My recently published book “Truth & Science” was supposed to be titled “Light, Truth & Science.”  I wanted “light” in the title to recognize the role the Light of Christ plays in inspiring scientific discoveries.  But my publisher said that books with “light” in the title don’t sell well, so “light” was taken out.  (I guess too many LDS authors thought it would sound warm and fuzzy to put “light” in their titles, and many of those books did not sell well.)  

Anyway, should my publisher decide to publish an upcoming book of mine, he will have to put “light” in the title, not because I want it to sound warm and fuzzy, but because the book will be about the Light of Christ.  Perhaps he will want to change the title to the “Spirit of the Lord”, a poor choice given that this name is also used to describe the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is not the Light of Christ. 

I am fascinated by the Light of Christ.  It is a divine medium that emanates from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space.  It is what allows God his omniscience, which is to know everything that is happening everywhere throughout all His creations.  It is also the source of God’s omnipresence – it enables His influence to be felt everywhere throughout all His creations. 

The scientific community has nothing that comes close to matching the awe-inspiring nature of the Light of Christ.  Take, for example, Einstein’s Relativity.  Relativity is a great theory, but since it limits the fastest speed that anything can travel to the speed of light, it cannot explain how God knows in an instant what is happening on earth.  Consider that if God’s throne were at the North Star, Polaris (now that’s relatively close), it would take about 430 earth-years for our prayers to reach Him, and another 430 earth-years for His reply to return.  That is 860 earth years to get an answer to our prayers!  If His throne were further away, as it most surely is, it would take much longer, even millions of years for our prayers to be heard and answered.   

Then there is quantum physics.  The quantum principle known as non-locality does a pretty good job, but still misses the mark.  According to quantum non-locality, two events at opposite ends of the universe can occur simultaneously.  We are not talking about coincidental occurrences here; we are talking about two events that are part of the same system or are “entangled” as it is sometimes called.  In other words, when one event occurs, another event occurs at the same time at the opposite side of the universe.  This principle has been demonstrated with sub-atomic particles.

Quantum non-locality (entanglement) seems to satisfy the instantaneous travel requirements of the Light of Christ, right?  Unfortunately the answer is no.  According to prominent physicists, quantum non-locality (entanglement) does not include the transfer of information and physical substance.  So it cannot account for the instantaneous communication of thoughts in prayer, nor can it account for how an angel can transport him or herself from heaven to earth in an instant. If visiting angels were restricted to the speed of light, I am afraid that Laman and Lemuel would have beaten Nephi to death several times over before the angel arrived.

My book will explore the communicating, life sustaining, world creating, law-governing, truth providing, righteous enticing, and conscience generating roles of the Light of the Lord.  It should be an interesting and challenging journey, but not nearly as challenging as getting my publisher to put “light” in the title.

 


Comments

Greg

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 4:45:56 pm

I look forward to reading your book and concur with your analysis. Surely, there is something else at work. If I remember correctly, Nibley wrote a little about the "15 planets or stars" as represented in Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham. Although he had reference to the "dots" on the celestial barq in Figure 4, the explanation to Figure 5 seems related since it states "Is called in Egyptian Enish-go-on-dosh; this is one of the governing planets also, and is said by the Egyptians to be the Sun, and to borrow its light from Kolob through the medium of Kae-e-vanrash." Joseph Smith also said that Adam gained access to this "Grand-key"...

 

scott lucas

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 8:57:07 pm

if i remember my relativity equations from Blanpied's modern physics book, particles or waves of negative mass can go faster than light, i am pretty rusty on that. We perhaps should not think of prayer as matter but as a wave, since the most we can do is perhaps generate some electrical signals physically, no telling what we generate physically and in an 11 dimensional universe where we take up 4 dimensions, perhaps god is a lot closer than we realize, just a wormhole away. I am pretty sure there are wormholes, and I am also sure we dont know their physics very well.

We cant get a fusion reactor to work even after trying 50 years+ on that one, but critics of the church like to think they know so much. We are babes in a universe of technology, no general way to solve nonlinear differential equatons analytically.

cheers

 

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