Physics and Faith

By: Wes Loewer (High School Mathematics Teacher)

You can learn about an artist by studying their artwork. You

can learn about God by studying His handiwork. While
handiwork could refer to a number of fields, physics has the
unique role as the most fundamental of all the sciences. It
seeks to discover what is happening at the most basic physical
level.

The study of physics reveals how very vast and complex our
universe is, yet at the same time how very simple it all is at the
lowest level. I find it exceedingly profound that every physical
phenomenon that we have ever observed is the result of only
four known forces (Gravity, Nuclear Weak, Electro-Magnetic,
Nuclear Strong). Every sunrise, every breath of air, every
flittering leaf, can be explained in terms of these four forces. (There very well may be more forces
these are just the ones we currently know about.)

One of the perks of studying physics is the insight that it can provide on weightier issues. Consider
the concept of time. We can measure time; speak of the past, present, and future; and maybe even
feel likes its moving too fast, but it is very difficult to define what time actually is. We tend to think
of time as this universal thing that extends forever in both directions. One of the implications of
Einsteins Theory of Relativity is that time is relativethat objects can pass through time at different
rates. Another implication is that time is intricately woven together with space itself. Space-time
consists of length, width, height, and time. Our minds can easily grasp the concept of God creating
space, but this implies that time is part of that same creation. The question, What was God doing
before He made the universe? is a meaningless question. There is no time outside of the created
universe. It was more than just a figure of speech when Peter wrote, With the Lord a day is like a
thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

In Mere Christianity when addressing the issue of how God could hear the prayers of everyone at
once, C. S. Lewis wrote:

Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments one following another Ten-
thirtyand every other moment from the beginning of the worldis always Present for Him. If you
like to put it this way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a
pilot as his plane crashes in flames.

The idea that God is timeless is a profound one. Our finite minds seem to be able to handle the
idea that God can be at all places simultaneously, that is every where at once. We have a bit
harder time grasping that God can be at all times simultaneously, or as I like to say, every when at
once.

Physics tells me that time is simply a part of space. My faith is enlightened by the implication that
God is not constrained by time any more than He is constrained by space.