{"id":272,"date":"2007-12-14T16:34:42","date_gmt":"2007-12-14T21:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/the-theory-of-e"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:44:20","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:44:20","slug":"the-theory-of-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/the-theory-of-e.html","title":{"rendered":"The Theory of Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Einsteinm31_2\"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. …The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…<\/em> (John 1:1-3, 14 NIV)<\/p>\n

What if there were an equation that could describe everything? A kind of mathmatical explanation that would unify our understanding of all existence?<\/p>\n

Scientists refer to such a theory as ToE, the Theory of Everything. This hypthetical theory seeks to fully explain and link together all known physical phenomena. There have been numerous ToEs proposed over the years, but as yet none have been able to stand up to experimental scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Albert Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life in search of what was to be his crowning achievement, a unified field theory that would attempt to “read the mind of God.” Einstein had made major breakthroughs in his theories describing Special Relativity and General Relativity, but an equation that would explain all physical phenomena eluded him.<\/p>\n

The French philospher, Laplace, described what sort of intellect it would require to formulate such a theory:<\/p>\n

\n

“An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes\u201d (Essai philosophique sur les probabilit\u00e9s<\/em>, Introduction, Laplace. 1814).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Stephen Hawking was originally a proponent for the Theory of Everything, but after considering G\u00f6del’s Theorem of Incompleteness, concluded that one was not obtainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind\u201d (Stephen Hawking, G\u00f6del and the end of physics<\/em>, July 20, 2002).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This search for a unifying theory is not new. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (ca. 535-475 BC) was known for his doctrine of the Logos<\/em> as the fundamental order of all. His writings influenced Plato, Socrates, and the Jewish philospher, Philo.<\/p>\n

It was into this Greek\/Jewish understanding of the Logos<\/em> that the apostle John wrote: \u201cIn the beginning was the Logos<\/em> (the Word).\u201d<\/p>\n

John declares the Theory of Everything to be the Logos<\/em>. He says that the Logos<\/em> is God. The Greeks would not have had trouble with this conclusion. They saw the need for a divine intellect and power.<\/p>\n

But John’s declaration that “the Logos<\/em> became flesh” would have been unacceptable to them. They viewed the flesh or physical world as inferior. The idea that God would become man was nearly impossible for their minds to conceive.<\/p>\n

It thrills me to consider that as the Logos<\/em>, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the organizing principle and explanation for everything.<\/p>\n

As Scientists continue to pursue a Theory of Everything, people of faith continue to look to the One who became flesh so that we may know God.<\/p>\n

This Christmas I’m thinking about how Jesus is the One who makes my existence make sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. …The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us… (John 1:1-3, 14 NIV) What if<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5336,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/5336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}