Quantum leap

There is talk of the need for a paradigm shift in every aspect of the human constructs, specifically the realms of science and religion. The human intelligence has evolved exponentially since the early 20th century when scientific theories and experiments altered its perception of the world and the cosmos.

The mechanics of the quantum theory of the microscopic universe contrasts with our macroscopic experience, incomprehensible even to scientists who claim that saying you understand it simply means you don’t. So let me just tell you a story.

Once upon a beginning, there was nothing but silence full of potential and promise called a singularity infinitely smaller than a pinhead but containing the entire cosmos. After billions of years the silence vibrated into a cosmic dance that exploded into a big bang of pure energy, billions of degrees Centigrade. This expanded into a superinflation, creating time and space. In a split second it cooled, slowing its rate of expansion to allow bits of energy to fuse into elementary particles — electrons, protons and neutrons, composite of atomic nuclei. These particles fused further into simple elements — hydrogen and helium. The cooling caused a massive assemblage of hydrogen and helium to clump into balls of fire… And lo! Stars were born.

The stars formed clusters creating galaxies that now populate the cosmos. There were high-density stars called supernovas, which exploded owing to the extreme pressure from their core and spewing heavier elements into space. The stardust from this explosion reconnected to continue the cycle of fusion and explosion, creating succeeding generations of stars. Our sun is a fourth-generation star.

The higher elements cooked within the core of the sun likewise spewed out into space, fused and got together to form solar systems with orbiting planets, moons, meteors, rocks and solar dusts. Among these was carbon, “the element of life.”

The atoms were first conceived as the smallest particle of matter, indestructible until they were split into extremely small points of energy called leptons, quarks, muon neutrinos, etc.

The classic laws of nature familiar to us humans are cause and effect (every cause has its corresponding effect), rational (everything happens within reason), predictable and objective (truth proven by scientific experiments).

In contrast, the quantum world defies these laws — the whole is more than the sum of its parts; a quantum particle can be in multiple places at the same time; particles leap to another location without passing through space; when one of a pair leaps to another location, what happens to one simultaneously happens to the other even if millions of light years apart; when observed, it acts like a particle, and when unobserved, acts like a wave.

As early as 200,000 years ago, humans had looked to the heavens to seek answers to occurrences they could not explain, and so they conceived of a being responsible for these phenomena. Perhaps this was the birth of religion, which has evolved to what it is today. The concept of a God changed through the centuries, aligning its parameters to new intellectual developments. But whenever a new frontier is encountered beyond which science as yet has no explanation, theology opts to fill the space. Scientists call this the “God of the Gaps.”

Our spirituality cannot be contained within gaps or the 100 billion neurons in the brain for it permeates the whole of the cosmos within the realm of pure consciousness, which is Love, compassion and forgiveness.

Diarmuid O’Murchu, a priest and social psychologist, in a book titled “Quantum Theology,” proposes answers to new questions from spiritual seekers in need of them.

He writes of a “spiritual landscape” in lieu of religious traditions as “the new arena for theological exploration.”

Says O’Murchu: “Theological excursion may no longer begin with god and work downward; rather it will originate in the human experience of searching and seeking and move outward to embrace wider horizons of life and reality.”

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Carmelita Roxas Natividad describes herself as a retired mother and active grandmother who likes to write, garden and bake, in that order.