It’s an honor to be here to speak about how our great and mighty God is glorified even in the minute details of this world. Before we progress onto the main thesis, which has the science as its focus, I will actually take the first few minutes to devote ourselves to theology to set up the biblical parameters for this discourse. So, why is this necessary? Well, as John Calvin described, the human heart is an idol factory, and God’s creation is not outside of our reach. And as faithful stewards who wish to best honor God, it is worthwhile to take the first few moments to establish the parameters at the outset, first and foremost, as a method of honoring God, and secondly, to guard ourselves against idolatry. I’ll quickly mention two abuses. Dr. Child mentioned them, as well. First is the Tower of Babel incident where after developing the brick and mortar technology, man immediately built a tower whose top would into the heavens to ultimately make a name for themselves. They used technology for their own glory, and God was not pleased, to say the least.
The Psalmist says, “Some trust in chariots and horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord.” When any aspect of creation takes precedence over trusting in God, this is spoken of in a negative light. And of course, despite the possibility of idolatry, though, God has mandated man to subdue the earth. Thus, it is also possible to honor God through science and technology. An example is Noah’s ark, where God instructs Noah to make an ark to escape the judgment that was to come. And in addition, the builders of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus were the ones in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding. The source was ultimately God, and they were putting this God-given talent to use. So, on one side, science and technology can lead to idolatry, and on the other hand, is an act in obedience and using the wisdom that God granted.
So, the question must be asked, how can we walk this fine line? How can we use science and technology in a manner worthy of God, in a manner of honoring him, but without going too far as to abuse it? To answer, we look at the purpose of creation. Why did God create? And Colossians 1:16 tells us that all things have been created through him and for him. Everything was made for Christ. But how is this related to the creation mandate? How can we use creation for him? The wrong answer would be to just place a, “For Jesus,” sticker onto technology, and just hope that God is pleased. That’s the wrong answer.
But for the positive, correct answer, let’s not look to ourselves, but first to a Baptist confession, one of the great Puritan confessions and an excellent standard for orthodoxy. If it’ll come up. The confession says regarding creation, “In the beginning, it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness to create or make the world.” A Puritan, to summarize God’s purpose as that which is underlined for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. The goal was to reveal his glorious attributes by putting them on display. He was putting his attributes on display, but it must be asked to whom? To whom was he putting this on display for?
Herman Hoeksema, a Dutch reformed theologian, asserts that if there truly exists a revelation of God, and as Christians, we do affirm that God did reveal, then it also has the purpose… And what is that purpose? That human beings will learn to know God from it and will love him and serve him. God created so that his attributes can be revealed to man. And of course, the confession of Hoeksema is not our ultimate authority. They’re just really guides for orthodoxy. Thus, we listen to Apostle Paul in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen,” that’s the revelation part, “and being understood,” there’s man’s knowledge part, “through what has been made.” And that’s it. Okay? That’s one undeniable purpose God had in mind when he created. God created so that his glory can be revealed. Everything exists to that end. So, when we do science, the purpose should be to glorify God. And this seminar was actually designed to demonstrate to you how science can actually do that, how science can glorify God.
But then, here, we must slow down because it is here where we can be led astray. That idol-making factories don’t ask the human heart to enter. Why? Because we can get so excited and apply focus on applying this everywhere that we end up offering strange fire or constructing the golden calf. The best way to honor God is to obey God. So, for specific guidance, we must actually look to his word. So, from the biblical data, the Orthodox theologians concluded that God revealed himself through two methods, as Dr. Child also mentioned, general and special revelation. And in short, general revelation refers to nature and creation, and special revelation refers to the written word of God, also known as the Bible. Both reveal God to man, but here’s the thing, they needed to be distinguished because the scope or the extent to which they reveal God is completely different.
To borrow some common terminology, general revelations let us know about God; special revelation lets us know God. General revelation lets us know a general God like being exists; special revelation does it fully for salvation. But why? Well, revealed and special revelation, and only special revelation, is the truth that can lead a man to salvation, God’s Trinitarian nature and the gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter of studying general revelation will reveal that God is Trinitarian. All the polytheisms, pantheisms, and deisms made throughout history can attest to this. And even among the monotheists, they believe in the Unitarian view, not the Trinitarian God of the Bible. No amount of studying will also reveal that Jesus is the God man who lived and the died and resurrected for our sins. Only special revelation has a truth to save; general revelation does not.
And this is a reason for the cautious approach. Some study creation, in essence science, to, one, prove God’s existence or, two, to convert people to Christianity. And these seem like God glorifying goals until proper study reveals that they are both outside of general revelation and they are both outside of science. Thus, they exceed biblical parameters. First, God is a source of general revelation. God’s existence is a starting point. It is not something to be proven. And second, general revelation does not have the necessary elements for salvation so it cannot be the basis for a conversion. So, instead, general revelation and creation should reveal the attributes of God to the believer.
For example, in Luke 12, Jesus asks his disciples to consider the ravens and to consider the lilies, to teach us something about his attribute, to teach us something about his sovereignty, ultimately to encourage us and to comfort us, not to prove that he exists. And I will be following Jesus’ motif and using nature to highlight his attribute for, ultimately, the encouragement of the believer, encouragement for you guys. So, instead of trying to prove the existence of God, as men are attempting, I will merely emphasize the attributes of God that can be gleaned from in general revelation as a form of encouragement to you.
Now, in this respect, the Puritan Stephen Charnock details for us the 10 attributes that God reveals through general revelation. We will focus on number two. That’s the wisdom of God that is evidenced by the order, the variety, and also the beauty in creation. As I guide you into seeing God’s wisdom, other encouragements will naturally emerge, which I ultimately have under three headers, but they’ll remain mysteries for now and we’ll uncover them together. But why is this an attribute of focus? Well, it is here that Albert Einstein’s conundrum has an explanation, and in solving this conundrum, I believe God’s wisdom can be elevated in our minds. This was the conundrum. The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. In essence, the claim is that the world should not make sense, but it does, and that’s strange. Why? Well, for the secular, their thought process goes something like this. They believe in a random chance creation, thus it is expected for the property of randomness to permeate all of the world, including the scientific laws at governance. If it’s random, it is incomprehensible, so they must somehow explain the difference, or how an order can arise from randomness, and ultimately, to this day, they have yet to.
But for the Christian, the answer is extremely simple. Why? Because our world is comprehensible because God in his wisdom created an order of world to be comprehended. There is no conundrum for the believer. The fact that the world can be understood through science is a demonstration of its wisdom. And perhaps I can end my presentation here. We can now go home at marvel at God’s wisdom and the fact that man has the ability to do science at all. But of course, you’re here for more specific details than just that. This explanation is very general and we can only give God a general appreciation for his wisdom. But with the scientific data available today, we can be much more specific, thus enabling us to honor him specifically and appreciate his wisdom to a greater extent. And this is what I aim to do for you. This is what I aim to expound about. Not to give you new, never before seen science that nobody’s ever heard of it, but it’s to merely arrange the existing science in such a way that God’s wisdom is made most manifest.
So, think of a jigsaw puzzle. Okay. So, wisdom [inaudible 00:10:09]. Okay. Think of a jigsaw puzzle. When the pieces are in disarray, one may understand that there is some hidden beauty and appreciate the designer in a general sense, but when the pieces are arranged in the appropriate order, you get to experience the beauty and honor the designer through the admiration of his genius all the more. So, what’s my goal? To encourage the believers. And how do I aim to accomplish that goal? By emphasizing God’s attributes? And what method will I employ to highlight God’s attributes? It would be the jigsaw puzzle approach. The jigsaw pieces that I’ll be arranging can be found in the title, particle physics, relativity, electrodynamics, and the atomic and the molecular fields. These will be arranged within the broad realm of science.
Now, since the realm of science is extremely vast and the time that I have with you is very limited, I cannot highlight all the fields in existence. Instead, I can cast a net extremely wide in a very short amount of time just by looking at the purpose of science, by looking at some of the most fundamental questions that science seeks to answer. And so, this is where we will be transitioning to the scientific portion of the seminar.
So, what are are the questions that science seeks to answer? Turns out the best scientists may actually be children because they are the same questions that children ask such as, “Daddy, why is the sky blue?” or more fundamental questions like, “Daddy, what is this?” And the scientific version of, “What is this?” is actually the basics of science because, ultimately, all of science can be boiled down to two questions: What is matter? And what is motion? So, all of science can be summarized and, thus, all of science is actually combined into this box. The question simply becomes, what is it, and why does it move? And you may be thinking, “Wait, is that it? Those are very simple questions to answer.” To the untrained eye. Let’s see how simple these questions really are to answer.
So, let’s begin with what is matter. You may be thinking, “Well, anything made out of atoms.” Okay. Well, although you may have answered the question in some aspect, you did not address the real part of the question because it may be asked, “What is an atom?” Is it the most fundamental particle that there is? So, let’s just do a simple experiment with me. Imagine you have an ice cube and you cut it in half. What material do you have? You still have ice, so you must keep going. You cut half, half, half, and half again, what do you ultimately get to? Molecules. But why did you stop there? The question wasn’t verify for me the existence of a molecule, the question was what is matter? What is the most fundamental particle? Guess what you can do? Cut the molecule into atoms, but then you can cut those in half and you get subatomic particles known as protons, neutrons, and electrons. But then you could cut those in half and you get even smaller subtopic particles known as fermions and bosons.
And you can see a pattern beginning to emerge. We should be able to keep cutting further and further until infinity. So, in theory, we should be able to cut forever. And notice, this turns into an unsolvable problem. The answer to that seemingly simple question is actually impossible to answer. And we cannot understand the depth of this seemingly simple question. Our minds are just extremely shallow. Even now, billions, that’s with a B, are being spent on trying to answer this question at facilities such a large hadron collider. So, it turns out the question regarding matter did not bear positive fruit. Perhaps the question regarding motion may actually bear more fruit.
So, what is motion? “Oh, this one’s easy,” you might say. Anything that changes position with time. Yes, but can you actually make sense of it? So, let’s do another thought experiment. Suppose you wanted to walk through the door to get to the other side, but before you get to the door, guess what you must do? You must get halfway there, so let’s say point A. But from point A, before you get to the door, guess what you must do? You must get halfway there, say point B. So, from point B, guess what you must do before you get to the? You must get halfway there, say point C. And you can see that this pattern begins to emerge and that you can continue this until infinity.
So, if each one of those stopping points is a task you must accomplish, how many tasks must you accomplish before you get to the door? Infinite amount of tasks. How much times does it take to accomplish an infinite amount of tasks? Eternity. So, in theory, walking through doors should take eternity. Theoretically, with our minds, passing through doors should be impossible, but to be in this room, guess what you must have? Done walk through the door. So, in reality and our theory are completely disconnected, and this is what’s known as Zeno’s paradox. And as it turns out, motion is also impossible to comprehend with our minds. Our minds are extremely, extremely narrow.
So, what does this show? I believe this reveals the weakness of the human mind. We are incapable of understanding simple concepts such as matter and motion, so although atheists have Albert Einstein’s conundrum, everybody else must resolve another conundrum. We’ll call it the Joey conundrum. And this is my conundrum. The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible. But you may be thinking, “Wait, isn’t that the same conundrum?” Well, yes and no. By words, yes, but by meaning, no. Einstein was trying to emphasize the mysterious order of this world. I’m trying to emphasize the weakness of the human mind. Even if the world was made in an orderly fashion that intelligent creatures can understand it, it does not explain the intelligence of the creature. You see, an ordered world can exist without intelligent creatures. So, why do we have… And we shouldn’t take that for granted. So, the question remains, why is there intelligence? Why do we have reasoning capabilities at all? And of course, the Christian can answer this conundrum with ease, as well. By the grace of God. God in his grace made us in his image. It is all thanks to God. Thus, being able to do science should be understood as a demonstration of his grace, not just to the Christian, but to all people alike.
Notice… Okay, [inaudible 00:16:29]. Okay. So, notice, before we can even begin discussing science, we are reminded of two glorious attributes of God, his grace and that we have the mental capabilities to do science, and his wisdom and that the world can be actually studied through science. But by the grace of God, we’re able to study the world around us, so we’ll be getting into actual science now. And we’ll be going deeper into the two fundamental questions that I addressed. And all of science can be boiled down to these questions, and there are actually three realms of science: one where the focus is on large and fast moving objects known as relativity, one where the focus is on really small objects known as quantum mechanics, and the last round being the one that we’re familiar with, the ones that our senses can observe, which we will label as classical mechanics. And we will begin here with the things that are common, with the things that we are familiar with.
So, in this framework, three of the full pieces can be distinguished based on the question of what is matter. That’s particle physics, electrodynamics, and the atomic and the molecular fields, and this is where we will begin. So, atomic and molecular fields focuses on atoms and their arrangements to make up everything that our senses can interact with, so molecules and atoms. But as we go smaller, we get into the field studying subatomic particles, and this field is known as particle physics. Notice here where electrons are. Electrons actually belong to particle physics, but because it plays such a vital role in electricity in the technological world around us, it gets its own special field known as electrodynamics. Now, in the typical breakdown of science, of chemistry, biology, physics, and geology, these fields would fit in over there, but first, let’s begin with the atomic field. Some recent developments, actually.
So, here, what do you see? You may think, “Smiley face.” Yes, but what if I were to tell you what you’re looking at is actually DNA. So, most people know that DNA is the building block of life. They’re able to hold genetic information due to chemical constituents known as nucleic acids, and there are four different nucleic acid that can come in any order. But when arranged certain specific sequences, these nucleic acids can become instructions to make life. However, I’m not here to speak on biological aspects of DNA. The new technology involving DNA I would like to share arises not from its ability to hold genetic information, but as building blocks for raw materials. Think of bricks but on a molecular scale, think of bricks, except DNA. But let’s see how that will actually work.
So, DNA in its biological form exists in two strands which is interwoven into a shape know as a double helix. These two strands are held together through interactions with the nucleic acids. Instead of freely floating, nucleic acids would much rather be paired up with another nucleic acid in that fashion in the top right corner. A would go with T and G would go with C. Because of this pairing, certain sections of the DNA must go with a specific portion of the other strand. So, instead of using this AT/GC, I’ll just be using a color coded system as such: red, green, blue, and purple. And these color codes will represent complimentary chunks of each sections. And this is where I can introduce to you the new technology.
Instead of having two strands, the primary and secondary, what would happen if you were to cut up the secondary strand into pieces and intelligently combine the different portions together? So, say the two end sections will form strand A and the two centrals portions will make strand B. So, now, what would happen if the primary strand and strand A were mixed together? They would make something that looks like this. Notice that the reds can go together, but the purples do not. Unless the purple closes in on itself, then both the red and the purple are paired. So, what did we just do? We made a fold. By intelligently organizing a small complementary strand, we are able to make folds in the DNA, and here, you see that the inner portion is not super happy because it’s by itself and that’s where strand B would come in, to stabilize the fold completely. Here, we introduce a single fold, and this active folding is known as DNA origami. But there’s nothing that prevents us from stopping at one fold. We can form two and three, and that’s DNA origami in a nutshell.
So, you can extend this to form zig-zags to ultimately form a square, and here are the images of what that would look like. And please note, these objects are actually too small to be seen with the naked eye. And you may say, “Wow, a square. So what?” Well with additional creativity, you can see that you’re not limited to a rectangular shape, but you can get stars and that emoji from earlier. Right? And more complex shapes. And you can even go into things like writing, drawing maps, and much more complicated shapes. But brothers and sisters, the goal of this technology was not to do art, but showing these designs demonstrates something very crucial. It’s the nanoscale control enabled by this technology. Because if you can recreate works of art, guess what else you can do? Other complex things.
“But so what?” you may be thinking, “These are two dimensional systems. We live in a three-dimensional world.” Ah, yes, DNA origami was applied to 3D structures, as well, and ultimately into DNA origami robots. So, how does that work? Well, DNA origami offers two primary benefits. The first one, which I already showed you, was the nanoscale control which you can actually make stuff. The second is that it is an organic and a biological molecule. This enables this attachment of well-studied biological groups onto select portions of the DNA, or DNA origami. So, ultimately, we can design this DNA origami robotic cage, which can on the inside can house different molecules. This cage can then be closed and locked. And only using a biological tag can it actually open to activate whatever materials inside that DNA origami.
But let’s see how this can actually be beneficial. I just want to show you a potential application in drug delivery. The current methods of administering drugs can be categorized into methods of ingestion, things like pills and… I forget what those are. Yeah, inhalers. Thank you. Okay. I don’t remember my own slides. This is crazy. And the other one is topical, and I actually can’t read it. Okay. Yeah. Topical and transdermal, and also injections. Okay? So, an issue with ingesting drugs Is that the drugs are not selective. They will attack both the healthy and non-healthy cells alike. The issue with topical and transdermal applications is the following. So, once you apply it, it’s very local, but if it enters a bloodstream, it suffers the same fate as the ingestion method, in that the drugs are not selective.
And these drugs are attacking healthy and non-healthy cells alike, and this is a major cause of all the side effects of many drugs. And this is where we enter the DNA origami. These cages can be treated with a drug and then closed and given a lock in which only the target cells have the key for. Once it attaches, and only when it attaches, will it release the drug attacking only the non-healthy cell. but if this were to attach with a healthy cell which doesn’t have a key, it will not open the drug. So, what do we see just now? With intelligently designing DNA origami, you can get selectivity in terms of these drugs. DNA origami can be selective and only attack non-healthy cells. Thus, DNA origami has a potential of solving a glaring issue in the common methods of drug delivery today. This will have the potential to reduce the side effects of many, many drugs. Guess what else DNA can make? The plants of the ground, creatures of the sea, beasts of the earth, and the sky and everything else with breath of life. Did I just disappoint you? Wow.
Even though all that I just listed is infinitely more complex than DNA origami robots, why were you disappointed? It’s because Calvin was right when he called the human heart an idol factory. Our fellow minds of a tendency to marvel at human hands rather than God’s mighty works. We are more impressed by what man can do than what God can do. We can turn mighty works of God into common things and elevate the works of man onto pedestals. As such, technological advancements reveals to the Christian, ultimately, their sinful hearts. And of course, to the believer, God doesn’t reveal our sinful nature to leave us condemned, but ultimately to call us to repentance and be reminded of his grace. So, thus, science and technology is an avenue in which we can be reminded of God’s grace in redeeming us
Well, with the DNA leading to life, and also DNA origami to robots, what does the atomic world reveal to us? Precise what Stephen Charnock listed for us: God’s wisdom and the variety, order, and the beauty. The variety is seen in the same DNA that can lead to life can also be leading to the folds of DNA origami. The order in that the coding of genetic information and the folding of the DNA origami both arise from the same thing, the sequencing of the nucleic acids. And then now we get to the beauty. From DNA, we get to see the beautiful array of creatures and organisms with different colors. DNA origami was used to make one of the… We saw the emojis and all the different shapes, but it also just made one of the smallest replicas of van Gogh’s Starry Night, through the atomic… That’s the width of a dime, by the way. Through the atomic world, we get to see the genius of God, what God incorporated within the framework of DNA. We get to see the advanced technology God enabled when the man subdues creation. And now we see it, we are able to be at awe of his wisdom all the more.
Next, let’s gander at what electrodynamics can offer the believer. A sentence overview of electrodynamics is the study of electrons and its motion. Electrodynamics. Now, this field is extremely vast and there are so many awesome things to show you. God has implanted amazing things into electrons so that man can subdue to form technology. But this leaves us with two options. We can either focus on the inventions that God enabled or, two, to highlight the mysteries that God embedded into electrons that made the technology possible. Because of time constraints, I can only do one, and I’m going to be choosing the latter. I want to discuss with you a component that was built into the fundamentals of electrodynamics by God.
And you may be thinking, “Fundamentals, oh no, equations.” No. The fundamental that I have to show you has its roots in visuals, a mere pattern recognition. No equation, just pictures. This pattern is one that electrons seem to make when it moves. Thus, these patterns can actually be seen in thunderstorms. This pattern is referred to as the Lichtenberg pattern. Wikipedia defines it as a branching, and branching is a key, a branching electric discharge that sometimes appears on the surface or the interior of insulating materials. Forget everything. Just the branching part is the focus. Now, in a lightning strike, electrons travel through the air, giving us a Lichtenberg pattern only for a moment, but if electrons are past forcibly through insulating materials like acrylic, you can preserve this pattern as such. It can even be captured on the human skin. Lightning victims are often left with the Lichtenberg pattern as so.
And as destructive as thunderstorms can be, the patterns that it makes is, I will say, quite appealing and soothing such that these can actually be purchased as [inaudible 00:29:26] of art. So, the wonder of electrodynamics reveals to us a visually beautiful world, ultimately demonstrating the wisdom of God. But you may be wondering, “Fine, although it’s aesthetically pleasing, should this take precedence over the cool inventions that are made possible by electrodynamics,” the inventions that I alluded to earlier? And the answer is yes. And here’s why.
So, we see that Lichtenberg pattern ultimately arises from the electrodynamics, but these can actually be found in the world of geology. Here’s a salt marsh in Spain. Here are some more Egypt and Malaysia. And a Google Maps image of Colorado reveals another. And not only waterways, but mountains, as well. And these patterns are so common that the common default, or the default map book photo which I have reveals the Lichtenberg pattern. If I trace the ridge, which I did so very roughly, you can see that it ultimately forms this Lichtenberg pattern. So, from the waterways, which are the lowest points of mountains, to the highest, the peaks and ridges of the mountains, both are revealing this Lichtenberg pattern. So, the world of geology also has it.
But there’s more. These patterns are also found in biology. They’re found in the roots of plants as well as the branches of the trees, to even the patterns found on the leaves, the Lichtenberg pattern, it persists in such a wide array. So, why stop there? I won’t. It is also found on the human body. And you may say, “Ah, yes, the lightning strike victim from before.” No, no, no, no. That’s on the human body. I mean, in the human body. The channels in our lungs and our circulatory system also makes these pattern. And you see the beauty becomes ever more highlighted when we cover its variety. The variety does nothing to diminish the beauty, but ever increases it all the more because when we see the variety, we also see it’s orderliness, culminating in a heightened sense of God’s wisdom. So, here we see the world of biology has Lichtenberg pattern.
And don’t you think God forgot about chemistry because he didn’t, and here’s an image of growing metals through voltage on the left hand side, and there’s another image of metals growing through heats on the right hand side, two completely different governing physics leading to the same behavior. And I hope you’re convinced that this pattern is found everywhere. It is found in so many domains of science, not only in electrodynamics, but also geology, biology, chemistry, as well., And all of these with vastly different governing physics. All form this Lichtenberg pattern which can be… So [inaudible 00:32:06] Lichtenberg pattern. And Lichtenberg patterns ultimately can be explained via electrodynamics.
Now, continuing on in our electrodynamic section, we will progress onto one of its, what I would say, most profound discoveries, and ultimately, all of electro dynamics can be summarized by four mathematical relationships known as Maxwell’s equations. You may be thinking, “Oh no, equations.” Don’t worry. I’m not even going to show them on the screen. I just want to tell you what these can lead to. From these four equations that relate electric and magnetic parameters, we can actually determine the speed of light, and not only what the speed of light is, but at the same time, we are revealing what the nature of light is. And this was one of the oldest questions, or oldest questions, scientific questions known to man. It is not a particle, but it’s what’s known as a fluctuation in electric and magnetic fields. Don’t worry, you don’t have to know what that is, but it’s just fascinating stuff. But ultimately, we end up with light, and while we’re on light, we note that the speed of light is extremely fast. So, this is where we can transition into the really fast field known as relativity.
So, a positive definition of what relativity is would just take too much time, so instead of defining what it is, a much easier and meaningful way to define it would be to highlight the differences to what we observe in our normal classical mechanics. So, in classical mechanics, we have particles, things with matter, which has a definite mass and it exists in a definite space and definite time, and it occupies a definite volume space is where the particle exists, time is when the particle exists, and in this classical framework, the universal parameter that all other particles follow is time. This is the fundamental constant in the classical framework. But as the speed of light is approached, some strange things begin to happen. Be warned, your mind is about to be blown, but bear with me just for a few moments.
First approaching the speed of light, there was a notion that objects have variable mass, and you may be thinking, “Huh? What do you mean variable mass?” Yes. Just by the object moving faster, there was a notion that mass decreases. Mass is no longer constant. You’re probably like, “Yeah, but that didn’t explain anything.” Yeah, but see, it gets better. Space actually gets smaller too. What do you mean space? I’m not talking about volume, space. You were like, “What does that mean?” Yeah, but it gets better. Time also slows down. Actually, it gets much better. Time and space are actually one single thing known as spacetime.
And you may be thinking, “Wait, seriously? Everything is varying, but this can’t be because it will lead to a chaotic world. Something must be constant.” Yes. And that universal constant in the theory of relativity is the speed of light. This is the foundational ground on which the theory rests. This is in contrast to the time we have in our normal classical point of view. But you may be wondering like, “What motivated a theory that has so many absurd counterintuitive results such as variable space and time?” And the answer is simple. There were some phenomena that we couldn’t explain through the classical means, and this theory of relativity was able to explain such weird things as the orbit of mercury and some odd behavior of light. And it was also able to predict well-observed phenomenon such as gravitational lensing that’s observed in astronomy very well today.
So, that’s the theory of relativity in a nutshell. And if your mind is blown, please bear with me for a few more moments because it gets much better when we see, or when we talk, about the really small things of the world known as quantum mechanics. In the normal classical mechanics, particles are located in space and time with definite mass and volume. Relativity threw a wrench into the mix by proposing that particles exist in varying space and time. Now, in the small realm, quantum mechanics tells us that particles are actually not particles. Yes, I told you it gets better. But to understand this, you need to know that there were actually two notions of existence.
The first is a particle which we normally understand as some object, and the other is a wave. You know, kind of like light. The idea of a wave existed to explain light because we can hold particles, but we can’t hold light. There must be two methods of existence. And these two were thoughts would be mutually exclusive. You are either a particle or you’re a wave. But quantum a mechanics tells us, no, everything is a wave, you know, like light. The quantum mechanical model states that the fundamental nature of reality for all materials is this light-like behavior. This behavior, just the reason why we don’t see it, that is this behavior becomes more evident as we just get smaller and smaller and smaller.
So, you may be thinking, “Huh? Why does this theory exist?” Well, like relativity, quantum mechanics was able to explain many phenomena that classical mechanics could not such as why is there colors? In fact, a pivotal instrument in my PhD work took advantage of this notion that particles behave as waves on the atomic scale. I get to speak on particle physics, so I’ll at here and now. And I guess you can say that the instrument that I used was kind of the meeting point between particle physics and quantum mechanics. And so, why? Why is the instrument kind of in the middle? The instrument that I use was essentially a neutron gun. It shot neutrons at the samples. Now, if the neutron is a particle, it should leave spots like bullet holes into your sample, but if the neutron was a wave, it would leave this rainbow like pattern. So, neutrons are well known to be a particle, but the whole reason why I shot it to my sample is because it gives this kind of behavior. And you can see that it has this rainbow like structure to it. And so, this instrument is just confirming that at least some elements of quantum mechanics is true. So, if you’re confused, you’re in good company because so were the originators of this theory.
So, here, our map is, which I believe is super general, is complete. So, let’s briefly summarize. We began by looking at classical mechanics, a broad range of classical mechanics displayed the Lichtenberg pattern which has electrodynamics as its basis. And all of the electrodynamics can be summarized by Maxwell’s equations, which was foundational to light. Relativity describes that space and time are variable because it has at its foundational axiom the speed of light. Lastly, quantum mechanics predicts that the fundamental nature of everything is a wave or this light-like thing. Now, we are about to briefly leave this for a moment because here I want… There’s something important to interject.
In the popular minds, John Robbins notes, that the words, “It has been scientifically proved,” has replaced the biblical formula, “For thus sayeth the Lord,” in the authority for determining truth. And I believe this is not just true for the secularist, but to many evangelicals and possibly including ourselves. But we should hold firm to the word of God despite opposition from scientists. Now, I would like to remind you of King Hezekiah in II Kings 19 when the had Judah sieged and that Assyrian ambassador mocked the Jews saying, “Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you,” saying, “Jerusalem will not be given it to the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely.” Today, we are in a similar scenario from the scientists. They mock us saying, “Don’t believe in God. The Bible is full of errors. Behold, you have heard of evolution and big bang.”
Well, back to the Jews. Despite the Assyrian warning, the Jews remained faithful and they were able to taste the victory. The Jews’ ordeal, and then verse 35, which reads, “Then happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead.” The general idea I want you to see is this. The Jews trusted in God’s promises because he is trustworthy, and because they did that, they got to taste victory. And today, despite the scientist calling us to forsake God because he might be “a bad theory,” we should stand firm in God’s word because they are actually enabling us to taste victory. Why? Because science is confirming God’s word. How?
Now let’s get back to this map, despite where you land on the answer to the fundamental question of science, everything is pointing to one thing. Let’s take a step back. Regarding the purpose of science, I casted the net as wide as possible for you. All of science is contained within those walls and nothing exists outside of it. And in this large jigsaw puzzle of science, one thing stands out when its pieces are arranged within this broad framework. And what is that? I think you guys could see. Light. And why? Because God said, “Let there be light.”This was the first thing spoken into existence in Genesis 1:3. All of science, as atheists [inaudible 00:41:57] is leading to light. And one great advantage of having the lead scientists of today having a secular viewpoint is this. Science leading to light, this cannot be charged with any level of favoritism. Why? They’re secular. They weren’t trying prove that the Bible was true. They were just doing science. And the discoveries that they had ultimately show the word to be true.
Now, critics of my presentation may accuse me of finding a coincidence, but that’s entirely not true. This is not coincidence. This was actually an expectation, possibly even a prediction, of those in antiquity by theologians and scientists alike. Theologians taught that general revelation ultimately shows special revelation to be true, so this was expected from the theologians. In addition, early scientists studied light because they believed in Genesis 1:3. One biographer notes regarding Bishop Robert Grosseteste, light was the bishop’s passion. In the Judeo-Christian view, light is enormously significant for obvious reasons in Genesis 1:3. He wrote about it extensively and drew many analogies from it. He advanced the earliest known wave theory of light contributing directly to the work by [inaudible 00:43:10] and Newton. Look when he was alive. 600 years before modern science. How did he know that light was going to be so crucial? Genesis 1:3. [inaudible 00:43:25] wrote regarding Robert Bacon, Bacon considered optics, which is the study of light and its movement, to be the most fundamental science since light was the first of God’s creation. Science converging to light would not have been a surprise to them. It is not a coincidence, but an expectation. It was an expectation because they believed in Genesis 1:3. And this should be a great comfort for us.
And brothers and sisters, this is the treasure I wanted to leave you with. God’s wisdom is so great that even those who oppose him ultimately reveal his glory for the believers to see. Just as Assyrians played a role in the Jews’ experiencing victory, the scientists of today, who despise us, helps us see the greater certainty in his word. God created with so much order that those who oppose him are ultimately doing his bidding. That, brothers and sisters, is order that I cannot fathom. God’s wisdom is out of this world, and it is the secularists that are shedding light onto that for us. Pun intended.
Although this is a good stopping point to leave you to wander… Or not wander, wonder. I would be robbing you of some additional information, the technology that’s enabled by light, the technology God enabled in this first spoken existence. The first is X-rays. X-rays are a form of light, but unfiltered can lead to immediate death. But what happens when it’s subdued by man? It can be used for medical purposes. Then there’s visible light. It enables our eyes to see, and there’s a lot of technology that makes the world beautiful, so I’m not going to go into the details there for the sake of time. But what I want to mention are radio waves, which when subdued are ultimately used for things like internet and wifi, the very things that makes information accessible at rates faster than ever before. Believers, this age in the spreading of the gospel God has providentially woven this into his first spoken creation. The first of creation, light, and the goal of creation, Christ, were thought to be related through things like metaphors, these like light is knowledge, darkness is no knowledge. Also things like virality. Light is evil, darkness is not. Or maybe through history, through these twists and turns, ultimately the first of creation, and ultimately Jesus Christ.
But brothers and sisters, we are at an amazing time since we actually get to see the full circle. We get to see the direct connection between the first of creation and the goal of creation. How? When man subdues… or man obeys God’s mandate to subdue the creation. Through a wifi and internet, the truth of God’s son can be propagated at incredible speeds, as fast as the speed of light. And that’s not an exaggeration. This is a grace that God prayed us with to ultimately to proclaim the gospel at rates never before seen in history, to most rapidly accomplish the goal of creation. We get to see the full circle of God’s first creation and the goal of creation, ultimately, for him.
So, before I conclude, I would like to at least give an answer to a question that was posited in the TheoTech website. What did God intend in creating the earth and supplying it abundantly with raw materials so that humans could build technology? And instead of using my words, I believe it would be much more meaningful if I instead provided for you something that was shared in the Caltech alumni Facebook page, by whom I presume to be an atheist. As such, I believe that their goal was not to glorify God, they were just making a simple officer. The post focused on a quote by Voltaire, and this was the quote. “The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.” Now enter his post. He was speaking at or before a time electricity was discovered and long before we learned to put it to use. Notice when he was alive. It was impossible to live a comfortable lifestyle back then without a lot of servants who would all have to be much less comfortable.
Now, hundreds of years later, the average person lives much more comfortably than a king did in Voltaire time and doesn’t have to chop wood or carry water because we have electricity and plumbing. Engineering has made a level of widespread wealth possible without the need for a lot of impoverished people. He notes that every one of us who lives in a developed country lives more comfortably than kings ever did. Brothers and sisters, who are we to receive more than kings? Nothing. It is purely by the grace of God. And it’s not just for the Christians, but to nonbelievers alike. So, I say technology is a demonstration of God’s common grace to all of mankind. I don’t know why I’m crying. Sorry.
So, to summarize, God’s wisdom and grace permeated before science, and it also permeates through science, ultimately confirming the truth of his word and ultimately for the propagation of the gospel of his son, which was the purpose of creation. And brothers and sisters, my goal was to encourage you to trust in him by highlighting God’s attributes in creation, and I hope that I accomplish that this morning. Thank you.
Dr. Joey Kim is Assistant Professor of Biological and Physical Sciences at TMU. PhD in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, with a specialization in materials science. He has completed academic research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), leading centers globally in physical, chemical, molecular, and atomic research. He has published several articles in scientific journals on topics such as polymers, vapor deposition, and chemistry gradients.
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