WHAT’S REALLY REAL?
A sermon by Robert M. Eddy
Delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church Indianapolis
7 January 1996

READING
Towards the end of his brilliant book, “Infinite in All Directions” physicist Freeman Dyson, one of the world’s great theoretical physicists, quotes from a 1902 essay by H.G. Wells.
“… this sun of ours must some day radiate itself toward extinction …. some day this earth of ours, tideless and slow moving, will be dead and frozen, and all that has lived upon it will be frozen out and done with. There surely man must end. That, of all such nightmares is the most insistently convincing. And yet one doesn’t believe it. At least I do not. And I do not believe in these things because I have come to believe in certain other things – in the coherency and purpose in the world and in the greatness of human destiny. Worlds may freeze and suns may perish, bu _t there stirs something within us now that can never die again.”

Later Dyson declares his own credo
“My own faith … is similar to the faith of Wells. I believe that we are here for some purpose, that the purpose has something to do with the future,and that it transcends altogether the limits of our present knowledge and understanding … If you like, you can call the transcendent purpose God. If it is God, it is a Socinian God, Inherent in the universe and growing in power and knowledge as the universe unfolds. Our minds are not only expressions of its purpose but are also contributions to its growth.”

SERMON

Traditionally, a sermon involves denouncing something. Preachers are seldom at a loss for things to preach against. A while back the Rev. Joseph R. Chambers of Charlotte, NC preached against Barney, the popular purple dinosaur who  has captivated toddling T.V. watchers. The Rev. Chambers pointed out that Barney teaches children to accept all varieties of people – even Homosexuals and Rev. Chambers like most TelePreachers is agin that!
I’m not going to preach against Barney this morning. For one reason my grandson would never forgive me, but I also refrain because I suspect Barney is a closet Unitarian Universalist. Barny is one of us! But I am going to preach against something this morning. I’m going to preach against the Hubble Telescope, the Super Conducting Super Collider and “The Theory of Everything”. However, a sermon should be more th Óan a Jeremiad – more than a game of “ain’t it awful.” A sermon should also offer an alternative: a better way, a ray of hope, a modicum of comfort. I hope to do that as well this morning.
This sermon was originally occasioned by reading David Lindley’s 1993 book The End Of Physics: The Myth of a Unified Theory. A more popular treatment of the same topic will be found in Walter Truett Anderson’s 1990 book, “Reality isn’t What It Used To Be” subtitled, “ Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World, Both books are attempts to explain to the intelligent lay person the ongoing project of Nuclear Physicists which is to find a single theory that explains all of nature from the most infinitesimal particle to the whole cosmos; from the “big bang” to the final denouement of Universe. Some of you have read similar books Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time is probably the best known. New books of this genr ƒe are published weekly. Quality T.V. channels try to keep up with ever more elaborate computer simulations.
We all want to know what’s really real ? We’re all caught up in the quest for final answers. Not too long ago, we watched astronauts playing “this old house” on the Hubble telescope, the most expensive scientific instrument ever built . The Denver Post, in an editorial before the event, echoing the propaganda of the Science establishment, opined
“If they succeed,the Hubble should become about five times as sensitive as it presently is, letting scientists see objects whose light has been traveling toward the Earth for as much as 15 billion years – reaching back to the dawn of the universe. It will be about three months before the new instruments are calibrated exactly enough to know if the mission is a success. But considering we’ve already waited 15 billion years for the answers which the Hubble was designed to gather, humanity can afford to be patient a little longer.”

It seems, if we are to believe the Post that scientists were finally ready to answer the question that Job heard coming from the whirlwind: the voice that he was sure was the voice of God. The voice spoke in Hebrew, no doubt, but in Moffatt’s English translation It asked,

“ Who measured out the earth? Do you know that? Who stretched the builder’s line? What were its pedestals placed on? Who laid the corner-stone, when the morning-stars were singing, and all the angels chanted in their joy?”

The voice Job heard continued in a similar vein, asking questions that were thought unanswerable 2500 years ago. Most people then responded to such questions, “Because God made it that way.” Even today, that’s an adequate answer for many. You and I, however, belong to a class of humans who favor more detailed explanations; we look to Scientists – especially Physicists -to tell us what’s really real.

We, who watch Nova and subscribe to Discover magazine know better than Bible Believers or so we think. We believe in Science. Science with a capital “S”? Yes. For many Science became a substitute for “God”. For many Science is “a God that failed”. They have gone seeking after other Gods in so called “New age religions” or in ancient religions like Hinduism or Wicca. But most of you, I think, still accept the revelations of the high priests of science. For you, Stephen Hawking is the new Moses.

But believers in Scientists as prophets, find themselves in a difficult place for as Science gets farther and farther out – thanks to instruments like the Hubble telescope; and as Science gets deeper and deeper in, thanks to instruments like the superconducting supercollider, we encounter a paradox: the theory explaining what’s really real, no longer can, even theoretically, be tested. David Lindly ends his book with these words:

“That the world can be understood by pure reason, not by experimentation but by mentation alone, is a very old idea, reaching back to the ancient Greeks. For the modern advocates of theories of everything, as for the ancient Greeks, reason, logic, and physics are supposed to constitute the unmoved mover, the uncaused effect. … This [modern] theory of everything will be, in precise terms, a myth. A myth is a story that makes sense within its own terms, offers explanations for everything we see around us, but can neither be tested nor disproved. A myth is an explanation that everyone agrees on because it is convenient to agree on it, not because its truth can be demonstrated. This theory of everything, this myth, will indeed spell the end of physics. It will be the end, not because physics has at last been able to explain everything in the universe, but because physics has reached the end of all the things it has the power to explain.” (Emphasis added.)

A myth? Doesn’t Science claim to tell us the way things really are. No, it doesn’t. That’s a common misunderstanding, perpetuated by inadequate science teachers in our schools and evangelical science popularizers on television.

Two thousand six hundred years ago, Thales, the Greek, asked ,

“Behind the infinite variety of life, is there a common, immutable thread?” Many believe that today’s nuclear physicists have discovered that immutable thread, the ultimate reality beyond which there is nothing more. They forget whether it’s an atom, or a neutron, or a quark or a one dimensional string but they trust the Scientists to tell them what’s really real?

Can we trust the scientists to tell us what’s really real? No we can’t trust the scientists to tell us what’s really real. What we can trust them to do is to search for ever more inclusive generalizations of what they see as they look ever farther out and ever deeper within the material world. It is he success of that search in recent centuries that has seduced us into elevating scientists into new shamans; new lawgivers, new authorities in every area of life. They are not. Their enterprise, while it has devised ways to heal the sick, shelter the exposed, feed the hungry has also created weapons of mass destruction that not only have killed millions in wars but also threaten the very integrity of life through the concentration of radioactive elements. One might well ask whether science has been a blessing or a curse. Science promised it would teach us the truth – and we believed the truth would make us free. Instead, the “truth” of science, if we take it seriously, is likely to make us miserable.

If we are, in fact, simply one rather presumptuous species on an small planet circling an unexceptional star – one of a billion billion billion such, then how can we believe that human life has any importance? If what we think is free will is actually an illusion inherent in the inexorable interactions of electromagnetic and chemical entities – how can we believe that what we do for and to one another really matters?
What is really real? Well, according to David Lindley, in 1993 when his book went to press, it was this:

“[the current best candidate for a theory of everything] contains not just the graviton and eight gravitinos … but a stack of other particles: 28 with one unit of spin, 56 with half a unit of spin, and seventy with zero spin. From these particles, and those alone, the rest of the world – quarks, electrons, neutrinos, gluons – must be made. All the particles must be used for something, and no extras can be added, or the infinity-free virtues of the theory will be lost. The N = 8 version of supergravity … is the only one with enough particles in it to be able, even in principle, to accommodate the observed particle content of the world we inhabit. It became, for this re dason, a candidate of unique suitability to play the role of a theory of everything”

There you have it. The “Really Real”. Do you believe it? Can you understand it?

What is really real ?
Are quarks and black holes, galaxies and superstrings,
as the scientifically illiterate believe, really real?
Are God and Satan, Angles and Demons,
as the Fundamentalist Christians believe, really real?
Are Goddesses and Gods,
as the new Pagans believe, really real .?
Are ghosties and goblins and “things that go bump in the night”, as most children believe, really real?

My contention this morning is that none of these sets is really real. Do I therefore come to the conclusion that nothing is really real; that each person’s “reality” is equally valid?. No. I’ve come to the conclusion that Thales asked the wrong question.

Remember? Thales asked, “Behind the infinite variety of life, is there a common, immutable thread?” That’s the question that the Nuclear Physicists and the Cosmologists have been pursuing. It’s an interesting question but the important question is, “Given an increasing ability to explain, predict and control the non human world, how can that knowledge best be used in the service of humanity?” “How can knowledge best be used in the service of humanity?” That is the religious question. That is the question that the founders of all the great religions have asked. The “really real” for them were the non material things like Justice, and Mercy, and Humility, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Remorse, Loyalty, Grace, Friendship, Encouragement, Peace and Love. The religious person explores these realities with the same enthusiasm as the physicist pursues “the immutable thread” .

Our new UU Hymnal is filled with explorations of these religious realities. Many of the Myths that give meaning to life, not just the Scientific Myth, are represented in our Hymnal. What is he best myth for you? I don’t know but I suggest, with Joseph Campbell , that you :Choose the myth that feeds your soul. “

For many in the 90’s the myth that feeds their soul is the great vision of “the interdependent web of existence”. Our hymnal contains many expressions of that myth. I too find it nourishing. And many outside our particular peculiar religious community share an appreciation of that myth. The Methodist Hymnal for example contains a hymn that I wish the Compilers of our hymnal had included. I’d like to share it with you. It uses the word God, but the Word Universe or Creator or Vital Force could have been used as well. Let us into a time of silent m deditation with the words of that hymn for it asks the questions we should all be asking of the God of Science:

“God of the sparrow, God of the whale, God of the swirling stars,
How does a creature say Awe ? How does a creature say Praise?
God of the earthquake, God of the storm, God of the trumpet blast:
How does a creature cry Woe? How does a creature cry Save?
…
God of the hungry, God of the Sick, God of the prodigal:
How does the creature say Care? How does the creature say Life?
God of the neighbor, God of the foe, God of the pruning hook:
How does the creature say Love? How does the creature say Peace?
God of the ages, God near at hand, God of the loving heart:;
How do your children say Joy? How do your children say Home?
Words: Jaroslav J. Vajda, 1963 Music Carl F. Schalk, 1983

Please join me in some moments of silent meditation?