You will occasionally hear stories
in the news about abusive parents that deny their children medical treatment
because, “if they were meant to live, God would heal them.” It would be better
thought of as, if they were meant to live, God would have let responsible
parents raise them, who would have sought out proper medical treatment right
away, and given their child the best care possible. Of course, it does raise an
interesting philosophical question. Do we as humans actually have free choice,
or is everything we do dictated by a plan that was set in motion from before we
were born. Typically, the answers fall into the realms of there is a god and he
did set a plan, there is a god but he gave us free choice, there is no god and
thus no plan. Now let me propose a different option. This series is going to
explore matter, the universe, life, humanity, the laws of physics, and much more
as I explain why I believe there is a plan that is in play, but it is not God’s
grand design.
This series, in its entirety,
essentially describes my entire view of life and the universe as I hold it at
the present time. I would like to note that the theories and beliefs described
hereafter were inspired primarily by physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert
Einstein, developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, and Buddhist founder Siddhartha
Gautama. My collective education in psychology and other sciences, that has also
helped shape these beliefs, is grounded in the works of too many others to name
here.
In this part one of the series, we
will break it all down to the most basic view of everything that exists and
happens in the universe. We’ll begin in the middle and work backwards.
Everything tangible in this world is made of matter. Humans, cows, rocks,
water, air, yes, even cats, are made up of matter, which, itself, is just
various arrangements of different elements. These elements bind to one another
due to interactions between the subatomic particle constituents that constitute
them. They form different arrangements based upon the conditions present at the
time, and this leads to matter taking on many forms. But deep down, I think we
always knew that us and cats were really one and the same.
What about nonmatter though? What
about the intangible? Light for instance, or sound. These are different forms
of energy. Really, when you look closely, everything you know is either matter
or energy. What constitutes energy then? That is a question for a physicist.
So, let’s ask one. Who is the most famous physicist you can think of? Oh! Of
course, Albert Einstein. Didn’t he have some famous theory about energy? Okay,
enough with the rhetorical questions. Einstein developed the equation, E=mc2
which describes the energy equivalency of a stationary mass. To avoid making
this article any more complicated, it essentially suggests that matter and
energy are the same. This has had countless applications in the field of
theoretical physics, but for our purposes, the biggest implication is that we now
have one less thing in the universe to account for.
What’s left? Think of anything that
exists, and it is some form of energy. All that leaves is empty space. I like
to think of space as a chalkboard. You have words and pictures, but they can’t
just exist without being tethered to the board. If you try to draw an “A” not
on the board it won’t work. Space is that chalkboard and matter is the words
and pictures. Just like you can’t draw a picture of a cat not on the board, a real
cat needs space in which to exist.
So, we have a board and a picture of a
cat. Let’s draw a couple more cats. No problem. Now, what if we draw a dog on
the board. So far so good. Now, draw a dog over one of the existing cat
drawings. Here is where things get interesting. Matter can exist apart from
itself all day long, but when it interacts with other bodies of matter, it
becomes much more complicated. A concept exists called the theory of
everything. The idea is a single, coherent equation which would describe all
physical interactions. Nothing is random. Energy behaves according to
predictable patterns based on the variables at play. At present, no such equation
has been derived, but I would assert that such an equation must exist, as the
universe and the interactions that it would define exist. It is likely that
certain variables merely elude us and our current technology. Were we to truly
know all variables present at any one time, we could predict any outcome.
Take a minute to reflect now. It
seems obvious because of how general it is, but we have effectively just
described everything. Everything that exists is energy. It must exist within
the matrix that is space. The interactions between different bodies of energy
are consistent and predictable, described by a yet to be defined equation that
accounts for all physical principles. In basic terms, everything is energy
interacting in space. This is the framework through which I view everything,
and upon which my entire belief system is derived. This is the framework upon
which we will build for the remainder of this series.
-AMS
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