Posted on 10/01/2013 6:01:44 AM PDT by don-o
As a religious physicist, I have occasionally fielded questions from various people pertaining to my Faith and how I reconcile it with my understanding of physics. One point that is often brought up is the apparently "illogical" nature of the Holy Trinity, which is of utmost importance to Orthodox Christians: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. "How can three be one and yet be distinct at the same time?" I am often asked, and I never really had a good answer for that question.
Recently, however, I had an epiphany as I was thinking about the Holy Trinity from a physics perspective, which may aid in better appreciating Its' amazing significance. But to do so, I was forced to "think outside of the box (universe)" so to speak.
To begin with, we first must recognize that we live in four-dimensional spacetime (x,y,z,t). Within the confines of our universe, energy and matter (a form of potential energy) interact and move about, converting from one form to another over the past 13.5 billion years or so. Within the paradigm of physical laws, we also have the concept of wave-particle duality wherein every physical object (proton, photon, electron, neutrino, etc) can be viewed either as a particle or as a wave, quantum mechanically. Both views are just as valid despite the apparent paradox of something being a wave and particle at the same time. From this, the uncertainty principle derives which some have argued enables "free will." As I have suggested before [1-2], our universe is likely a four-dimensional "bubble" that is expanding into infinitely dimensional (or at least higher dimensional) "space." With these perspectives, we can consider the following possibility:
God, the Father encompasses all that is outside of our universe (including other parallel universes and universes of different dimensions should they exist) as the Creator of these universes and as an infinitely-dimensional entity. This is similar to a painter such as Michelangelo existing outside of his painting or the designer/engineer of a car living outside of the car. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, represents God's representation within four-dimensional spacetime, i.e., our universe, as a human being (made up of particles - matter) who suffered as a human being and then was resurrected. The Holy Spirit represents God's representation within our universe as an all-encompassing/ubiquitous wave (pure energy) which is immune/invisible to the material world - i.e. the matter-based world - but which permeates it with ease. Time stops for waves that travel at the speed of light. As long as the universe exists, the Holy Spirit will continue to roam and spiritually warm our universe. God may no longer be with us in the flesh (at least for now) but is with us in spirit (if we want Him to be).
When we pray, the Holy Spirit "hears" us. When we love God, the Holy Spirit "resonates" with us and perhaps even inspires us. In other words, we interact with the Holy Spirit.
When we attend Church and take Holy Communion, we interact/couple with the body and blood of Christ (physical particles) in accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and look to follow Him as our Shepherd. Jesus is much easier for us to comprehend (and follow) than an infinitely dimensional and complex Creator (God the Father).
Together, all three of these entities represent God as a whole. Though we will not meet God the Father until after death, we are enlightened via the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, which existed and exist (respectively) in four-dimensional spacetime. Jesus, as the perfect human being, set the example for us to follow. Though God is likely infinitely complex (and therefore will always be incomprehensible to us), this may give us yet some more insight into the Creator of our world and possibly infinitely many more worlds.
I certainly am not pretending to "explain" God in this piece as I present an incomplete theory of sorts. Nevertheless, the more we learn about our physical universe and how it was put together, the closer we can come, I believe, to God.
The writer is an associate professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The opinions expressed in this article are solely his own.
Michael Pravica
I confess that I am not clear on the fourth dimension. The Fifth Dimension I do recall from the 60's.
Space... or time? One of those.
The original article includes Rublev’s icon of the Most Holy Trinity (represented by the three angels who visited Abraham).
Michael Pravica is a Serbian-American physicist (Ph.D., Harvard) and activist. He’s one of the good guys!!!!
Humans have a need to fit things within some sort of cohesive little sphere. There are some Entities that don’t fall within those boundaries.
Plus the stories about stuff like the Russian Army fighting off martians and stuff is a total hoot.
Just my luck here I am stuck in the 63rd dimension.But I too remember the 5th dimension from the 60’s.. and HG Wells “time Machine “ as well -still looking for where I was when I parked it.
“How can three be one and yet be distinct at the same time?”
Three Persons, One God.
It is an ineffable mystery, but it is not a case of 3 equaling 1 and not equaling 1 at the same time.
The Trinity has three Persons. We know this by Christ’s revelation of God.
But we state that God has more than one person each and every time we say that “God is Love”.
For if God was/contained only one person then who would He love while being Himself, whole and entire for the whole immensity of eternity that existed before He created angels and men?
Only the doctrine of the Trinity captures this mysterious dance at the center of all things - that God is Love and also the unselfish object and subject of that Love.
I’m an Old Testament believer where the physics therein appear more consistent to me.
It's the the nontrinitarian belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are different roles of one "Unitarian" God, as perceived by the believer(like a guy who's a son, a husband and a father, but still one person) rather than three distinct persons eternally existing within the One Godhead.
Tsk. Heresy.
**Pravda. You read that right. Pravda.**
That shocked me too.
What an elegant discussion of the Trinity.
Nice try. We humans with finite minds will never be able to understand the infinite...
This is great, thanks for posting. As a physics fan, I will find this useful in conveying a portion of the reality to some physicist friends who are groping toward the Faith. A lot of physicists are finding that, Hawking’s desperate efforts notwithstanding, they can’t really argue persuasively with Guth’s work. There are some distinguished physicists who are priests.
“I was forced to “think outside of the box (universe)” so to speak”......................
LOL. That statement says it all. Can God be contained in a box? No. That’s the answer. Faith in God is a gift, and is not confined by any mortal logic.
For the sake of some stubborn scientists/atheists, however, I applaud his writing.
I believe one of the best ways to describe the Trinity is from a Chemistry persepective: Water! Water can be solid (ice), liquid (water), or gas (steam or water vapor). Each of these forms of water is different (solid, liquid, or gas) but each are exactly the same! Water! Even Christ is sometimes described as the Living Water.
These are the three phases of nature, and each pure substance can exist in the three phases. Maybe a little reminder for us in the works of God in His universe.
We can NOT know God in His Essence. Therefore, we cannot explain God by our logic or science.
We CAN—by Grace—know God in His Energies. (Grace is one of His Energies.) This kind of knowledge is more akin to knowing another person whom we love than knowing by logic or through the senses. It may happen, for example, through the Holy Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, or via deep prayer. (See especially the writings of St. Gregory Palamas.)
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Gregory_Palamas
Michael Pravica’s essay is useful, however, for those of us living in a science-based world, which includes all of us, even Orthodox Christians.
Meanwhile, there are some physicists and mathematicians who are trying to convert quantum theory to a branch of probability, thus eliminating the wave/particle duality, etc. (I imagine that these researchers are atheists, too.) However, in my mind, this divorces quantum theory from observation and experiment, and it thus ceases to be real science.
Perhaps... yet, the good news is- recognition does not require full understanding.
Don’t forget the shamrock begorra.
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