T.O.E (The Theory of Everything)

Strong and Courageous

Nov. 17, 2017

T.O.E. (the Theory Of Everything)

Many folks in our culture hold tightly to the notion that there will be someone in the future who will be able to explain everything in our universe in one super elegant theory much akin to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Recently there was a movie chronicling the life of Stephen Hawking titled the Theory of Everything, implying that possibly he could be the one to do it.

My question to this, is it ever going to be possible for one theory to explain it all? Is it guaranteed to eventually happen? My position is that there is no possibility for one unifying axiom for explaining our cosmos.  Back in the days of Alchemy, there was speculation that lead could be transformed into gold. If the right manipulation could be made, one could become instantly rich beyond all imagination. Eventually the realization that it is not possible to make this transformation was accepted. And no one to my knowledge is still on the quest to transform lead into gold.

The reason for holding a dim view on T.O.E. is that there are limitations on how far science can take us. Please understand that I am not anti-science, far from it. But there are other disciplines in play that are necessary to consider. They are philosophy and religion. These two other areas go to places in the mind where science can’t navigate.

A much more complete view would look something like this:

Science /  Philosophy  /  Religion

For example, concerning origins of the universe. Science can go into great detail about what took place after the big bang occurred. But Science can’t address the questions of why it was created in the first place. Philosophy will ask the question, why is there something rather than nothing? Religion will address the issue that everything that comes into existence, has to have a designer or creator. Dr. John Lennox, mathematics professor at Oxford uses the example of a birthday cake to explain this. Science can explain how all the ingredients are mixed together, chemical bonds, application of controlled heat, etc. What Science can’t do is explain that Aunt Matilda was the creator of the cake and she baked it for little Andrew’s 4^th birthday.

Science is great, but it should not be elevated above the limitations placed upon it. Many people believe that Science does answer all of the questions so that we no longer have any need of God. They think that the more that sciences progresses, the less need for God to be the explanation for things. So science gets bigger and bigger and God gets smaller and smaller so eventually He vanishes…poof and then there will be no more religion. But is this true? Is religion i.e. belief in God waning?

The statistics prove otherwise. Tim Keller does a great job in developing the narrative that religion in America is not going away any time soon. The notion of religion declining into oblivion was popularized in the 1940’s, but today, what the demographics reveal is that Christianity is alive and well in our nation. What has declined is the number of people who have a vague, mushy belief in God. The number of people who have a defined solid or “crunchy” belief in the God of the bible continues to be growing. I believe that the reason for this continued success in the Christian faith, is that it is true. There really are distinct dividing lines between science and philosophy and religion. I also believe that a person has better understanding of how the universe works by including all 3 disciplines.

And concerning the grand narrative of the T.O.E.? Good luck with that one Mr.  Alchemist.

Links:

Professor John Lennox | God DOES exist

 Tim Keller Belief in the age of skepticism (1^st 8 minutes)