"He has put eternity into man's mind, yet. . ."

(response to remarks by Rev. Dr. Ray Gotko, and a radio interview with John Polkinghorne, author of Scientists and Theologians)

Thanks to Rev. Dr. Ray Gotko for bringing together some pop science, some daily experience, and my favorite book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes.

His recent "reflections" column in the bulletin of St. James Church begins with ways that human perception differs from what Science knows. Space and time are both somehow affected by gravity, energy is matter at high speed, bees see infrared light all around us that we can't see, and "My dog ponders the scent of a blade of grass, and I wait impatiently. . . completely unaware of the scent and its meaning." What we can't perceive does not exist for us.

So when some of us say that we inhabit a spiritual realm, "Is it a reality or a wishful conjecture that supplies meaning where there is none?" There may be no instrument to perceive this "spiritual realm," but Ray asks, why should we expect there to be one? He suggests that he has no trouble with the notion that the "spiritual realm" is something that humans are prepared to sense in the way that dogs do scents. For this, he finds support in Ecclesiastes: "He has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."

Beyond this, Ray finds an analogy between life and quantum physics, as our own observation of small particles influences what they do. He writes,

The days come and go, bringing us mostly an unexpected set of circumstances to which we must adjust our plans. From the spiritual perspective, there seems to be a force at work that senses our plans and modifies them to suit "the plan" for the day that somehow juggles all plans for the "good" of creation."

In this, Ray echoes what I heard from pioneering physicist-turned-Anglican-Priest, John Polkinghorne, interviewed on "Speaking of Faith" (see links). Polkinghorne, speaking from a perspective of chaos theory and quantum physics, says there's lots of room for an active God to be improvising within a universe of fixed laws, without pre-ordaining anything except the general direction of things.

In teaching, as in composing and writing, I know very well how a creator can start with a strong intention and detailed plan, and how ALL the details can fall by the wayside while the original intention succeeds beyond the original vision.

Finally, Ray isolates a section of Ecclesiastes, including a line that strikes me differently in this context:

I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God's gift to humanity that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all toil.

"He has put eternity into man's mind, yet. . ." | Category: Religion