The Universe(s)

             God thunders wondrously with His voice, Doing great things which we do not comprehend. For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ And to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’ (Job 37:5-6)

If you read what science has to say about snow and rain, they’ll explain what happens to form each, and how they grow and fall. They will describe meteorology, chemistry, and physics. If you pursue the idea farther, they will likely end up discussing quantum mechanics and the four forces: Gravity, the weak force, electromagnetic or Lorenz force, and the strong nuclear force, and theorizing about a fifth force, but at some point, the explanations and theorizing would come to an end. They are what they are and they do what they do because they are what they ae and they do what they do. Or, ours is just one of an unknowable number of universes that just happened to end up with the four (or five) forces being what they are, and that’s why rain and snow are what they are and fall as they do.

Science will also explain, if it must, that if any one of those forces were different by a tiny degree, we could not exist. If asked to speculate, they will tell you that it may be possible for human beings to create new universes, whether  purposefully (as they would prefer) or accidentally, and because there is nothing to prove otherwise or prevent it, those other  universes may be inhabited by non-physical life forms of great power, wisdom, and lack of physical restrictions (sort of like God.)

 I’m not suggesting a “god of the gaps” concept – that we must accept there is a god (some god, any god) because we don’t understand something about the universe. I’m also not saying that God is (or even might be) just one of the residents on the non-physical universes. What I am saying is that our knowledge is limited. Our power to explore these questions is limited.

As a writer of fantasy, “world-building” is just another day at the office. Those who teach about such things tend to suggest that 80% of the world in a story be familiar to readers. As I recall, 15% should be a little different. There might be “Night Berries” for example, and they might have some strange properties, but there’s still the sense that they are berries. The last 5 percent is where writers are supposed to put the bulk of their imagination. Supposedly, it’s so that the readers can understand, but I think it spares the writer the frustrations and difficulties of having to learn enough about science to figure out what elements to make abundant, which to keep to minimal levels, and every aspect of how every single reaction takes place throughout the quantum levels.  It allows writers to develop worlds about which readers say, “What? That’s stupid!” Though, as a reader, I still find myself doing so – even in the case of best-selling fantasies.

          But the real reason for the last four paragraphs is to point out that God has done precisely what writers are told not to do. For all the claims made by some, there is nothing about the universe that specifically excludes its having been created by God, and there is nothing that specifically requires that He be just one of a universe of non-physical beings – and one who just happened to create another universe that happens to be ours. There is nothing unscientific about believing Scripture.

          And Scripture describes God as being the sort of God who creates at least one universe, and that universe works, done to the quantum levels. And it is God’s imagination, creativity, finesse, and elegance for which I am thankful today. He has created an unbelievably diverse and yet unified universe in which we live on a world that has rain and snow that fall in accordance with the laws He designed, but in which it can also fall at His command and for His purposes.

          And within that universe, He has designed smaller organizations, and smaller down to the level of quarks and leptons. And toward the smallish end of that spectrum, He created human beings, who, along with a wealth of other life forms, to function together in physical forms that we call bodies – almost as though they are universes in miniature. There are ten times as many bacteria in a human body as there are human cells, according to one source, and far more viruses than bacteria. They may be helpful, harmful, or just there.

          Today, I am thankful that God is the sort of God who not only can do all that, but cares enough to create a viable universe in all its detail.