one of those people who persistently reads about such things; who loves it that in the last few years many scientists have been tackling the science and religion interface in their writings.
I read most of those books. I love them.
And, it IS in that particular interface that I can even dream of approaching the subject of science. I am hungry to know about our universe. The mysteries of Being careen through my thoughts and my imagination regularly. One of the ways I can approach cosmic mystery is through the experience of wonder, and another is through what I can know of science.
Our species’ capacity for learning and knowledge is prodigious. Imagination is an equally wonderful capacity with which we are endowed. The two together - knowledge and imagination - are the fertile ground within which many things, but certainly the dynamism of religious understanding, can grow and flourish.
The mystery of Self, of Life, of the Universe, -- so vast as to feel unapproachable, humbling; so basically odd, and yet so intimately a part of our everyday experience –- can be approached by our species through the accumulation of hard-won knowledge, the wisdom of experience, and the leaping intelligence of imagination. All of these. All tempering and igniting the other.
We don’t know how much we can know. We don’t know if there is an end to knowing and knowledge. But we are driven to discovery.
The thought isn’t original with me -- I have heard it once or twice before -- but I am deeply moved by someone’s insight that perhaps we are a complex form that has evolved within this vast unity so that the universe could view and appreciate itself.
We are so obviously equipped with wonder and curiosity and intelligence and consciousness – that if there was indeed a purpose to it, it seems natural that we would be the ones to look upon nature-universe-self-mystery and be able to be reflective, expressive, and creative. Our evolved species is perhaps the universe’s gift to itself - so that it may come to be known.
As we are struggling to know, Science has now come to a threshold beyond which “nothing” may be known. Actually, the “nothing” I refer to is the emptiness of space. Or, is it “empty?”
Astronomers looked up at the heavens for hundreds of years and have wondered what the universe is made of. Aristotle spoke of a “Fifth Essence” to describe the all-pervading ethereal substance thought to permeate both the heavens and the earth.
Quintessence - quinta essentia, the fifth essence – was the material of the stars, forming heavenly bodies, and pervading all things. That was in addition to the four elements of fire, air, water, and earth, in which all other matter was thought to exist.
Reaching beyond the four elements, Aristotle insisted that the heavenly spheres – to them, the realm of stars and gods -- must be composed of something very different than anything else we know. Medieval theologians went on to propose that this “quintessence” was the very substance of which the angels themselves were made.
Of course, the whole point of modern astronomy is to banish such mystical notions, “proving that everything above consists of no-nonsense matter; that we live in a material world.” But, what’s happening in the field of cosmology lately has scientists wondering just what is “no-nonsense matter” when they seem to be dealing with non-sense of the first order!
Last month, a conference was held in Marina del Rey, California. It was called “Dark Matter 2000.”
DARK...........MATTER...........: something -- who knows what -- but something dark, or, hidden in the darkness of space; unidentifiable, leaving hardly any traces, without reflective properties, unseen.
A few years ago it was conjectured that the universe is made up mostly of this strange, unknown “Dark Matter.” It’s effects have been observed, while it’s substance is a mystery.
It became clear at that conference that the quest for Dark Matter has been progressing only because of Science’s willingness to stretch the very meaning of the word, “matter.” Knowledge can, at this point, only be brought forward by imagination. This once simple stuff is coming to seem as ethereal as anyone could have imagined.
It now appears more certain than ever that most of the universe is made from some kind of unworldly “dark matter” that can pass through ordinary matter without leaving much of a trace. AND..... scientists are coming to the belief that empty space is pervaded by an equally mysterious “dark energy,” a kind of anti-gravitational oomph.
Let me just throw in two more recent discoveries into the picture, because all of this is connected. One is that the universe began with a “Big Bang” - an explosion that started everything in the universe - some 10-15 billion years ago. You all have heard about the “Big Bang” theory. And, the other bit of information is that our universe is expanding. Things - galaxies - are flying apart. And, calculations and observations have shown that it is flying apart faster than would even seem possible.
What is REALLY NEW – on top of those two fascinating revelations -- and what has been puzzling scientists, is the discovery, made only two years ago, that this unknown “dark energy” seems to be causing the cosmic expansion to speed up. For all anyone knows, it shouldn’t be accelerating!
This speeding up of the expansion of the universe has presented physicists and cosmologists with a major problem. The gravity of all the known matter and energy in our own universe, they say, should slow that expansion, not speed it up. So, some scientists are now suggesting, through a process of informed imagination, that the cosmic acceleration may be an effect from some other universe!
Well now, that’s a radical and wondrous idea, -- and the scientists concede that. In identifying another, or parallel, universe with extra dimensions that may exist beyond our own three spatial and one time dimension, scientists are on the cutting edge of theoretical physics. One of the cosmologists has said that “the data has thrown something at us that’s deeply puzzling and doesn’t fit very well in any theoretical framework that we have. We’re really venturing out into new territory.”
When you talk about the forces of gravity in the universe, the very unusual ability of the dark energy to flip from an attractive to a repulsive state brings to scientist’s minds a connection to a bizarre prediction. The prediction is the existence of parallel universes, or, different dimensions, that can, invisibly, exert forces on our own. A scientist reflected that while while Quintessence is a very ghostly thing, it could be created by an interdimensional force.
Don’t you just love it when I talk technical? Well, I’ll stop now!
I can only articulate around the edges of what I’ve been reading. But, I sure do get a sense of a mind-blowing new mystery that cosmologists are excited about. It IS exciting! --- Unknown and unseen anti-gravitational energy! Unknown and unseen matter! -- Stuff in the universe that’s unlike –- totally unlike -- anything we now know of -- The loud hint of other dimensions and other universes. WOW!
Aristotle may have had it just right when he said that the heavens are more alien and wondrous than meets the earthly eye!
Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss, Chairperson of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland wrote a newly updated book on dark matter and dark energy which he’s called, “Quintessence.” I’ve been reading through it and working hard at the physics he describes. It’s not written on the science and religion interface – just science - and it’s intended for laypeople who are pretty well-educated in general. So, if you’re curious and want to stretch a little, give it a go.
I got to know Dr. Krauss with another book of his I have in my collection: It’s called “The Physics of Star Trek,” which was easier and more amusing reading for me, since I’ve been such an avid fan of one of the Star Trek series. In the Star Trek book, he talks about such things as the fact that Klingon blood, when spilled in a weightless state (which happened in one of the Star Trek movies) appeared as spherical floating blobs. It seems that that’s the “correct shape” according to the laws of physics and it’s comforting to know that the Star Trek techies get a few things right!
But, Dr. Krauss says that “the actual universe is far more interesting than the universe of science fiction. Nature comes up with possibilities that no science fiction writer would dare suggest.”
In the Epilogue of his book he writes this:
“As I reflect on the ideas and developments I have described in this book I cannot help but marvel at our present situation. The picture we have of the universe today would have been indescribable in the first decades of the [twentieth] century: the ideas and language simply did not exist then.
“Now we have discovered that most of the universe is dark, and there is a real possibility that at least much of this darkness will reveal its identity within our lifetimes.
“Since the dawn of civilization, human beings have pondered the origin of the world we perceive, what it is made of, and what its future will be. It is mind-boggling that within less than a quarter-century we have come within striking distance of the answer to any one of these questions. It is also rather amazing that the answer to all three lies in determining what constitutes the dark matter and energy that astronomers have discovered surrounding all the astronomical systems we can see..”
He goes on to say:
“I view theoretical particle physics and cosmology as enterprises as valuable as art, music, and theater in their gifts to our imagination: they give us a better sense of ourselves and out place in the world. And while science may have led to an enhanced realization of the cosmic insignificance of humankind, it has at the same time demonstrated unequivocally the awe-inspiring wonder of the universe in which we live.” .......
“What raises us up from the tedium of mere existence if not our capacity to understand our place in the universe? And what makes life worth celebrating if not our ability to dream, to imagine? It is the progress of science and the arts which continually rekindles our imagination. If we cease to explore the universe, we will eventually cease to wonder about it.”
Now that we’ve gotten to “wonder,” I can slip out of my lab coat, back into my priestly garb, and address the spiritual significance of contemporary cosmology. Ahh! That’s better!
Big Bang first. Big “wonder” next!
Some 15 billion years after the Singularity (Big Bang) the universe has become aware of itself through this earthly biological and cultural evolution of scientific sense and sensibility. It is a breathtaking achievement, to say the least.
Everything---the stars, the earth, the myriad species and infinite forms of being, you and I, the poetry of Rilke and Rumi, the paintings of Botticelli and O’Keeffe, the music of Monteverdi and of the Grateful Dead, and even this scientific understanding of the whole – has emerged from the initial Singularity. Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry wrote that, “At the heart of the universe is an outrageous bias for the novel, for the unfurling of surprise in prodigious dimensions throughout the vast range of existence.”
This is a scientific cosmology that at the same time is a religious creation story in that it leads us to “see” or interpretively understand life as a meaningful whole, a unity that at the same time binds together the novelty and diversity that compose it.
Whatever this all means, and how these new revelations will eventually affect our everyday lives, I can hardly wait to know!
Cosmology affords us a glimpse of that wider reality by showing that nature is the outcome of an originating mystery, or what Vaclav Havel called, “the miracle of Being” which shines through it. It is this mysterious force that we directly encounter and perceive in the experience of wonder and awe that cosmology induces in the scientist and non-scientist alike.
Wonder is the spiritual substance of religion.
Paul Brockelman, author of a wonderful little book called, “Cosmology and Creation” declares: ‘I want to claim that wonder is an experience of the radical and inexplicable ‘mystery of being’ encountered at the boundaries of understanding.”
Wonder is the spiritual substance of life.
That each of us ‘is’ - that each individual exists in all our complexity - can only be fully understood in wonder and awe.
Wonder is a particular way of perceiving nature and life – with new eyes you might say. What formerly was seen to be ordinary and perhaps even humdrum becomes extraordinary. To be attuned to wonder is to find that the world becomes almost unbearably precious.
There is a shift in the intellectual landscape in which we understand science and religion. There seems to be a widespread yearning within our culture to experience the unity of things – science and religion, nature and spirit, faith and reason.
Theologian Margaret Wertheim has said:
“...many people deeply desire a resolution between science and spirituality. Many are tired of being told that they must choose between faith and reason. They want both forces in their lives. ... The psychological need to bridge the divide between science and spirituality is great in our age.”
Physicist Wolfgand Pauli has this view: “Contrary to the strict division of the activity of the human spirit into separate departments – a division prevailing since the nineteenth century – I consider the ambition of overcoming opposites, including also a synthesis embracing both rational understanding and the mystical experience of unity, to be the mythos, spoken and unspoken, of our present day age.”
The scientific cosmology both offers a scientifically accurate understanding of the evolution of the entire universe and a spiritual vision of a wider order of being to which we belong, and from and in which we find our genesis and home. Everything seems connected to everything else. Ultimate reality is not nature, but the “miracle of being” which each and every aspect of nature displays and which we encounter in wonder and awe.
The unholy breach between nature and spirit, science and religion, head and heart may be in process of dissolving, If so, then we may have a chance to live whole and balanced lives again, lives in which we can use our heads to gain a bit of security in life, as well as open our hearts to the deep and holy reality unfolding within and without us. That may be one of the most important promises of the ‘Promised Land’ toward which – sometimes in pain and confusion and sometimes in hope and high expectation – we have been making our way.
BENEDICTION
Today, may you know the great spirit of surprise!
May you be dazzled
with a day full of amazing embraces;
with capricious, uncalculated caring;
and surrounded by great hearts,
kind souls,
and doers of good deeds!
Go in peace! Amen and Shalom!
Some Further Reading:
--“Quintessence: The Mystery of Missing Mass in the Universe,” by Lawrence Krauss, 2000, published by Basic Books.
--“Cosmology and Creation: The Spiritual Significance of Contemporary Cosmology” by Paul Brockelman, 1999, published by Oxford University Press.
