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Subject: [VIEWS] The Wonder and
Sacredness of Nature's Physical
Undercurrent:
Lawrence Fagg
To: VIEWS@LISTSERV.METANEXUS.NET
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Metanexus: Views 2003.02.14 2201 words
Today's columnist Lawrence Fagg observes: "In Romans 1:20 of the
Christian
Bible Paul tells us: 'Ever since the creation of the world His invisible
nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in
the things that have been made.' Among the multitude of things that have
been made, Paul was undoubtedly affected by the cornucopia of plant and
animal life that graces this planet. Butterflies, sunflowers, rabbits, palm
trees, and deer all testify to the fecundity and rich diversity of this
life."
And we, human beings, are part of this "rich diversity of life". But
being
part of this "rich diversity" is not enough to determine our role(s)
within
it.
"Some seven years ago," writes Fagg, "it struck me, as a
physicist, how
beneath this prolific diversity was a myriad of electromagnetic phenomena.
Knowing that the electromagnetic force activates all of chemistry and
biology, I realized that this force has been vital in the evolution of, and
ultimately underlies, all of earthly nature from rocks to plants and
animals, including humans and their brains."
We are, it seems, electromagnetic creatures, like all which lies around us.
Read on to explore what this might mean.
Today's columnist, Lawrence Fagg, is a Research Professor of Nuclear Physics
(retired) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC. A
graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he has Masters Degrees in physics
from the Universities of Maryland and Illinois and a PhD. in physics from
Johns Hopkins University as well as an M.A. in religion from George
Washington University. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, his
professional career was spent mostly at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
and CUA, where he performed experiments in nuclear physics using particle
accelerators in the US, Holland, and Germany. In 1974-5 he was Acting
Director of the NRL Accelerator. This work resulted in the publication of
some 65 papers in refereed journals, two monographs reviewing his field, and
chapters in four edited books.
He is also an Academic Fellow and former Vice-President of the Institute on
Religion in an Age of Science and the author of some 20 publications in
science and religion, including articles in journals and edited books as
well as three books: "Two Faces of Time", "The Becoming of
Time: Integrating
Physical and Religious Time", and "Electromagnetism and the Sacred:
at the
Frontier of Spirit and Matter". He has lectured on the relevance of
electromagnetism in theologies dealing with nature and on parallel time
concepts in modern physics and the major world religions in the US, Canada,
Germany, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Poland and China.
-Stacey E. Ake
Subject: The Wonder and Sacredness of Nature's Physical Undercurrent
From: Lawrence Fagg
Email: <lfagg@shentel.net>
In Romans 1:20 of the Christian Bible Paul tells us:
"Ever since the
creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and
deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made."
Among the multitude of things that have been made, Paul was
undoubtedly
affected by the cornucopia of plant and animal life that graces this planet.
Butterflies, sunflowers, rabbits, palm trees, and deer all testify to the
fecundity and rich diversity of this life.
Some seven years ago it struck me, as a physicist,
how beneath this
prolific diversity was a myriad of electromagnetic phenomena. Knowing that
the electromagnetic force activates all of chemistry and biology, I realized
that this force has been vital in the evolution of, and ultimately
underlies, all of earthly nature from rocks to plants and animals, including
humans and their brains.
It was then that I thought how this unceasing,
invisible
electromagnetic activity was a beautiful way of getting a spiritual glimpse
at what the indwelling or immanence of God might be like. I sensed it as an
engaging, evocative pointer to that immanence, and as such could be thought
of as a physical analog to God's inner presence. Thus I was inspired to
write a book describing these thoughts: "Electromagnetism and the Sacred:
at
the Frontier of Spirit and Matter."
In reflecting now on what I wrote in the book
and the questions it
poses, I feel that there is one especially wonder-provoking question. How is
it that four simple properties of electromagnetic radiation can combine with
such minute sensitivity to make physically possible the presence of
everything on earth, animate and inanimate, including our consciousness?
These properties characterize not only the photons of visible or detectable
radiation, but also the unobservable photons that quantum electrodynamics
tells us transmits the electromagnetic force. Each of these properties
displays inexhaustible variety due to its capacity to vary through a
continuous range.
Specifically, they are intensity (or
strength), wavelength or
frequency, phase, and polarization. Intensity can vary by any tiny amount
from the most subtle, animating the neural system of a fruit fly, to that
energizing a huge power transformer. Wavelengths can be fine-tuned with
incredible precision over a virtually infinite spectrum extending from the
longest of radio waves to the shortest of astonishingly energetic gamma rays
from outer space. Two waves can be in or out of phase so that they mutually
reinforce or cancel, respectively, with all possible relative phases in
between, no matter how incrementally different. Finally, a wave can be
polarized like the light waves that have filtered through your sunglasses
and can be varied in polarization by an infinitesimal amount over the entire
range of possible angles.
How these four basic properties can be orchestrated to
provide the
physical basis for the incredible richness of nature and of human life and
interaction on this earth is to me the most awesome and profound question.
As a physicist I can understand how two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom
can combine to form a water molecule, and how water molecules can
agglomerate to create the exquisite hexagonal symmetry of a snow flake. But
understanding the principles of the marvelous organizing action that
utilizes these innumerable quantum electrodynamic "tools" as agents
to
fashion the creatures of this earth, I believe, is a challenge that will be
with us far into the indefinite future.
These tools have been used in life's entire
evolutionary process from
the assembly of molecules to form first, bacteria cells, then the host of
plant and animal species, and finally humans and their consciousness. Each
breakthrough to a higher level of complexity was carried out as the result
of incessant probing and testing by a multitude of these tools, restlessly
and unremittingly experimenting in search of a higher level of complexity or
organization.
So it is today that the primary physical basis
for our life and
consciousness depends on these tools. Their extreme subtlety is quantified
in experiments in microbiology, which show that voltage gradients as low as
one ten millionth of a volt per centimeter and frequencies between 0 and 100
cycles per second are involved in the interaction between cells in living
creatures. All plant and animal life is bathed in, and interacts with, a sea
of such very low frequency radiation that envelopes the earth. This is
independent of the radiation superimposed by technology.
However, our life today is involved with
electromagnetic phenomena to
a far greater degree than this. Virtually all of modern technology depends
on electromagnetic interactions for its operation. This is so from the
precisely focused laser beams for eye surgery to the massive motor
generators furnishing electric power for our homes. Indeed our increasingly
intimate interaction with our technology (cell phones, computers, robotic
devices, organ implants, etc.) suggests that it will be a vital adjunct to
our future evolution. In effect, we are already co-creators of it.
Furthermore we are almost entirely dependent on
electromagnetism and
its radiation for our knowledge of the microscopic and cosmologic worlds.
There is no quantum measurement that does not need some electromagnetic
interaction for its accomplishment. Essentially all of our information of
the cosmos is transmitted to us via some part of the electromagnetic
radiation spectrum. Even the observations based on neutrino and
gravitational wave detection use electromagnetic technology to effect a
measurement.
Clearly one could continue indefinitely giving
examples of how
universal
electromagnetism and its radiation are in our internal and external
experience.
For no other phenomenon of physical nature so totally and intimately
permeates and affects our lives and our world, providing the means by which
we can in turn sense the sacred in all of earthly nature. This vibrant
indwelling in nature is given testimony in writings of mystics and in
scriptures from Saint Francis of Assisi and Jalal adin Rumi in the West to
Lao Tzu in the Tao te Ching in the East. I find one of its most beautiful
expressions in two lines of Wordsworth:
"In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand
Touch - for there is a spirit in the woods."
Moreover, a central feature of physical nature is
light, which is
electromagnetic radiation. Light has served as a primary medium for the
spirituality of men and women since the dawn of human consciousness. It has
been an essential component in the creation myths of cultures worldwide. It
has been the principal focus for the spirituality expressed in rituals of
religions throughout the world for millennia. Theologians from Saint
Augustine and Joannes Philoponus to Robert Grosseteste have pondered and
contemplated on its spiritual significance, giving us penetrating, and in
some cases remarkably predictive, insights.
It is this abiding reverence for nature, this
perception of its being
spiritually imbued that prompts me to posit that the ubiquity of
electromagnetic phenomena on earth is an evident and compelling analog for
the ubiquity of God's immanence. But I need to emphasize that
electromagnetism is not God, nor God's immanence, but it is a provident
means for us to have some conception of the nature of that immanence. I hold
that it should be considered as such by any theology that seeks to interpret
nature.
In forwarding this view I readily acknowledge that
the other three
physical forces, the weak, nuclear, and gravitational, can arguably also be
considered as reasonable analogs for divine immanence. For example, it is
the nuclear force that provides the vast majority of mass to all of matter
and hence affords us a sense of substance and tangibility and so could be
considered as a metaphor for divine inherence. Even more convincing is the
gravitational force that provides the mutual attraction between every mass
in the universe, however infinitesimal.
Even so, although each has a vital function in making
possible our
existence, none of these three forces can compare with the versatility,
diversity, and scope of the electromagnetic force in providing the physical
basis for the awesome plethora of creations on this earth, including us.
Throughout evolution it is has played this special role virtually
independent of the relatively passive and inanimate background role played
by the other forces.
Some who are more physics-oriented may wonder
about the fact there is
what is known as the electroweak theory that received its first strong
experimental support about twenty years ago. This theory jointly describes
the electromagnetic and weak forces from about one billionth of a second
after the big bang, when they were indistinguishable, to today, when they
behave quite differently. So today the weak part of the electroweak force
cannot do any of the wondrous things the electromagnetic part can do that I
describe here.
These wondrous things, these indispensable
undergirding phenomena, do
not seem to be considered very much in the science-religion dialogue in
recent years. Most of this dialogue has understandably drawn on the
biological sciences: evolutionary biology, zoology, anthropology, neurology,
and studies of the brain and consciousness etc. But in our passionate search
for a deeper understanding of the wonders of complexity, perhaps it might
worthwhile to take a backward glance at the physical instruments that are
used in achieving this complexity. Should we entirely take for granted the
necessary in our devout quest for the sufficient?
These physical instruments, these
electrodynamic phenomena, place
limits on, and help define the nature of, the complexity we seek to
comprehend. They provide the prerequisite physical grounding for all living
complexity. To understand more clearly the nature of this grounding, let us
reflect on the fact that we and all living nature are carbon-based species.
So let us consider the carbon atom. 99.97% of its mass is concentrated in
the nucleus at its center and occupies some one trillionth of its volume;
the rest of the volume consists of six electrons of very small mass and
trillions of force-carrying photons that keep the electrons in their orbits.
Therefore there is a vast array of electrodynamic
phenomena that fills
the overwhelming majority of the world's space, so that we ourselves are
immersed in an ocean of electromagnetic events; in fact we are part of the
ocean. This helps me see these electromagnetic phenomena as constituting the
furthest frontier of the physical realm probing with its sensitive tendrils
into the unknown gap between that realm and the realm of the conscious and
spiritual. Thus, it plays an unique role in our unending search for a fuller
cohesion of the whole continuum of existence from the material to the
spiritual.
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