Measurement Tools
“How you describe something depends on what your measurement tools are.”
So I’ve been hooked on the Science Channel of the past year or so. Perhaps it’s my affinity for all things Star Trek or a feeble attempt to cover the fact that I never pulled better than a “C” in any college Science course I took, but I love it nonetheless. And when it comes to trying to wrap my brain around quantum physics, I enjoy the pain.
While my real study if the topic I limited to shows on TV, Wikipedia articles, and this weird fascination with Stephen Hawking, I like to think I’ve got a grasp on the basic principles, or at least enjoy tricking myself that I do.
So, a few weeks ago I was watching “A Brief History of Time,” yet another quantum special on the Science Channel, and Harvard professor Lisa Randall started explaining the possibilities of multiple dimensions. As she an other experts in the field continued explaining the theory, showing that human understanding is limited by nothing more than lack of experience, my mind started spinning.
How alike is science and theology! Seemingly conflicting ideas blend together into beautiful equations that define reality, often in ways we are not able to understand, but the bigness of which we are more than able to appreciate. But why are we unable to understand what makes the universe tick or God’s heart beat?
Randall went on to say something that is so true of the human experience on Earth. My mind jumped immediately to my lack of true understanding of things like eternity, the trinity, and other things I’ve resolved to never fully understand, but things the bigness of which I have learned to appreciate.
“How you describe something depends on what your measurement tools are.” So, just like the prisoner’s in Plato’s cave or the citizens of Abbott’s Flatland, we use our set of limited unerstanding to explain the truths of a reality we can hardly grasp. But, like the little boy who asks his Father unending questions about the tiny world that is his reality, I will continue to ponder the things of God and creation, however limited my tools, and seek the answers that keep my heart fixed on the greatness set out before me.
