I was an adolescent when the Death of God movement was in full swing forty-plus years ago. The idea was first put forth by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the nineteenth century. In the theological movement of the 1960s, some thinkers postulated that God had actually died, pointing to the horrors of the Holocaust as the historical moment when death had occurred. In their new book, The Grand Design, physicists Stephen Hawking and Len Mlodinow, suggest that God–if God ever existed–is now rendered unnecessary.
Hawking and Mlodinow posit something called “m-theory,” which holds that the universe was created out of nothing, a stark contrast to the Hebraic understanding that the pre-existent chaos of the universe was actually brought under control by the Creator. There was something already there, suggests the writers of Genesis; it was God who brought order out of the primeval mess. I’ll leave it there for now.
Lots of well-meaning folks will be driven to wring their hands when something like m-theory hits the news, and the instant reaction is often a defensive posture that lacks the intellectual acumen of that to which they react. There is often a retreat into a kind naive counter-intellect that seeks to preserve the simplicity of one’s childhood faith. I do not share that anxiety.
I have come to believe that my tiny intellect can never capture the vastness of God, a conviction shared by Calvin and others through the centuries. However, I can admire two brilliant physicists for their work–and I do–it’s just that it seems to me that they are working within the wrong context. Martin Marty, writing in a recent issue of The Christian Century, remind us of Augustine’s observation that “God is like the nature he made.” Marty points to the work of Jose Ortega y Gassett, who presses on to the conclusion that “Man, in a word, has no nature; what he has is…history” (History as a System, 1941).
Marty concludes that if indeed God is like the nature he made, then it follows that God has a history. That is where Hawking and Mlodinow are in the wrong context; they are talking physics when the genuine context is actually history. Calvin was right; God is known best by what God does. I can live with that.
Raising Basileia 
In “The Grand Design” Stephen Hawking postulates that the M-theory may be the Holy Grail of physics…the Grand Unified Theory which Einstein had tried to formulate and later abandoned. It expands on quantum mechanics and string theories.
In my e-book on comparative mysticism is a quote by Albert Einstein: “…most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and most radiant beauty – which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive form – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of all religion.”
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity is probably the best known scientific equation. I revised it to help better understand the relationship between divine Essence (Spirit), matter (mass/energy: visible/dark) and consciousness (fx raised to its greatest power). Unlike the speed of light, which is a constant, there are no exact measurements for consciousness. In this hypothetical formula, basic consciousness may be of insects, to the second power of animals and to the third power the rational mind of humans. The fourth power is suprarational consciousness of mystics, when they intuit the divine essence in perceived matter. This was a convenient analogy, but there cannot be a divine formula.
I’d heard some discussion about this new idea of Hawking’s, but nothing about an m-theory. Curiously leaves one to ask without even reading anything about them, hmm….. Pat if you have a copy of Hawking’s book, and you’re done with it, can I borrow it when I see you next? I’d like to know more about all of this.
Now to pose a question or 2 to Ron’s reply, “who says there cannot be a divine formula?” “Why can’t there be a divine formula?” Perhaps one does exist and we’re not to know about it until the time when the Creator of this wonderful universe (and possibly others) deems it necessary for us to have this knowledge.
revnjk, maybe you be right. I didn’t want anyone to think E=mc was it. Also, a formula for the divine is unimportant; living in and for the divine is vital.
thanks for the clarification Ron. Yes, I agree with you, living for the divine is vital. It is in the realizing where the living water is and can be found, for that is vital for the human soul.