The Gravity of God
“This is the fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion.”
— C. S. Lewis
The word Gravity in the title has two meanings. The first meaning is that the subject of God is an important one. Although I am a Christian, I can understand someone who disbelieves in God. In fact, I have disbelieved in God for a good portion of my life. What I cannot understand is someone who dismisses the question of God’s existence altogether — the existence or absence of an omnipotent, benevolent God has at least some bearing on how we live our daily lives. The implications of a divine power depend on the characteristics of that divine power, which brings us to the next point. The second meaning of the word Gravity in the title is the physical force and how it is in some sense related to, a component of, or derived from God (The Gravity of God.) It would take more than this article to figure out what I mean by that last sentence, but the general idea is that we have something to learn about God from the forces and phenomena in the universe like gravity, black holes, and quantum mechanics. I am not saying that the universe somehow “proves” God. If you are looking for someone that will “discover” or “prove” God in the same way that knowledge is discovered or proved in the scientific sense, then I am sorry to disappoint you. In fact, I think trying to do such a thing is ludicrous and will certainly end in failure. Why? Science and religion ask separate questions. Science attempts, by observation and experiment, to describe what is going on in our universe. Religion then asks something along the lines of “Is there something more?” You see, by definition, religion addresses the realm outside of physical, provable knowledge. Some of you will scoff at the aim of religion. At times in my life, I certainly have. But if you scoff at the aim of religious study, then you must be prepared to accept the limitations of scientific inquiry. In the end, the job of a scientist is to observe the universe and make accurate models of it. An astronomer studies and predicts the motions of the stars; a geologist studies and predicts the motions of the Earth; a biologist studies and predicts the motions within living beings. No matter how far science progresses, no matter how useful it becomes, it will never answer questions like “What is the meaning of life?” and “Why does the universe exist?” If you are happy leaving those questions unanswered, I am afraid this blog will be very boring to you. If, like me, you are interested in questions beyond the scope of science alone, then there is one more thing we must agree on before we can move forward any further: that a creator can leave something of itself in its creation. Paintings have something of the painter; books have something of the author; children have something of the parents. By searching the depths and oddities of our physical universe, we might find hints at the character of a Creator God. If that God has left nothing of Himself, then our search is hopeless. If He has, and I think He has, then there is no limit to what we might find.
