Ontology

Like many others, I was fascinated by the discovery of black holes in space.  Though they can not be seen by the eye or directly measured with any known instruments, scientists concluded that black holes exist simply because the behavior of other stellar bodies told them that there had to be something there.  Something that could not be seen was influencing the behavior of everything that could be seen.

At almost the same time, physicists discovered a parallel behavior in the smallest bits of matter.  Ernest Rutherford’s experiments found the atom was relatively vacant.  Instead of the basic building blocks of matter anticipated by classical physics, Rutherford found the atom consists of vast regions of space in which extremely small particles move more or less at will. 

Quantum physics extended these finding with experiments that demonstrate that the particles within the atom are no more substantial than the atom itself.   There are no “solid” objects at any level.  Even the smallest bits of matter turn out to be abstract entities with aspects that change depending on why they are being examined and how we look at them.  Rather than being the detached and distant observers they were trained to be, scientists found themselves participating in every experiment, influencing the results with their expectations.

In other words, everything in the universe is affected by the behavior of everything else.  Everything that happens outside us happens inside us as well.  We are at once a being composed of millions of life forms, a part of the total body called humanity, and a cell in the universe. 

Experiment after experiment in the new physics has shown how one thing influences another across the boundaries of our seeming separateness.  The movement of the stars in the sky is identical to the movement of the atoms in our bodies.

Everything is relative.  Everything is related.  In the words of Sir Arthur Eddington, “When the electron vibrates, the universe shakes.”

The dismantling of the classical vision of the separateness of things confirms the understanding theologians have long held about the unity of life.  We have one relationship on earth.  That relationship is repeated in endless variety with everyone we meet and everything we see.  

God, man, and the universe are one indissoluble whole.