For the better part of my adult life I have been confronted with some seemingly irreconcilable edicts. I was raised Catholic, served as an alter boy and even briefly considered the priesthood. I’ve read the bible, cover to cover, at least 3 times, participated in youth retreats and have devoted considerable brain power to learning all there was about the religion I was born into.
As it would turn out, I was ill equipped for a life of blind devotion. I began questioning things. At first minor inconsistencies and hypocrisies but eventually the deeper I dug the more feeble I found the footing on which the entire house of religious cards was built. I had reached a crisis of faith and my gut told me to simply abandon this world. To move on. To graduate spiritually and intellectually.
There upon I found science and have since endeavored to immerse myself in as much astronomy, physics and the myriad gradations of subjects that make up the study of the infinitely small to the infinitely immense. What I found was that through science I was given an alternate view of precisely the same universe I was reading about in parables of oxen and donkeys. The characters had different names but the quest was the same: To find the ultimate answer. So I began asking some questions…
How big is God supposed to be? Bigger than you? Bigger than me? Bigger than a country? Bigger than a continent? Certainly bigger than the earth. But why stop there…
Clearly God is bigger than the entire solar system but if I kept applying this rationale I had to conclude that God is bigger than the observable universe at the very least. And if he’s bigger than the observable universe then I must further concede that he is bigger than any theoretical far-flung multi-verse.
Through this query I surmised that there is no way to prove or disprove God nor will there ever be some simple 2 digit answer to life, the universe and everything. While this may give theologians and scientists alike cause for great consternation, it provided me comfort in knowing that ultimately science did not have to kill God nor did God need to disprove science. They are so alike in their mutual mystery and those that pursue them share a kinship not readily apparent.
Could I ever know the true nature of God or do I ever expect to fully understand the intricacies of the universe? If both are admitted perplexities to me and those that seek to know them and are entirely unknowable in their true nature with no reasonable hope of mastery then couldn’t we venture the reason for this is enigma is conversely simple?
My quest to find God and know the universe are one and the same because God and the universe are one and the same. Once we as species dispense with the age old tribulations, any apparent incongruity between natural law and Divine Providence will melt elegantly into one single, unified purpose: the pursuit of truth. For this there can be no nobler cause and on that we can all agree.
Mannino Acid 