The quest for the ‘God particle’
from The Christian Science Monitor
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the 17-mile-long time machine that is supposed to provide the answers to the big bang and the black hole theories, began its date with history earlier this year. It’s the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of science. Thousands of scientists, from 85 countries, gathered on the industrial and scientific estate that is known as the CERN campus located on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.
Although they were hoping to recreate the environment of the so-called dawn of time, the LHC ran into technical problems after running for about two weeks. These have temporarily stalled the effort to find the answer to the so-called “God particle”—the theory that’s supposed to give matter its mass, but has never been found. Scientists expect to resume their quest next spring if all goes well.
For centuries, scientists have been looking at the cosmos and the planets because they believed that there was an order or law by which the planets moved. Isaac Newton’s observations, for instance, enabled him to conceive the law of gravity. Through this law, scientists were able to predict the positions of the planets and found it to be very reliable. But all these observations are based on the assumption that the universe rests on a material basis.
But what if the “God particle” isn’t material? Suppose God is actually Spirit and created the universe spiritually? In the 19th century, Mary Baker Eddy looked deeply into the universe and found not a material God particle, but the conviction that God is infinite Spirit and that man—meaning men and women—is actually the spiritual idea of one divine Mind.
She reached this conclusion following a dramatic healing of physical injuries that were expected to be fatal. When she was wholly restored through reading an account of Jesus’ healing work and the inspiration she gained from it, she began to look deeply into the Bible and to Jesus’ life in particular. She reached the radical conclusion, later articulated in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, that “there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (Science and Health, p. 468). She called her discovery Christian Science.
This idea grew and expanded in her consciousness, until it became the impelling motive of her entire life. She observed that sometimes great suffering and distress were produced by material laws, and she came to the conclusion that a God who possesses infinite wisdom and goodness could not operate through laws that produce both good and evil. The message of the Bible is that “God is love” (I John 4:16), and her concept of God as Love and as Spirit also included God as Mind, Soul, Life, Truth, Principle.
These facets of the one God don’t include a material element or particle, yet they stand for essential elements in the universe. Consider what creation would be like if any of those elements were missing. Order, joy, peace, harmony, strength, completeness, goodness, among other facets of life, would be gone. This helps show the reality of creation’s spiritual basis. Mrs. Eddy also perceived that God governs His children and His universe through spiritual, not material, laws. She and her students were able to prove the reality of this spiritual law through healing people, based on understanding its principles and rules.
Her research and prayer revealed a way of living that went far beyond matter-based theories to an understanding of spirituality that transformed people, even those who were on their deathbeds. This Science, whose roots were—and are—in the healing work Jesus did, regenerated human minds and bodies then, and it continues to do so today.
Whether or not the Hadron Collider resumes its quest for the God particle, right now each of us can experience the presence of God as a healing influence, improving our health, providing stability in government, and caring for the world.
Comments:
1. Andre Mincho Says:
The article is based on the assumption of existence both material and spiritual universes widely separated from each other by scientific data. Unforturnately, there is no author’s name to refer to. The vision, which is preseted in the article, is far from scientific Christianity and its Principles. We should never succumb to mortal desire of self to aienate Spirit from Mind in the Universe.
Neither Newton, nor Einstein promulgated the view that Universe is material, and matter is dominant over Spirit. What they were trying to discover are the laws of One Mind which governs the Universe. The laws of motion in relationship to planets are the laws of rational mind based on the principle, but not on illusory and chaotic nature of matter. Those scientists were confronting the view of mortal mind stating that there is no order in the Universe and everything is relative to illusion of matter. They developed rational vision on the Universe and pulled humanity out of ignorance toward better understandig of the Creator (Mind).
We should not confuse Spirituality and Spiritual Principles in relationship to God with laws that control certain conditions of our observation. Spirit is all, and this is the Principle. We fight beliefs in the power of matter, not visions based on the Power of Mind.
In physics we must find the laws, which would allow us to better understand phenomena of mind and their trasformations under different conditions in order to comprehand magnificence of One Mind of God. Our knowledge of Spirit becomes enhanced by connecting it to Mind, not by separating it from mind.
Particle, wave, force, movement, space and time are the modes and degrees of differentiatiation toward visible phenomena of consciousness and mind in relationship to the Universe. By their integration we achieve better understanding of principles that underly all visible phenomena and connect them to One Mind.
Healing of sick does not contradict physics, as much as laws of physics do not defy Supremacy of Spirit over matter. Spirit is all and Spirit is Mind – not matter, which is an illusion of mortal mind.
2. Ernie Says:
Although I can’t always clearly make out what Andre Mincho is saying in his comment, I have to disagree with his statement that the Monitor article is far from scientific Christianity.
I don’t know exactly what Newton thought, but I don’t think there’s any question that gravity is a physical law. One dictionary defines it this way: “The natural force of attraction between any two massive bodies, which is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.” According to Christian Science, God never made matter or laws pertaining to matter. Therefore, gravity is not a law of God, Mind. Perhaps it can be used as a metaphor for spiritual law, but I don’t see any way that gravity, as commonly considered, is a law of God. Yes, the law of gravity gives order to a perceived material universe where no regular order was previously seen, but that doesn’t make it a spiritual law. An attraction between two massive physical bodies doesn’t explain anything in the universe God made or help us better understand God.
Andre also says that healing the sick does not contradict physics. I’d have to say that healing the sick through the spiritual means Christian Science provides does contradict so-called material law. Any number of healings achieved through Christian Science, including some on this Web site, can’t be explained by material laws and do in fact contradict what are regarded as material laws.
These comment areas aren’t the place for any sustained discussion, but I have to say that, to my understanding of things, the Monitor article does present a position in accord with Christian Science.
3. Tom Curry Says:
Did Mrs. Eddy or Christ Jesus need to know Newtonian physics or read Einstein’s theory of relativity to approach “better understanding” of the “One Mind”? The reality is that “we” as mortals cannot understand the One Mind — we can only express it. God is the divine subject without object. Everything is in God and God is in All-in-all. In fact true creation is simply an expression of God him/herself, and that includes yoou and I. When you make God an object to be understood, then you imply that there exists a gap, or a separation between God and the one who perceives God, viz. you or I. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, a question that is asked is “Who or what is it that believes (S&H 487:13-14)?” Mrs. Eddy responds that, “Spirit [In this instance a name/synonym for God] is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind [another name/synonym for God] understands (S&H 487:15-16).” Mrs. Eddy continues, even more concisely this time that, “The believer and belief are one and mortal (S&H 487:17-18).” So, if we are the inseparable expressions of God, i.e. Spirit and Mind, then what can physical science tell us? Or, rather, what else do we need to know? What else do we need to believe? Our task is to see that we are expressing God even in the midst of mortal or material illusion. There is no need to mount any scientific campaign to unlock the mysteries of God. In all reality the only mystery is how we view God as a mystery or a puzzle to be solved. I heard a saying that f we reach out to touch God, then we have already gone to far – for God is not farther away than our very selves. God/Spirit/Mind is intimately connected with you, me, and the whole universe, and as such God is the cause, effect, and substance of all that is real and truly substantial. I am not saying that physical science should not continue in trying to understand matter or what we perceive as the material world. By all means I I hope they drive forward on. However, what they will eventually find, if they look hard enough is no-thing. Because substance is Spirit, which is not matter – it has no particles, waves, space, or any properties other than Love, Truth, goodness, peace, joy, and harmony. God is so imminent, he is so present, that looking in any direction other than inwards, we will glance over him/her.
The above article, at least I think, points to these truths in the revelation of Christian Science. The above commentator seems to feel that we need physical science, which informs us about the supposed outside world and “visible phenomena”, to allow us to greater understand Divine Science. My only point that I wish to communicate is that we don’t. Mrs. Eddy and Christ Jesus knew God, and so they knew the true universe. And they were both well ahead of Einstein, quantum theory, particulate and wave theory, and all the other theories.
4. Andre Mincho Says:
Spirituality of God and human has always been a place of intense discussions where false beliefs are confronted to clear up the way for spiritual vision. I have to disagree with commentators that we are mindless, mortal, irrational creatures that have no connection with Divne Mind. We are made in the Image of God and share the same One Mind of God. What kind of Image of God is that, if we surrender the power of our rationality to mystical and “unknowable” god?
There is no matter in the Universe, since the Universe is a reflection of our mind. Properties, such as mass, energy, movement, wave, particle, are properties of mind, to operate with, not of matter. In order to express Divine Idea, Mind must have certain content. Categories of space, time and energy are categories of mind to classify different ideas. Order and rationality of mind are the power of God, not some blind, arbitrary and subjective action of the “unknown”. By the same token, we can dismiss apples from counting just because they are visible, leaving only abstract operations of mind. Subjectivity of God is inseparable from His objectivity. Creator needs creation to reflect Himself. Objecivity of God is not separated from His subjectivity, just because existence of God is an “objective” event.
God is Divine Mind which inclues all into finest order of things. That is what makes peope whole and healed. Realizing spiritual nature of human being includes human mind into the Mind of God and makes them One. This does not contradict the laws of Mind in any conscious segment of the Universe, like physics or astronomy. We benefit from astronomical discovery showing us that the earth revolves round the sun, not otherwise (what our senses tell us). We also use computers and cell phones in our everyday life, which provide us with opportunities for greater communication. This ability does not confront us with the Image of God we present, despite the fact that all those communication devices use quantum laws discovered by physics.
Love,Truth and Harmony are principles of One Mind that do not come into confrontation with harmonizing, loving and discovering what has to be loved, harmonized and discovered.
We indeed need visible Universe as much as invisible Principles which govern It. We are not sensless creatures blind to Beauty and Art of God, but we tanscend all our senses to Spiritual Sense in order to be One with the Spirit of God. We develop science of human being in all fields for understanding spiritual principles of harmony and heaing. We have to notice a change in many areas of human knowledge striving to incorporate Spirituality of God as well as spiritual nature of human being. Spiritual healing confronts only those laws of mind which are based on belief in mortal and material nature of human being.
At last, I do not think we have to alienate either Jesus or Mrs. Eddy from the rest of humanity, especially concerning the laws of the Universe. “For I have come not to forfeit the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them”, Jesus says. He was aware of gravity not to follow temptation of Satan to jump off the cliff, and Jesus also used gravity to demonstrate its inclusion in the Law of Spirit, by walking on waters. Without gravity such spiritual demonstraion would be meaningless.
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