Big Bang Theory

British science writer Brian Clegg, in his book Before the Big Bang (St Martin’s Press, New York, 2009), declares:

Although the Big Bang is the best accepted theory [about the start of the universe], it certainly isn’t the only one, and a number of scientists regularly pick holes in the evidence supporting it. It doesn’t help that the whole thing has the feeling of something held together with a Band-Aid. If it hadn’t been for the addition of the idea of ‘inflation’, the whole concept wouldn’t work, and the trouble with ‘inflation’ is that although it’s something that would make what’s observable possible, no one can come up with a decent explanation why it should have happened.

In a chapter titled ‘Inflating the Truth’, Clegg states:

Let’s be absolutely clear here. Dark matter and dark energy are accepted parts of the current most widely accepted model of the universe, but as was the ether before them, they are unlikely constructs, added to make an inexplicable behavior fit the natural world. They are ‘place markers’ in physics, not necessarily true concepts. They may prove to exist, but it is entirely possible that we will soon have an accepted model that disposes of them and deploys totally different reasons for the behaviors that are explained by dark matter and dark energy.

Physicists have come up with many wonderful constructs based on and anticipating the evidence, including universes succeeding each other from infinity and for eternity, and multiple universes each existing in a bubble and possibly influencing each other’s behavior. So Clegg certainly captures the spirit of discovery exhibited by those exploring incredibly taxing scientific questions when he concludes his book in this way:

We may not have definitive answers, but the different possibilities remain a delight that will intrigue anyone who looks out at the night sky with a sense of awe, wondering where it all came from and where it all began.

Another piece that examines many questions on the nature of the universe that remain in doubt is ‘What Happened Before the Big Bang? The New Philosophy of Cosmology’ published in The Atlantic in January of 2012. This has the startling statement from a leading philosopher of science that though Stephen Hawking “is a brilliant man, he's not an expert in what's going on in [the philosophy of physics]".

I think he just doesn't know what he's talking about. I mean there's no reason why he should. Why should he spend a lot of time reading the philosophy of physics? I'm sure it's very difficult for him to do. But I think he's just . . . uninformed.

In brief, our scientific understanding of the origins of the world we inhabit is obviously in its infancy and, to mix metaphors, it is extremely presumptuous to close the stable door at this early stage as to conclusions about the mechanical processes that gave rise to the weird and wonderful phenomena we are sure or often only suspect occur around us.  

Woody Allen Part 2

At last I have watched Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. I enjoyed the simple and natural style of the production. While I was living with the conflicted family I had in mind my post from when the film came out in 2010. I had quoted from an interview in which Allen put fortune-tellers on a par with all religions, with a messy world the consequence. He had said he could not connect with his Jewish heritage, which, to my mind, would have anchored his life in a certainty of a far different order than that provided by the fraudster in the film.
As it happened, this weekend I have also read a short paper on the practice of Catholic theology that stresses the partnership between the rational and scientific, and faith. It says:

Theology is scientific reflection on the divine revelation which the Church accepts by faith as universal saving truth. The sheer fulness and richness of that revelation is too great to be grasped by any one theology, and in fact gives rise to multiple theologies as it is received in diverse ways by human beings. In its diversity, nevertheless, theology is united in its service of the one truth of God. 

The content of faith is based on the fact of the treasury of Biblical and Christian texts, the unique history of the Hebrews and the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It provides a set of principles that then must be teased out by delving into all fields of  the world and human life. Theology is "the exploration in myriad ways of God’s one saving truth".
The film shows a family disintegrating because its members disregard a set of human principles that reflect the way we have, in fact, been made. In particular, they spurn their married partners. For sure, these rudderless people are a commonplace these days, but they give insight into where truth lies - in other words, where people of well-founded principle can find happiness. Though it would have been hard for each to stay put, the outcome would have been fulfilling for each, because that is the way we are made.

  

The Personality of God

God is a person, with a personality, with a character of distinctive features. As a spirit, God is neither a male nor female, but God has become known to humans with a male nature to the fore, in particular as Father, "based on the understanding of the intimate familial relationship"(*) humans have experienced with God. The Emory University-based theologian Gail O'Day writes:

Just as it is false to the richness of the Christian tradition to use father language as generic language for God, it is equally false to the tradition to speak about God in general terms that flatten the vitality and depth of biblical metaphor and language. God is Father in John, and the Church's job is to move beyond the assumption that Father is simply a synonym for God and discover what father language in John contributes to a fuller understanding of God and the Christian life. (**)

God has a story to tell, and one wonders what there is to tell about the billions of billions of billions of years before "our" universe was created 13 billion years ago. Of course,  there are also multiverse theories relating to other universes pre-existing or co-existing with ours. Still, in a limited way, we do have insight into the nature of God. There are, first, insights into the existence of a being of ultimate significance built up by humans everywhere right from their origin, and even an awareness hinted at by the chimpanzees observed by Jane Goodall. Of greater importance to our understanding is the experience of the Hebrews over the 1850 years since the migration from Ur to Canaan of Abraham, who was answering a divine imperative; and, even more dramatically, those gained by living with Jesus of Nazareth, who the early Christian community quickly came to recognise is eternal God and, from a certain point in history, human as well.
This is how the first Christians saw Jesus-God active among them:

His state was divine
yet He did not cling
to His equality with God
but emptied Himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as we are;
and being as we are,
He was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
(Letter to the Philippians 2:6-8
The Jerusalem Bible)

From that experience of God-with-us, the Christians then and in subsequent eras have known God to be loving, compassionate, our healer, our servant, and on the cross, our redeemer. There is a great mystery about this that Compassion expresses this way:

By entering with us into the condition of a slave, God has been revealed to us. [But] self-emptying and humiliation are not a step away from God's true nature. ... Rather, in the emptied and humbled Christ we encounter God, we see who God really is, we come to know true divinity. ... As Karl Barth says, "God does not have to dishonour Himself when He goes into the far country and conceals His glory. For He is truly honoured in His concealment. This concealment, and therefore His condescension as such, is the image and the reflection in which we see Him as He is. (***)

Wounded healers: Artwork by Joel Filartiga

One other mysterious element of God's compassionate nature that Jesus reveals is that "Jesus did not come into the world clinging to his intimacy with His Father as if it were his private domain. He came to include us in His divine obedience. He wanted to lead us to God so that we could enjoy the same intimacy He did." (*)  Obedience is integral within the community that makes the trinity of divine persons, and Jesus' obedience is "full undivided attention to the voice of His beloved Father". (*)
(*) Compassion, 2005 edition, H.J.M. Nouwen, D. P. McNeill, D. A. Morrison, New York, Doubleday.
(**) 'John' in Women's Bible Commentary, C.A Newsom and S.H. Ringe, eds (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.
(***) Church Dogmatics, IV/1,  K. Barth, Edinburgh, T.& T. Clark, Sons) 1956, p.188.

Splendid Suns

A noteworthy book that I have just finished is A Thousand Splendid Suns by the Afghanistan-born Khaled Hosseini, the author, too, of The Kite Runner. It was in the bestseller lists by 2008 because it brings alive the turmoil of the past 30 years in Afghanistan and makes real the heartbreaking events that still disrupt the lives of families and tear at the social fabric there. The story is mostly about the heartbreaking life of Mariam, who finally killed her brutish husband when he was trying to kill the second wife in the household. Despite the circumstances, the Taliban judge sentenced her to death. In the last minutes of her life Mariam rises above all the hardships she had faced and has this reflection:

Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami [bastard] child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.

Mariam then puts herself in the hands of God, “He makes the night cover the day and the day overtake the night”, as she kneels at the order of her executioner and waits for the bullet to her bowed head.
The novel continues with Mariam's positive tenor by describing how the willingness of some to share the difficulties of Afghanistan at war allows love to reach the most neglected.

Saving Ourselves

People soon realise that, as persons, they are crippled or their growth is stunted  in some way. They often turn to exercise to correct their physical state in the hope that the outcome will also be that their hearts are no longer stony, their minds not so bound to the world around them, and their emotions not so disordered.

Many others take up self-improvement programs. I've been invited to join such a group, called "Discover Your Potential". It runs over five Saturdays, from 9am-1pm and the cost is US$500. The participants are told that the investment of time and money will enable them to:

• improve your quality of life
• learn how to work with your mind to adopt positive thinking
• gain insight into your conditioning and beliefs, why you do the things you do and how you can change them
• learn why you have the results you have right now and how you can improve them 
• learn how to love yourself, appreciate yourself and build up self confidence
• Learn how to work with Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
• learn how to interact with others in a positive way, understand their motives and behavior
• understand your impact on others
• learn to manage your energy better
• learn how to meditate, how to live in the now, and how to reflect on nature in order to be able to understand yourself
• learn how to use affirmations & visualizations
• learn how to use the Law of Attraction to manifest your desires and goals
• find your passion in life
• experience happiness and piece of mind

All this seems like reinventing the wheel. "Know thyself!" is attributed to a wise Greek of the 6th Century BC. Buddhism and Catholicism have long fostered that deep meditation that produces peace, and a lifestyle that is disciplined, positively-oriented and thereby fulfilling, despite all manner of problems on the way.

Christians know another factor is involved, too, in a happy life - a close relationship with the person who made it all possible, the person who is God. That orientation beyond ourselves, that life lived with the guidance of our Creator, is the most successful way, the direct way  to the fullness of life. A relationship with the person who is God is also the quickest way to break from the  aggressive consumerism that snares our hearts and minds in its deadly traps of materialism and selfishness. God is the source of peace, and the gospels acknowledge that, given the community's experience of  the promised peace, joy, and fullness of life.   

The Queen as Messenger of Joy

In her 2011 Christmas message the Queen gave striking testimony to the role Jesus can play in our lives. She spoke of the many instances of difficulty families and nations had encountered during the previous year. Then she gave her splendid testimony, such that I have not seen previously. The Queen concluded her message with these words of witness:

Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. Jesus was born into a world full of fear. The angels came to frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: 'Fear not', they urged, 'we bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
'For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.'
Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves - from our recklessness or our greed.
God sent into the world a unique person - neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.
Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God's love.
In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, there's a prayer:
O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us we pray.
Cast out our sin
And enter in.
Be born in us today.
It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.
I wish you all a very happy Christmas."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16328899