You Too Can Get Particle Fever!

Contributed by:
Frank Pennington
United Church of Christ
Institute Advisory Committee Member

“Higgs boson” is not the name of a Swedish bobsled racer but the term to describe a scientific find having theological/ metaphysical as well as groundbreaking importance for particle physics. The Higgs particle in an elementary particle initially theorized in 1964, the discovery of which was announced on July 4th, 2012. The Higgs boson particle, named after Peter Higgs one of six physicists who in 1964 proposed its existence, is monumental not only because its discovery was the culmination of the most expensive science project ever, but because it apparently is the key particle which holds the universe together.  It has been called the “God particle” because it is elemental to explaining how everything in the universe works.  Simply, the Higgs boson particle is the fundamental catalyst for everything. The Higgs boson particle is THE elemental particle! To paraphrase the biblical Book of Genesis, in the beginning, there was the Higgs boson.

Obviously, the scientific and metaphysical impact of finding the Higgs boson at CERN in Switzerland using the very advanced technology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cannot be simply communicated.  Initiated in the 1980’s and known as the “Atlas Experiment,” this project has involved 10,000 people from 100 countries and the use of 100,000 computers to process the data. While the discovery of the Higgs boson particle is complex, a new documentary film Particle Fever has recently been released and is currently showing in the Philadelphia region and nationally. The  film is not just an explanation of what all the fuss is about, but is dramatically riveting; you can check out a review at filmjournal.com and view the film’s promotional trailer at particlefever.com/

My interest in the conversation between religion, spirituality and science/technology has led me on a long, strange trip. I was schooled in the thinking that religion and science had nothing in common and the more sophisticated one became, the less a religious worldview held credence. “God” was the concept we used to explain what “science” would eventually clarify. We call this god the “God of the gaps.” However, it seems as if the more our scientific worldview expands, the deeper the metaphysical questions become.  In other words, the questions about the origin and character of the universe aren’t reduced but seemingly more elegant and subtle. “Knowledge” is a process not resolved in absolutes (either religious or scientific) but enlivened with fresh questions about meaning.

The cosmological concept of the three- tiered universe is dead, but that doesn’t mean God is! Perhaps the traditional “god” of both religion and science is just too small.  Allow me to invite you on a movie date—go see “Particle Fever,” because it just might blow your mind.  Catch it at a theater near you! I’ll spring for the buttered popcorn.  The quest for the Higgs boson may have been the most expensive science project ever but your personal thrill ride will only be the cost of a theater ticket.

Actually, I paid the admission this past Friday and sat transfixed through the account of a monumental discovery.  While not “dumbing down” the science behind the detective work, a very genuine and human picture evolved of the people who dedicated talent and time to the project. “Particle Fever” is beautifully and artfully filmed and an homage to the humor, resolve, and pathos underwriting any great discovery. The film concludes with shots of the wonderful ancient cave paintings filmed by Werner Herzog (“Cave of Forgotten Dreams” 2010)and the observation that explorations in science and art may not always make all that much sense in terms of economic value. However, these advances are what make us human. And, I add, as long as there is a profound sense of mystery there will exist within humanity the pulse of spirituality. “Particle Fever” does not editorialize about the religion/science “debate.” Rather, the message is, in the language of the popular television series of the 1990’s “The X- Files,” “The Truth Is Out There.” At our best, it would seem our species has a penchant for the quest toward enlightenment. This quest is uplifted in “Particle Fever” and my counsel is you should witness it.  Awe is the spiritual energy enticing us forward and there is a pervasive presence of humanity’s awe in this magical quest for the Higgs boson.

Her

Contributed by:
Frank Pennington
United Church of Christ
Institute Advisory Committee Member

This past January was synonymous with “cabin fever” given the temperature and snow cover. As an antidote I turned to my long standing interest in film, especially since the Academy Awards are looming large. Last week, my good friend (who is a college teacher, a rabbi, and a film buff) and I took in “Her,” a Spike Jonze creation. As a follow-up to the film, we had a short theological discussion.

“Her” takes place in a future L.A. in which populist technology reigns. Everyone has the next generation of super-smart phones and operating systems. A film panorama captures a Bluetooth contagion showing everyone with absorbed smiles as they negotiate their immediate destinations chatting with whoever (or whatever) holds their super smart phone interest.

Conversations on Near Death Experiences

Contributed by:
Frank Pennington
United Church of Christ
Institute Advisory Committee Member

On a recent autumn Sunday, I had the opportunity to facilitate a small group as a follow-up to a lecture by Eben Alexander M.D. in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. Alexander is the author of a New York Times best seller titled Proof of Heaven. As the joke goes: none of us will get out of this life alive! Dr. Alexander makes an anecdotal case for the survival of human consciousness beyond what we know in our perception as physical or bodily death. Proof of Heaven has proven to be quite controversial which is no surprise since there has been a history of western thought and “hard” science in particular dismissing any conceptualization of “God” or an “afterlife.” At least three difficulties abide with this pattern of thinking. First, our perceptions of “God” or “the afterlife” have been profoundly conditioned by what have become the popular but simplistic “definitions” of these concepts. A Russian astronaut went into space and glibly pronounced that he failed to see God. His dismissal was based on the narrow belief that heaven is quite literally “up there.” In reality, the image of “heaven” being “up there” is grounded in a primitive understanding of the earth as flat, with “heaven” being literally above and “hades” or “hell” being beneath us; these short-sighted and glib dismissals are broken.

A second difficulty has to do with our cultural “sophisticated” understanding of science as being limited to that which is determined or defined by our five senses. When we offer a disclaimer such as “that doesn’t make any sense,” we usually mean that something doesn’t stack up to what can be measured by the five senses. This reductionist, shallow thought pattern dismisses why music moves the heart, why we laugh at irony, or weep at the loss of loved ones. We are about to experience the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John Kennedy and I dare to offer that our deep emotional reactions to that tragic loss could not be accurately measured in a scientific laboratory. In other words, we seem to be far greater than the chemical, electrical, and biological sum of our individual parts. Albert Einstein was by no means an orthodox religionist but he strongly defined the presence and vitality of mystery in life.

A third difficulty resides in the fact that questions about what consciousness means are intrinsic to the human (and perhaps not just human) search for meaning and our place in the universe. These questions become all the more complicated as quantum physics probes the existence of multiple universes and the qualities and behavior of dark matter. Simply, we aren’t in Kansas any more . . . our perceptions of reality are expanding and it isn’t just about what’s in those mushrooms!

On that autumn Sunday at Chestnut Hill College, we welcomed a gathering of people who would rather probe the dynamic intricacies of consciousness than watch the Eagles pull of an exciting win (yea!). The Monday morning papers in Philly were ecstatic about the victory but the victory will not affect those who were listed on the obituary pages or those with profoundly damaged lives because of the harsh weather in the Midwest. It seems that existence is always experienced in context. The problem with this is that we too often limit our context and range of thinking to the immediate and to what is close to us.

Well, is there a place called “heaven”? The problem is that many of our “religious” questions and yearnings have transcended the glib responses of time and space. When I was a rowdy adolescent in my prime, the last place which had any appeal for me was a “heaven” in which we sat all day playing our harps on billowy clouds. And I found comical, even at an early age, a “devil” with horns and with a pointy tail and a pitch fork in hand poking at my sins.

In the classic 1960s film “Alfie,” there is the song with the line, “What’s it all about Alfie, is it just for the moment we live . . . ?” The song is used throughout the movie to mirror the futility of a moment to moment existence because there seems to be little meaning in the short view. Our limited understandings of heaven go out of style but the existential pull of the surrounding questions are ever with us.

Will I survive this “vale of tears”? I believe I will and I am not alone. “Heaven” for me at this time is a consciousness question and not about place. When Jesus was asked about “heaven” and how earthly marriage might work there he implied that to frame the question that way missed the point. The renowned scientist John Wheeler observed, “Physics is a ‘magic window’. It shows us the illusion that lies behind reality and the reality behind illusion.” What is reality? I believe it is fair to say that we see through a glass darkly no matter how we look.

The philosopher William James observed, “At the bottom, the whole concern of religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe.” Quantum physics posits the theory that the universe is expanding; the question for us is whether or not our minds are expanding as well. In the 1970s a popular way of thinking was that “God is dead!” Certainly, the “gods” of our narrow thinking are dead. What we need is to develop an awareness of consciousness not reduced to the five senses but growing and, if we allow for it, maturing.

Father Giovanni (1513) said, “. . . we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.” To be a pilgrim is not a bad thing and to acknowledge that some things are unknown is not bad either. This past Sunday afternoon instead of watching the Eagles beat the Redskins, a group of pilgrims gathered to probe what can be perceived within the “magic window” and beyond. The bottom line, maybe, is that we are pilgrims wending through unknown territory, home.

Religion, Science, and Asian Thought

Contributed by: Rev. Frank Pennington, follow Rev. Pennington at his weekly blog Frank on Faith

On April 25 and 26, I participated in a conference at West Chester University. The theme of the conference was Religion, Science, and Asian Thought. Co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Science at Chestnut Hill College with which I am involved, the conference was a thoughtful opportunity to examine the chasm between the way the Eastern world views the scientific process and how we in the West have been colored by traditional Western empirical thought. Scholars from City of Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, CA, Lon Quan Monastery, Beijing, China, West Chester University, The University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, Villanova University, and Chestnut Hill College offered their perceptions on how we need an understanding of the scientific method and process that breaks free from what has been a false dichotomy between Eastern and Western thought.

When I was in Divinity school working toward my Masters I spent lots of time exploring a relatively new understanding of theology called Process Theology. The premise of this frontier way of thinking was grounded in the concept of theology as dynamic, and pointed toward the future rather than remaining static and rooted in the historic past. In other words, the task of theology is not so much to look back but to envision God as active in a creative present tense, beckoning us toward the future.

One of the Conference speakers, Kathy Duffy, Ph.D., has written extensively about the work of the French Jesuit paleontologist, Teilhard De Chardin. Teilhard who worked in China in the 1920’s and 1930’s was reproached by his church, the Roman Catholic Church, for championing evolution. The Roman Catholic Church at the time was concerned that evolutionary thought was contrary to the theological doctrine of creation; their understanding of creation was based on a literal translation of the book of Genesis.

What interests me is that we seem to be living in a time when, for some, it is very important to be “right” about religious issues. On the one side we have the atheist “fundamentalists” who are certain that there is no God, a belief often based on assumptions which are far from theologically sophisticated. On the other side are the religious “fundamentalists” who believe that theological truth stopped being shaped a little over two-thousand years ago; “if it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for me. “ With both camps it would seem that personal life experience is not factored into shaping theological perception. For example, why do some fundamentalist Christians support the death penalty when Jesus spoke so much about a love ethic?

Much of Buddhist thought is grounded in the concept of “The Beginners Mind.” The idea is that God’s truth is always fresh and dynamic. We who view ourselves as “spiritual,” and I will add that I believe we are all “hard-wired” to be spiritual in one way or another, might constantly see ourselves as beginners. God, or the Creator, doesn’t need our defense but our openness and awe in God’s presence. God is present not only in our “churches,” or wherever we gather, but pregnant in the ongoing moments of time. This is not to suggest that, as social beings, we shouldn’t gather for worship, but that worship serves as a reminder and a prod to explore and to celebrate what is here about us always. At this point, I think Eastern thought has a better handle on this concept than the empiricism of the West which has been steeped in dualisms.

Science isn’t religion and religion isn’t science but they can be mutually informing because they are both progressive. Recently, I finished a book entitled The New American Spirituality: A seekers Guide. In the book I found the following quotation: “When Bishop Tutu introduced Nelson Mandela at his inauguration as the new President of South Africa, he described him as being a man who had Obuntubotho. Obuntubotho, he said, is the essence of being human. You know when it is there and when it is absent. It speaks about humanness, gentleness, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.’”

The word “religion” is rooted in words which mean, “that which binds us together.” I embrace the concept of “The Beginners Mind” as opposed to a mind that believes our task is to guard the past at all cost. Teilhard De Chardin understood that Jesus was an historical figure but that his spirit or charisma engaged us in the dynamic present and future. I have heard that a ready definition of a spiritual pilgrimage is the “inner opening up of a humble readiness to receive.” The first thing we need to do is to examine why it is that we have become so defensive about what we believe and so antagonistic about what we don’t. The difficulty with “fundamentalism” of any ilk is that our certainty becomes its own form of idolatry. I am a big fan of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh who offers this thought to ponder:

Waking up this morning, I smile.
Twenty-four new hours are before me.
I vow to live fully in each moment
And to look at all things with the eyes of compassion.

In our world we worship at the feet of many false gods but perhaps the worst of all is the false god of rigid certainty, because the twenty-four hours which lay before us are always new and fresh. By the way, two of the four Buddhist monks I had the opportunity of getting to know at the conference happened to be worshipping at the Pendle Hill Quaker Meeting I attended this Sunday morning. We talked. Who would have guessed we would be together again? What are the possibilities? . . . Every day, something fresh, something new!

Earthen Vessels

Contributed by: Rev. Frank Pennington, follow Rev. Pennington at his weekly blog Frank on Faith

I have been reading a book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife. The book, which is a New York Times best seller, chronicles one person’s vivid perception of God and the afterlife. The interesting aspect of the book by Eben Alexander, M.D. is that he is a Harvard trained medical doctor. I offer this thought because the common medical assertion has been that near death experiences are the result of chemical and electrical responses to the human brain shutting down following extreme trauma. The leap to a theological assertion has been left to religion and to matters of faith. I suspect what has made this book so popular is the fact that Alexander is an academic neurosuageon. Most likely if Eben Alexander had been a member of the clergy, the book would not have had the appeal because clergy are expected to believe that there is a “heaven.” I believe that there is the reality of the survival of human consciousness beyond physical death. My beliefs are shaped by my faith systems but not sourced in them. Theology attempts to explain in understandable terms, the character of faith but theology is a human construct limited by human perceptions. In ancient times theology was shaped by the belief in a three tiered universe. Since the earth was flat, heaven was understood as being “up there” and “hell” was “down there.” Many of us still use phrases such as “she is looking down on us from heaven” suggesting that “heaven” is quite literally “in the heavens.” We still embrace the idea that human consciousness is the sum of natural human functions which are biological. When we die consciousness goes away because we do. Dr. Alexander states that his near death experience shows a reality that consciousness is not limited to human biology but is universal. The human body is the steward of consciousness so our consciousness transcends what we now accept as living or being alive. Where do we go when we die? Theoretical physics theorizes there has been no new matter created since the “big bang” so we are all star dust and to star dust we will return. There is no “law” that mandates that what we call our consciousness is just the result of body chemistry. Most religions claim that “the soul” is not limited to our definitions of a life time. Could it be that our awareness allows us to intuit a sensibility that is far more expansive than we can know on our daily human plane of existence? As I read Alexander’s book I can’t let go of the sense of the skeptic in me in that his descriptions of “heaven” seem all to shaped by a western/European worldview. I suspect if I had a conversation with Dr. Alexander he would confess to the limits of language but emphatically stress his experience. I suspect a Harvard trained neurosurgeon would not casually write a book such as Proof of Heaven. I suggest you read Eben Alexander’s book beginning not with the position of a pronounced skepticism but with the question of what would this person have to gain by writing it. In Christian theology there is the statement that we are all mere “earthen vessels.” Perhaps the capacity that we have to love and to hope and to show mercy are gifts that we are given to cherish and to manifest through our mortal lives but transcend our physical deaths. Perhaps we are quite literally “vessels” for an all too short period of time but the qualities of that for which we are vessels live on for eternity. The universe—and theoretical physics have theories that there are many universes out there—is much more than star dust. It is mind expanding to think that we might be “star dust” with the capacity to meaningfully reflect upon itself and reflect for all eternity.