Can there be several definitions of the "Image of God"?

What Does “Image of God” Mean?

http://biologos.org/blog/what-does-image-of-god-mean-part-1

by Peter Enns

July 27, 2010

Related topics:Imago Dei

"The BioLogos Forum" frequently features essays from The BioLogos Foundation's leaders and Senior Fellows. Please note the views expressed here are those of the author, not necessarily of The BioLogos Foundation. You can read more about what we believe here. 

                                     

Today's entry was written by Pete Enns. Pete Enns is a former Senior Fellow of Biblical Studies for The BioLogos Foundation and author of several books and commentaries, including the popular Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, which looks at three questions raised by biblical scholars that seem to threaten traditional views of Scripture.

Not the Soul

Genesis 1:26-27 says that God made humankind in his “image” and “likeness.” Both terms mean the same thing, and so this is usually referred to as “image of God” (Latin imago dei).

Some understand image of God to mean those qualities that make us human, for example: possessing a soul, higher-order reasoning, self-consciousness, consciousness of God and the ability to have a relationship with him. This seems like a good definition, since only humans are in God’s image and these are qualities that make us human.

Understanding image of God as the soul also helps some people reconcile evolution and Christianity. Somewhere along the evolutionary line God gave two hominids immortal souls, thus becoming the first true human beings. In other words, despite the lengthy evolutionary process, humans were “created” only at this point. These two “souled” hominids are Adam and Eve. Some say this could have happened about 10,000 years ago, which would line things up nicely with the rough chronology presented in Genesis.

I understand the motivation for this explanation: to maintain somehow the biblical description of human origins in the face of evolution. But I am fairly skeptical about it. For one thing, it is complete guesswork. It is also difficult to see what is gained here. Preserving the biblical description of human origins this way means it has to be adjusted well beyond what it says.

More importantly, equating image of God with the soul or other qualities that make us human puts a burden on Genesis 1:26-27 than it cannot bear—which brings us to the next point.

God’s Representative Rulers

Image of God is important theologically, and the topic is open for discussion—but it is not a free-for-all. Genesis, other Old Testament passages, and Israel’s surrounding culture give us a good idea of what image of God means.

Many scholars draw a parallel between the image of God in Genesis and images of kings in the ancient world. Rulers could not be everywhere at once, and travel was slow. So, they would erect monuments or statues of themselves throughout their kingdoms. These “images” let everyone know that the king’s rule extended wherever his image was found.

Another kind of image in the ancient world is an idol, a physical object that represented the god in the temple. Idols were not considered gods themselves. They were statues that let you know the god was in some mysterious sense “present.”

Statues of kings and of gods help us understand what it means for humans to be made in God’s image: humans are placed in God’s kingdom as his representatives.

J. Richard Middleton (Roberts Wesleyan College) puts it well in The Liberating Image. He offers that the image of God describes “the royal office or calling of human beings as God’s representatives and agents in the world.” Image of God means that humans have been given “power to share in God’s rule or administration of the earth’s resources and creatures.”¹

When one reads Genesis 1:26-27 with this in mind, the point becomes fairly obvious: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish…birds…cattle…wild animals…creeping things” (NRSV).

Humankind, created on the sixth day, has been given the authority to rule over the other creatures God had made on the fourth and fifth days. They have that authority because humankind is made in God’s image.

There is nothing here about a soul, the ability to reason, being conscious of God or any other psychological or spiritual trait. As John Walton points out, as important as these qualities are for making us human, they do not define what image of God means in Genesis. Rather, those qualities are tools that serve humans in their image-bearing role.²

The phrase “image of God” is not about what makes us human. It is about humanity’s unique role in being God’s kingly representatives in creation. Once we understand what image of God means in Genesis, we will be in a better position to see how this idea is worked out elsewhere in the Bible, which we will begin next week.

Notes

1. J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005), 27.

2. John Walton, Genesis (NIVAC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 131.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

How could humans have evolved and still be

created in the “Image of God”?

http://biologos.org/questions/image-of-god

Biologos.com

June 25, 2012

In a Nutshell

The meaning of the “image of God” has been debated for centuries in the church. A common view is that the image of God refers to the human abilities that separate us from the animals. However, scientists have found that abilities like communication and rationality are also present in animals on a basic level. Plus, theologians do not see the image of God as human abilities. Some theologians see the image of God as our capacity for a relationship with God. Other theologians see it as our commission to represent God’s kingdom on earth. Both of these theological positions are consistent with scientific evidence. Whether God created humanity through a miracle or through evolution, God gave us our spiritual capacities and calls us to bear his image.

(Updated June 25, 2012)

In Detail

Introduction

The “image of God” is a key concept in Christian theology, foundational to Christian thinking about human identity, human significance, bioethics, and other topics. Many Christians see evolution as incompatible with the image of God. How could God’s image bearers have evolved from simpler life forms? Doesn’t image-bearing require miraculous creation of humans rather than shared ancestry with chimpanzees? And when in the evolutionary process did humans attain this image? These questions are tied to many other issues concerning human origins, including the soul, the Fall, and the historicity of Adam and Eve (see sidebars), but in this article we will focus specifically on the image of God.

See “How does the Fall fit with evolutionary history?”and “Were Adam and Eve historical figures?”

The phrase “image of God” does not appear many times in the Bible, but the importance of the concept is emphasized by its repetition in the creation account:

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. -- Genesis 1:26-27

From this text, it is clear that part of bearing God’s image is ruling over the animals. Genesis 9:5-6 reveals another aspect of image bearing: all human lifeblood is sacred because all humans are made in the image of God. The emphasis on Judeo-Christian thought on the sanctity of human life is derived in part from this passage. In the New Testament, the idea is expanded further as Christ is revealed as the true image of the invisible God (2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15).

For centuries, theologians have discussed these and other passages, debating the meaning of the image of God (“imago Dei” in Latin). Being made in God’s likeness is not a matter of our physical appearance, because humans don’t all look the same. But to what does the image of God actually refer? Many ideas have been suggested over the centuries, producing a huge body of theological writing. While hard to summarize, we give a brief overview below of three common themes for the image of God. After developing this theological context, we’ll consider how these ideas intersect with evolution.

Image of God as our abilities

A common view is that the image of God refers to human abilities. When people talk of the things “that make us human,” they refer to abilities like reason and rationality, mathematics and language, laughter and emotions, caring and empathy, and cultural products like music and art. Often the motive is to distinguish humans from animals by showing that humans have unique abilities that make us special and superior to animals. Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.) wrote something like this when he said “Man's excellence consists in the fact that God made him to His own image by giving him an intellectual soul, which raises him above the beasts of the field.”¹ Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) also emphasized intellect and rationality in his discussion of image bearing.² But Augustine and Aquinas were not speaking of intellect as an aptitude for math or music; Aquinas instead writes of an “aptitude for understanding and loving God.” In fact, the modern emphasis on reason comes more from secular Enlightenment ideas than from Christian theology. During the Enlightenment, the image of God was connected to ideas like the natural dignity and majesty of humankind that separates us from the brute beasts of the animal world.

Scientific evidence is piling up that humans have more in common with animals than was once thought. Genetic evidence shows that humans and chimpanzees share much of their DNA. Studies of animal behavior (particularly of chimps and other apes) show that animals not only laugh and cry and care for each other, but can learn sign language and even have basic reasoning ability. In fact, Christian neuroscientist Malcolm Jeeves writes that “any attempt to set down a clear demarcation between the reasoning abilities of nonhuman primates and humans is found to have become blurred.”³ Obviously, humans have a much larger capacity to reason than animals, but reasoning is not a uniquely human ability. As neuroscientists and animal behaviorists learn more about animals, they see how traits appear in a rudimentary form at a level similar to human children.⁴ Whether or not one accepts evolution, evidence from living humans and animals does not show a distinct difference in kinds of abilities (only degree).

See “Made in the Image of God: The Theological Implications of Genomics” a 2-part blog by Denis Alexander.

Another challenge for this picture of the image of God is the place of people with mental disabilities. If a person is impaired in reasoning or language, are they bearing less of God’s image? Are they not showing his true likeness? The Christian answer to these questions is No! The Bible repeatedly teaches that God values all people, particularly those who are rejected by society or unable to care for themselves.⁵ In fact, Genesis 9:5-6 points to image bearing as the reason that all human life is valuable. This is a major motivator for Christians who seek to protect the unborn, the poor, and the aged. Surely bearing God’s image must mean something other than using our abilities.

Image of God as our spiritual capacities and relationship with God

Another common view is that the image of God refers to our capacity for a relationship with God. Following Aquinas’ view of “aptitude for understanding and loving God,” the Catholic catechism says,

Of all visible creatures only man is able to know and love his creator. … he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity. Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.⁶

John Calvin (1509-1564) and other reformers ⁷ wrote of the image of God as the original righteousness of humans before the Fall. When first created, we reflected God’s “wisdom, righteousness, and goodness”⁸ but, as Paul teaches, that image was tarnished by sin and is being restored in Christ:

Since the image of God had been destroyed in us by the fall, we may judge from its restoration what it originally had been. Paul says that we are transformed into the image of God by the gospel. And, according to him, spiritual regeneration is nothing else than the restoration of the same image. (Colossians 3:10, and Ephesians 4:23.) -- John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis ⁹

Neuroscientists have also attempted to investigate this model, looking for evidence of such things as selfless behavior or the ability to perceive the transcendent. But science is simply not capable of fully testing such spiritual realities; the evidence that scientists do find is open to many interpretations.¹⁰

Image of God as our commission

What did the “image of God” mean to the first audience of Genesis 1? We get insights from the rest of the Old Testament, which frequently uses “image” in the context of idol worship. In the ancient cultures of Egypt and Canaan, people made images of their gods from metal and wood and set them up in local temples to worship. Hebrew scholar Joseph Lam writes that the idol “was believed to be the true manifestation of the god in the midst of the people.”¹¹ In the Ten Commandments, God prohibits his people from making such images (Exodus 20:4-6), because God cannot be contained in, or even represented by, an idol made by human hands (see Isaiah 44:6-20). Israel’s temple contained no representation of God himself.

Turning back to Genesis 1, we now see “image of God” in a new light. The image is not a built-in ability or capacity of human beings, but a role we are called to live. God has named us as his living images. We represent God here on earth, better than any idol made by human hands. Lam writes:

In fact, it is possible to argue grammatically for the validity of the translation ‘as the image of God’ as opposed to ‘in the image of God’. … The Hebrew phraseology here denotes not so much the manner of the creation of the human being (i.e. the “mold” out of which humans are created), but rather the intended function of the human being in the world. Humans aren’t just made in God’s image, they are called to be his image in the world.¹²

Joshua Moritz develops this idea further, pointing out the parallels of our appointment to the role of image-bearer with other instances of divine election.¹³

Watch a short video where N. T. Wright describes

image bearing as an angled mirror, reflecting God’s love to others

and reflecting the praise of the world back to God.

 

Connections to evolution

How might these models of the image of God fit with evolution? First recall these key points from the BioLogos faith statement14:

• We believe that the diversity and interrelation of all life on earth are best explained by the God-ordained process of evolution and common descent. Thus, evolution is not in opposition to God, but a means by which God providentially achieves his purposes.

We believe that God created humans in biological continuity with all life on earth, but also as spiritual beings. God established a unique relationship with humanity by endowing us with his image and calling us to an elevated position within the created order. Thus, BioLogos believes that God created humanity using the process of evolution and endowed us with his image. Both views of the image of God (“spiritual capacity” and “commission”) are compatible with the scientific evidence for evolution, and both views are affirmed by individuals in the BioLogos community. In fact, the two views are not mutually exclusive.

If the image of God refers to our spiritual capacities, God could still have used the natural process of evolution to create our bodies and human abilities. God could have used a miraculous process to create our spiritual capacities, or used some combination of natural processes and divine revelation to develop these capacities. Either way, God is the creator of our whole selves, including both our physical and spiritual aspects.

If the image of God refers to our commission, then it has little impact on one’s view of how God created humans. Whether God made the first humans using natural processes or a single miracle or a mixture of the two, God named humanity as his image bearers.

BioLogos welcomes more evangelical scholarship on this question.

Living out our calling as image bearers

While the academic debate is important, it should not distract us from the essential calling to live as people created in God’s image. Let us remember to

• Value every person as a fellow image bearer. All people, both men and women, are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), not just some priestly class. All of humanity is equally valued in God’s eyes, and should be in ours (Genesis 9:5-6).
 
• Seek to attain the whole image of God in Christ (Ephesians 4:23). As the Holy Spirit works in us to bring about the new self, we are being molded more and more into the true image of the Creator.
 
• Care for the creation. As representatives of the Creator, we are charged to rule over the Earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:26-28) which includes helping creatures fulfill their God-given mandate to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22) and tending the garden God provided (Genesis 2:15).¹⁵
 
• Worship the Creator. Of all the created order, humanity is the leading voice to speak our praise back to the One who made us.

Further Reading

More from BioLogos

• Alexander, Denis “Theological issues associated with an Adam who was not the sole genetic progenitor of humankind” BioLogos White Paper, December 2010 (PDF)
• Enns, Pete “What does ‘Image of God’ Mean?” BioLogos Forum, August 2010 (blog series)
• Lam, Joseph, “The Biblical Creation in its Ancient Near Eastern Context” Biologos White Paper, April 2010 (PDF)
• Moritz, Joshua “Chosen by God: Biblical Election and the Imago Dei” BioLogos Forum, June 2012 (blog series)
• Wright, N. T. “What it means to be an image bearer” BioLogos Forum June 16, 2012 (video)
• “Southern Baptist Voices: Evolutionary Creationism and the Imago Dei” John Hammett and Tim O’Connor, BioLogos Forum June 2012 (blog series)

Recommended External Resources

• Jeeves, Malcolm “Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychology, and the Image of God” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (2005) 57.3, 170-186 (PDF)
• Middleton, J. Richard The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids, Brazos Press) 2005.
• Moritz, Joshua M. “Evolution, the End of Human Uniqueness, and the Election of the Imago Dei” Theology and Science, 9:3, 307-339 (2011) (abstract and article access)
• Walton, John. The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic) 2009 (book info)

Notes

1. Saint Augustine The literal meaning of Genesis, Book 6, Chapter 12 (Google books, p. 193)
2. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part, Question 93 (html)
3. Malcolm Jeeves, “Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychology, and the Image of God” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (2005) 57.3, p. 178 (PDF)
4. Similarly, many human traits have been replicated in artificial intelligence, particularly logic and math but also conversational language and computer-generated art.
5. For more see, Kathy McReynolds “More Than Skin Deep” BioLogos Forum June 2010
6. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part one, section 2, chapter 1, article 1, paragraph 6, section I. “In the Image of God” (web article)
7. The Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland offers a convenient summary of quotes from reformation leaders (html) and excerpts from Reformed confessions (html) related to the image of God.
8. John Calvin, Commentary on Colossians (html) Excerpts of John Calvin’s writings on the image of God are conveniently compiled in a modern translation at Siris, July 7, 2005
9. John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis (html)
10. For more, see Malcolm Jeeves, “Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychology, and the Image of God” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (2005) 57.3, (PDF)
11. Lam, Joseph, “The Biblical Creation in its Ancient Near Eastern Context” Biologos White Paper, April 2010, p.4 (PDF) This paragraph and the next are based on Lam’s paper.
12. Ibid, p.5
13. Moritz, Joshua M. “Evolution, the End of Human Uniqueness, and the Election of the Imago Dei” Theology and Science, 9:3, 307-339 (2011) (abstract and article access)
14. BioLogos “What We Believe” (html)
15. For more on creation care, see the Evangelical Environmental Network (website)

Love is Always Louder

Bible Verses About Love:

25 Awesome Scripture Quotes

http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-love-25-awesome-scripture-quotes/

by Josh on May 26, 2011

The Bible is full of great verses and passages about the topic of love. God’s love for us is a perfect example and starting place to study on love. There are also great verses about love in relation to marriage, brotherly love or friendship, and loving your neighbor. Here is a collection of some of the greatest love quotes from the Bible. What is your favorite love Bible verse? Share it with us in the comments!

God’s Love

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Love One Another

Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Ephesians 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

What Did Jesus Say About Love

Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 6:24-25 ”No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Mark 12:28-30 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

John 14:21-24 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

John 15:9-17 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Bible Verses About Love for Marriage or Weddings

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Ephesians 4:2-3 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Philippians 2:2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Love Scripture Quotes from Proverbs or Psalms

Psalm 23:5-6 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalm 31:16 Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!

Psalm 63:3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Christian Love Quotes

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. ~Mother Teresa

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost. ~G.K. Chesterton

God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus. – Max Lucado

Stephen Hawking: The Strangeness of Quantum Physics and Cosmic Indeterminacy



How Multiverses Form: A supplement to the original Big Bang Theory of the Universe.
(click to enlarge for a clearer picture)



The Strangeness of Quantum Physics,

Cosmic Indeterminacy and Multiverses

R.E. Slater

June 27, 2012

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe

is that it is comprehensible.

                                                  - Albert Einstein

Introduction

Through several past articles (listed at the end) I have been reviewing the mathematical and scientific observations made by Stephen Hawking in his book, The Grand Design (2010), as a way to explain the evolution of our cosmos through the eyes of quantum physics. As a Christian I have found this fascinating but one which was excluded from conversation in my branch of evangelicalism and Christian theology (though not from mine own self-made studies and review). Recently I have decided to describe evolution - both organically and cosmologically - in theological terms and through mine own Christian observations. And as I read and wrote I soon found other literately-disposed Christian writers and theologians likewise working towards updating their evangelic Christian understanding of the Bible, of man's origins, and of God as Creator, through the discoveries of evolution. Which has encouraged me in my determination to rediscover this amazing world that we live in, its holiness and goodness, and its projected teleology ecologically as the future expectation of the believer, while writing of a more holistic environment between theology and science.

Obviously this cannot be done in so simple a posting as here but through the body of this blog's indices and postings the inquisitive reader will find many directional pieces and thoughts that can be stitched together into a composite whole. Obviously blogs are not meant for this. But this form of digital media is what we have to work with (even as I am familiar with it) and consequently I intend to create a compendium of updated Christian thought from the diligent observations and prayerful training of my past as best I can until other religious institutions, Christian colleges, and theological church bodies take over this task in a more formidable fashion (as I suspect is happening even now in a variety of efforts and expended energies regardless of the political / religious push-back by sincere-minded Christians).

For me, postmodernism seems to best fit with this newer form of Christianity. One I think of as Emergent to the times at hand and to the present opportunities of sharing Jesus' gospel message with the many global cultures and heritages of our technological age. A message that has been unreflective of the Church at large with its many regional messages flaring some aspect or another of particulate dogma and doctrinal teaching by denominational preference or traditional historic familiarity. Again, these themes have been mentioned and discussed here before but in this post I wish to continue our research into understanding what quantum physics means for the Christian interested in exploring both science and some form of evolutionary understanding of her/his world and origin. So let us begin....

"Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics."

- Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design, pg 5

(*and by inference, neither has Theology - R.E. Slater)

"The universe itself has no single history, nor even an independent existence."

- Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design, pg 6

Click to enlarge for a clearer picture

The Universe In Which We Live

There are key features of quantum physics that can only be explained as fantastic and fascinating. Weird, unexplainable features that serve as the bedrock to science’s most profound discoveries of a universe we deem ours without even beginning to understand its infinite vastness and incomprehensibilities. Discoveries that take us to the heart of our own sun’s hot fusion furnaces immense in the heats of its boiling turmoils. To the oscillating radio emissions of fast spinning stars held in eccentric orbits within the immense spiral galaxy in which we live. To even the very center of our own galaxy which we call the Milky Way because of its milky white appearance set across the black skies of the heavens on crystal clear nights brilliantly darkened for our wonder and amazement. A galactic home set infinitesimally within a much larger universe flowing in infinite arrays of innumerable galaxies locked in web-like lattices of gravitational interplay and exchange with one another. Each set within a goo of dark matter and dark energy that we cannot explain filling the dark voids of space with powerful quantum forces bearing up the essence of the universe itself, stretching and pulling, crushing and propelling, the cosmological essence of the universe throughout its immense, cosmic history.

A history that science tries to describe by hypothetically standing at the center of our Milky Way and there peer into its very core described as a black hole to postulate elaborate theories of origins of the primordial universe under titles of "Big Bang, Big Crunch, Big Freeze, Big Rip" and such like. Each describing some aspect of the universe through theories of "No Boundary Conditions," "Eternal Inflation," "p-brane Cosmology," "String Theory," and "Multiverses." And while there - hypothetically standing and peering over its cosmic edge - seeing only an impenetrable blackness set within this very dangerous precipice that scientists call the event horizon, from whose edge we can see nothing but a black emptiness. An emptiness that hungrily draws into itself, and swallowing whole, the cosmic debris of what once were suns and moons, galactic gas and dust, and even very light itself, into its black gaping maw refusing sight or trace of what happens next so strong the force of gravity that overcomes all known quantum forces to man’s quantum sciences. And so we must ask, what then does science mean by the several terms of quantum science, quantum physics, or even, quantum mechanics? For we know it is a journey that must begin below the atomic level. Even below the sub-atomic level! A level so microscopic that it can only be described in powers of nth degrees.

Aspects of Quantum Physics

In the world of the small, specifically the world of sub-atomic particles we must note at once that these particles either have mass or do not have mass, which is described as subatomic weight measured in terms of an object's (i) resistance to acceleration or, (ii) measured as a gravitational force acting upon it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass). Particles with mass are associated with matter and are further given the description as "fermions" - such as an electron (negatively charged), a quark, or a lepton. They may also consist in a composite particulate arrangement such as a proton (positively charged), a neutron (neutral charge), a meson, or a baryon (the latter two are formed of either two or three quarks respectively). These are matter particles. Or fermions.

Fermions are different from force particles that have no mass, and are not associated with matter such as light (photons), electro-magnetic forces (of which light is a type of e.m. force ), the weak, and strong, nuclear forces. We call these force particles photons (from which we get various forms of radiation), gluons and bosons. Each carries a "force" as a result of interactions made between matter particles (fermions) as they collide and repel from one another in combinations of strange, and strongly reactive, astringencies. (And if you have not  already noticed, we've slipped beyond the normalcies of language... for how can one describe a particle as a force? And a force as a particle? And yet science has proved both descriptors as true!).

All of which seems a tidy description until realizing that some massless force particles have "rest mass" when in a state of rest (or inertia). So, to help overcome this descriptive problem quantum mechanics will further describe matter and force particles in accordance with their "integer spin." Particles with positive integer spin are known as bosons (e.g., force particles) and those with half-integer spin are known as fermions (e.g., matter particles). Unlike bosons which may share the same quantum space with each other (if they have the same energy level), fermions cannot unless they each have a different spin from one another. From the study of these interactions has been developed the Standard Model of Quantum Interactions which   describes the known associations between fermions and force carriers:

The Standard Model of elementary particles
with the fermions in the first three columns.

Each particle has its anti-matter counterpart

Click for a clearer picture

Something that we've mentioned, but haven't explained - and is a large part of quantum physics discussions - is the strange notion that a particle may exhibit the dual combined properties of a light wave as well as that of a bit of matter. Like a beam of light that refracts across a solid surface, or as a series of expanding waves refracting across the surface of water in light and dark patterns, a particle will leave wave-like trails of quantum energy in its wake. Which seems more "force-like" than "matter-like" and confused early rudimentary physical sciences for many decades when examining electro-magnetic forces and thinking of quantum particles as having "wave-like" properties (rather than dualistically as also being granular bits of microscopic matter). Much later, when this was discovered, the dualism of matter particles (we'll call these fermions) was made all the more curious when discovering that these singular bits of particulate matter/energy "balls" could interfere with themselves as shown by their propogated wave-like trails of "light and dark".

Moreover, in later observations, it was found that a particle did not take one singular path from a point A to a point B but every possible path between two points and, amazingly, at the same time! Truly the quantum world of physics is strange indeed.... More so because it was at the point of human observation that a particle would not do exhibit these properties but would then settle down into a consistent wave-like pattern of interference as a form of energy. And yet, when separated from our "observation" this same particle was discovered to search out all probable paths and investigate all possibilities before finalizing its end-path. Even more, it can double back on itself, go here and there (to Jupiter and Mars, or the other side of the universe, and back) before finally completing its journey! Consequently, fermions are described as having the dual nature of a wave and as matter.

Thus when speaking of quantum interference a physicist will speak to a particle's "sum over histories" which can cancel itself out in wave patterns of light and dark as previously described. This can occur even if it were its own solitary particle, incredulous as it seems. However, it was also found that minute, quantum "packages" of particles could not be isolated alone by themselves. They always exist in motion with other like quantum particles - they can be slowed down (thus making it a naturally occurring phenomena) - but not isolated. And secondly, even the slightest human observation can, and will, affect its motion or its "phenomenatic" character.

Quantum Indeterminism

According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty) the position, or the velocity, of a particle cannot both be known at the same time. You may know either its position, or its velocity, but you cannot predict with certainty each in relation to the other because they are not determined with certainty. That is, nature determines its future state through a process that is fundamentally uncertain and so, reflects a fundamental randomness in its quantum state. Therefore the outcome cannot be known even in the simplest situations. Rather, nature allows for a number of infinite eventualities at the quantum level each with a certain likelihood of being realized. To paraphrase Einstein, it was as if God threw the dice before deciding the result of every physical process. We now know this principle as the principle of indeterminacy. In summary then, and in accordance with the quantum model, a particle is said to have no definite position, that it takes every possible path (however ridiculous this path could be), and that it will take them all simultaneously. This is the incredible world of the small that God has created.

Thus, we are led to a new form of determinism: "Given the state of a system at some time, the "laws of nature" determine the probabilities of various futures and pasts, rather than to determine them with certainty." This is known as outcome probabilities (or, indeterminacy). Consequently, we live in a non-deterministic creation. Which isn't the same thing as saying that creation has a "free will" of a kind. Just that its indetermined (rather than un-determined or uncertain). To speak of indeterminacy is to speak of the quantum laws of physics. But for the Christian to speak of un-determinacy, not only is it not a word, but it does not portray what we know of God from the Bible as One who directs all things - even the quantum things of creation. Even if by that direction He has given creation its own "free will" which we should more probably call indeterminacy. This aspect of divine sovereignty is no different than God's direction in our own lives, though they be lived as free-willed beings. Still God is sovereign. How? Verily, it is a mystery. But this is how the Bible describes God. To creation He has given a fundamental randomness. To humanity (as to all living things) He has given free will. Over both God still rules. We cannot explain it. It just is.

But somehow, in the mystery of God's sovereignty, comes the parallel mystery of God's partnership with the worlds of both matter and flesh. To rule God has determined (or decreed) to "not rule" by allowing both creation and man their own course and objectives. I sometimes wonder what this world would be like without sin when someday sin and death are removed.... In what way will that affect, or not affect, the indeterminacy of nature and the free will of mankind (and that of all living things)? No less because I think both these concepts and realities will still exist and remain unchanged in scope and nature, though now placed within the newer paradigms of redemption and perfect submission to the Creator-Redeemer's divine will. A will that still will exist in harmony with a creation that may continue even as it now still does. It is an interesting question to ask because I think when we begin exploring the claims of process theology we will see that very little may differ between this world and the next - except in what way, and how, sin's absence may leave things. And if that be the case, than we already live in a world God wanted for us sans our corruption, pollution, disharmonious lifestyles, combative monopolies, aggressions, prideful lusts and greed, and such like. How often have we heard the expression that God's divinity may be found in this world? That His essence is ever present around us? Of course it does little to help us when considering earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and storms. But should we be unaffected by such terrible ecological disasters (natural acts of randomness and indeterminacies) in the new world, we might then ask ourselves how many times have we looked upon the raging sea and felt its powerful winds and have found them beautiful? Awesome? Divinely inspiring? To picture a new earth and a new heaven without such turbulence, and destruction, I cannot imagine (nor even want to imagine). Even so, however my conjectures, for now we must be content and patiently await the outcome posited by our intuitive understanding of nature, helped along by relational-process theology's unique vision of the universe, when we begin studying it as a theological perspective. For now, let us return to the subject at hand....

Summary of the Characteristics of a Particle

• It exists as a wave/particle duality

• Its speed and position cannot be known for certainty (the Pauli Exclusionary Principle)

• Observing its system will alter its behavior (Feynman's Sum of Histories)

• Its (unobserved) past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities, such that there can be no single history. (By extrapolation we may also say this of the universe and its origins with which we wish to speculate upon).

Click to Enlarge

Of Probabilities, Histories and MultiUniverses

So then, by extrapolation, to accept the fact that any observations made on a system in its present state will affect its past states seems a little bizarre to say the least. But in quantum physics this is a true finding confirmed and verified by scientific methods many times over. Thus, to observe a system is to affect its choice even when its already been chosen - as found in delayed-choice experiments. Consequently, a photon emitted from a dying quasar located at the furthest reaches of space and having travelled billions of light years before our Earth, Sun, Solar System, or even our galaxy were formed can, with observation, alter its original path of departure merely because it has been affected by our choice of observation. Even after billions of years of passage! Strange indeed. However, it is not through o-u-r observation that that particle's trajectory path is thus affected. No. But because this particle has travelled e-v-e-r-y possible path to reach us at this point and time.

Then what does this mean? It means that our universe doesn't have any one single history but every possible history each with its own probabilities and possibilities. This is the conceptual framework that quantum physics means when speaking of a "multi-universe." Furthermore, through observation we cannot affect the universe's future but can only isolate an instance of any one of an infinite number  of paths that the universe travelled as a rapidly expanding, massive singularity, consisting of both quantum waves and particles. So that, in this case, we our observing our own cosmic history and not that of another. Why? Because it would be physically impossible to observe those other universes since we are confined to only observe this present universe that we are bounded within (temporally, dimensionally, physically, etc). Simply said, we cannot leave the universe of our own experience for another universe. And if we could, that theoretical universe may have a completely different set of natural and physical laws; or, consist of a different cosmic structure, construction, and duration; and as such, would be inhospitable to our chances of surviving as we presently exist.

Thus, the collapse of time backwards towards its Big Bang origin would result in a cosmic state of not just one cosmos being birthed, but an infinite and never-ending birthing array of singular cosmological infinities (much like soap bubbles creating more soap bubbles each from the other to the other, when blown upon, should they have an infinite source of soapy water and breath). Which then leads us into the quantum world of multi-universes (more properly known as multiverses) existing in a never-ending array of infinite amplitudes (cosmic inflations and deflations) and experiences. At least this is what the mathematics tell us on the other end of our quantum observations. That we may perhaps be living in a phenomenal universe that we once thought bore only one history of primordial birth and development when, at the last, it bore every possible primordial birth through a chance sequence of indeterminate interactions. Till at last was bourne a planet like Earth bearing the remarkable evolutionary progress of carbon-based life forms and systems resulting in human kind, as sentient, spiritual beings, made in the image of God by the breath of God using the processes on hand of cosmic and organic evolution. However, this birthing process never stopped. It continues even unto this day. And will continue forever. Consequently, it can be correctly said mathematically, that our present universe is only one of an infinite set of universes either dying or living, expanding or contracting. And not one of those universes inhabits the physical space or dimensionality of the other. That this event goes on-and-on-and-on at the hands of God. This is the mathematics of it... and so incredible is the statement that we would doubt the practicality, or the reality of it, but for mathematical formulae and speculation. But we'll never know. This is matter that seemingly cannot be fathomed. At least in our present state of knowledge and learning.

The Conclusion of the Matter -
The Need to Update the Church's Theology

And so, here again is yet another mystery. Unfathomable. Inexpressible. Incredible. Known only to God. However, we do know that we exist at the hands of a Creator and are told so through God's provision of divine revelation collected at the hands of godly men and women of the Old and New Testaments by whose experiences we now have as a canonized collection of redemptive stories. We call it God's Word. The Holy Scriptures. Which we even now continue to explore and scrutinize in feeble attempts to plumb the depths of God's inspired revelations  given to an ancient Hebrew civilization well before today's more advanced scientific and archaeological discoveries, and theoretical propositions. Even amidst humanity's many refined and sophisticated cultural groupings and experiences reactive to human wars and disasters,  and its expanding banks of knowledge within societal industry. And because of these most recent quantum discoveries by particle physics, we are necessarily forced to go back to the theologies that we thought we knew, and to revisit those foundational truths once thought so certain, in the newer revelatory light of science and philosophical phenomenolgy. Thus has arisen a whole new set of theologies unthought until now. Going by the names of evolutionary creationism, relational process thought, narrative theology, postmodern  Emergent Christianity, philosophical deconstruction set within uncertain opening borders of existential epistemology, inspired and re-incarnating hermeneutics of interpretation. Each building upon yesteryear's earlier historical-grammatical approaches as each segment interacts and informs the other of its chaotic discoveries, formulations, certainties and incertainties. And for the contemporary, modern day church to ignore these discoveries is but only to confuse their worshippers with contradictory half-truths and false inferences leading to simplistic naivety and popular arguments of who (or what theology) is faithful to the truths of Scripture. And in many instances, simply not connecting today's theologically illiterate masses to the wonderful truths of Christ's present-day cruciform ministries. Who, both from within, and from without, the transparent, living walls of today's postmodern church need to know of the relevancy of God's incredulous redemptive revelation to their lives, works, habits, interests, pursuits, thoughts, beliefs, and assurances.

Incredibly then, this is the kind of God who is revealing Himself to man. Who desires that we seek Him, and know Him, as our Redeemer-Creator. Whom we attempt to explain and cannot. Who simply "IS". Just as He said He is. "I Am Who I Am" (Exodus 3.14). Even as "He will be, what He will be." (Exodus 3.14) - the holy One whom we cannot explain. Nor grasp. Nor begin to understand. The incomprehensible One. The One who lives in the deep voids of the living and non-living. Who speaks from the whirlwind and perturbs our hearts. Who soothes the troubled waters of our soul and speaks peace be still to the calamitous waves around us. Our Sovereign Creator. The Lover of our souls. Our Savior Redeemer. No, we do not stand at the edge of a cosmic precipice like that of a Black Hole and look in and find only despair and nothingness. No, we stand at that same edge and look up from its twin side as a White Hole to discover rebirthed dimensions of another space-time from another parallel universe unknown to us. A universe unknown to us except for our heart that would believe.

That if God be for us than who can stand against us? Can sin? Can death? Can hell? Nay, it is not for naught that through this immense divine effort, struggle, and care, that God still will be who He will be - not only in our lives but in that of His created world. We are but to submit to His will and learn to better hear him in the tempests of our hearts. A fleshly sanctuary where He would most desire to dwell both now and forevermore. A templed living Lifeforce whatever our past. Whatever our future. It is Christ Jesus alone who is our God. Our King. Our Ruler. Our Creator. Our Priest and Lamb. Our Redeemer and Saviour. Who is described in the Scriptures as the ever guiding Star of David to all men everywhere. Or liken to the Morning Star set within the heavens of our hearts. To that Star may our paths be lit and found illuminated as we struggle forward to comprehend this amazing God of the universe who wishes to share His love, grace, mercy and peace with us. As the divine works of His holy hands. And as the templed treasures of His divine heart. Amen.

R.E. Slater

June 27, 2012
rev. September 24, 2012



Job 38

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+38&version=ESV

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Lord Answers Job

38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

² “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
³ Dress for action^[a] like a man;
    I will question you, and you make it known to me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸ “Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
⁹ when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
¹⁰ and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
¹¹ and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

¹² “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
¹³ that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
¹⁴ It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.
¹⁵ From the wicked their light is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is broken....

continue to -

Index to past articles on "Particle Physics, Quantum Science, and the Universe"

Relevancy22 Index: Particle Physics

"Science and the Universe"

http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/05/relevancy22-index-particle-physics.html

QUANTUM PHYSICS, INDETERMINACY & MULTIVERSES

Stephen Hawking, Indeterminacy, God & Quantum Physics, 5/30/12

Stephen Hawking, Multi-Universes, and God's Grander Design, 5/24/12

Allowing Indeterminacy and Randomness in God's Creation, 5/24/12

Process Theology - "Divine Action, Indeterminacy, and Dipolarism", 5/19/12

John Polkinghorne: How Do We Explain the Incredible Uniqueness of Our Form of Multiverse?, 6/14/12

Alan Guth on Inflationary Cosmology, 12/14/11

Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design of God and the Cosmos, 4/26/12



PARTICLE PHYSICS AND MULTIVERSES

Biologos: Particle Physics of the Universe & Multiverse, Part 5, 5/1/12

Biologos: Particle Physics of the Universe & Multiverse, Parts 1-4, 4/11/12



DISCOVERY AND DISCUSSION ON THE HIGGS-BOSON PARTICLE

Columbia University - Panel Discussion on the Higgs Particle Research at CERN, 4/19/12

CERN physicists find hint of Higgs boson, 12/13/11

The Higgs-Boson God Particle Found, 12/13/11



VIDEO SERIES ON THE UNIVERSE

Brian Greene Hosts "The Fabric of the Universe" on NOVA, 11/24/11