We are told by people who know, if anyone actually knows, that ninety-five percent of the cosmos is made up of Dark Matterand Dark Energy.No really, these are not Marvel Comic characters but the composition of everything!
Stay with me here, even if physics is not your thing. The big concepts are easy enough to comprehend (which is why I can even write about them). It is the details of it all that are bewildering and way beyond my paygrade.
Dark matter gathers things together, creating or assisting as it does, gravity. Dark energy is its opponent, a repulsive antigravity force trying to stretch the cosmos like a rubber band. The thing is, neither of these whoa-nelly, super-stupendous, almost as gargantuan as God forces can be studied. Not exactly. We cannot touch, see, or stir them up to measure their reactions. We can’t even taste or hear them. I know, that makes them seem suspect, right?
But astronomers and physicists know about dark matter because what we can see, visible matter, does not have enough gravitational force on its own to hold galaxies together. There must be something else, and unseen dark matter is composed of it, they say. At the other end of the spectrum, dark energy is indicated by the fact that the universe is expanding outwardly, at an ever-increasing rate even. Working against gravity, dark energy is pulling galaxies apart.
It turns out, according to these very smart people and their computer generated mathematical models, that the stuff we can actually see, touch, hear, taste, and smell – visible matter– makes up only five percent of the cosmos! Yep, everything we see and know is only five percent.
Now some people may have difficulty accepting this view of the big picture, but I don’t. My acquiescence is not because I have a clue about the science. But, as God says to the Biblical character Job in a marvelous scene in which God mercilessly rubs Job’s ignorance in his face, “I am God and you are not.” I realize how little I know.
Actually, I take that back. I do not even realize how little I know, and that allows me to give some credence to those smart astronomers and physicists. But what I do have a problem with is that bland, over-used, glib throw-away line people use, “everything happens for a reason.”
Really? Everything happens for a reason? Give me a break.
There may be a cause and effect relationship between actions and reactions in the universe, although I would still hold out for random, free-floating radical events too. But to say that everything happens for a reason is only a dirty sock we stuff into the big, leaky hole in our knowledge. We would rather use an explanation without knowledge than live with our ignorance. We are more comfortable with platitudes and anesthetizing words without knowledge, than embracing real holes in our data. In other words, we prefer to make stuff up.
It may seem like a small, innocuous saying to write a rant about, especially when people often say it without thought, but it is hazardous to our thinking. We have enough hazardous thinking as it is.
Cam — superb! You will remember that I worked for Ind. Civil Rights Comm. for almost a decade.
SO, speaking of ‘DARK MATTER’ who in addition to NEIL deGRASSE are the astronomers of color?
Perhaps the best people in physics and astronomy had to have some extra time to mull over the
secrets of the universe PLUS some funds for the expensive equipment to explore and test hypotheses.
In philosophy and religion who do you think of those out ahead of the rest of us in exploration and testing?
I think immediately of our neighbor Ron Allen just retired from Christian Theo. Seminary — homiletics
and New Testament. I have sat in on a few of his classes and he is an extremely gifted teacher,
had been a Disciples of Christ pastor before coming to CTS, has written a “library of books,”
AND has been at our house early after most 3 inch snows to shovel our walks!
He and his wife Linda McKiernan, pastor of a church at Tipton, IN, have brought three extraordinary kids into
the world, as well as adopting two infants of color and raised them yo be amazing young women!
PLEASE send his resume to that former Notre Dame prof Trump wants to appoint to SCOTUS!
Glory be to the Creator for “dark matter” and the other intracacies of the world that has been a gift
to humans for our stewardship!
It is great that the paper there in the Finger Lakes is airing your work!
Another Munsonian!
Go Muncie!
I’ve been reading that we cannot tolerate too much reality. James Baldwin said it. Have you seen the film I am not your Negro? His big question is, why does our society create the negro (target groups of people)–before we advance we need to address that question and deal with it. Akin to your question or statement.
I have not seen it but now am interested. I think on an individual level, blame works the same way. We direct our anger, resentment, shame, etc. outward instead of addressing our own dark energy. So I guess the point is, and someone has said it, if we didn’t have the concept of negro already we would invent one.
I too have been bothered by that phrase. And when I hear it, I kind of wipe it out by saying, OK, I don’t like this situation. But God always offers me the opportunity to learn something from every situation, even the ones that I don’t like. So what can I learn now? It’s not so much a reason as an opportunity. Maybe that doesn’t make sense, but it helps me get past my irritation at someone saying “Everything happens for a reason.”
It’s a perfect translation. Thanks!
Check out God and the Big bang by Daniel Matt, and I agree about “Everything Happened for a Reason” a platitude that takes us off the hook for other people’s suffering.
Yes, and we have enough taking off the hook to go around!
The evidence for the existence of dark matter was discovered/observed much like the tomb being empty by a woman, Vera Rubin in the 1960s when like our biblical ancestor women were unrecognized too often in science. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/vera-rubin-didnt-discover-dark-matter/
I did not know this, and what a great NT parallel!
Perfect.. anytime you can reference Job you have a winner! For some unknown reason I’ve failed to share your blog on the Free Range Episcopalianism group on Facebook. That omission has been corrected. 🙏
Yay, thank you!
Here’s another one: It’s all for the best.
LOL, yes, that’s another one.
LOL, that’s another!
There will always be a few people who miss the connection between science and what is revealed to us through religious text. Many innovations in the past 100+ years were considered science fiction until they is sitting in your homes. We talked in a recent bible study about “The Tree Of Knowledge” my comments were that I look at the possibility of knowledge being stored in DNA with release triggers revealing more when we are able as to understand and apply it to our lives.
I am happy that some understand that we will never know how much we will never know!
Amen!