I have a confession to make. I am something of a physics groupie. You know how some people have a favorite band? They buy all their CDs, wait eagerly for their new single to be released on iTunes, and think nothing of driving 200 miles to see them live in concert. Well, I feel that way about scientists. I devour articles in scientific journals, affectionately following the work of various favorite scientists, some famous, some not. I have posters of Leonardo DeVinci, Albert Einstein, and Steven Hawking in my bedroom. To me, a perfect Saturday night out would be attending a physics or a chemistry symposium. I know, once you read this, I'm going to start getting sympathetic pats and anxious inquiries as to the state of my health, but I seriously love science.
One of my personal heroes, French quantum physicist Bernard d'Espagnat, won this year's $1.4 million Templeton prize, for, of all things, giving scientific credibility to the concept of the Divine. Bernard D'Espagnat works with photons, which are tiny, tiny packages of light. Photons are found everywhere; in rays of sunshine, laser beams, ultraviolet light--anywhere light, visible or invisible, is being transmitted. They are made up of energy and have no discernible mass or weight, no matter whether you find them here on earth or out in space.
Good old Bernard has proven some rather amazing things about photons in his lifetime. He and his colleagues have shown that photons often behave quite a bit more like tiny particles of matter, than they do like light. You see, photons can "spin." And not only do they spin, but their spin can be changed from one direction to another. These spinning photons travel in waves which can be bent by gravity. Now, we all know, (since we all paid careful attention in seventh grade to our sainted science teachers) that for something to be affected by gravity, it would have to have mass, wouldn't it, since gravity is the attraction of two masses to each other? Sounds like a particle to me.
One of my favorite experiments performed by Bernard d'Espagnat (What? You don't have favorite science experiments?), and, incidentally, the one for which he won the award, involves something called "photon entanglement." Now, all that really means is that Bernard found a way to convince photons to become attuned to each other. When photons are "entangled," it turns out they become world class experts at The Newlywed Game. Remember that old game show where the husbands had to predict what the wives would answer to any given question?
Think of it like this: you have two spinning toy tops. You make sure they aren't touching, and wind them both up, spinning them in the same direction. Now grab only one top, and spin it the other way. How surprised would you be if the toy top you never touched instantly started spinning in the other direction, too? Well, that is what happens to photons. When Bernard changes the "spin" or polarization of one photon, its sister photon changes in exactly the same way, almost instantaneously. And the coolest part? It doesn't seem to matter how far apart the entangled photons are. They always know what their sister photon is doing and copy it immediately.
The implications of this study reach a lot farther than just the fun of watching photons seemingly magically imitate each other. Bernard himself said in a Reuters interview on March 13, 2009, "Materialists consider that we are explained entirely by combinations of small uninteresting things like atoms or quarks. I believe that we ultimately come from a superior entity to which awe and respect is due..."
Hidden inside Bernard's work may very well be the explanation of Divine Omnipresence--how God knows exactly what is happening to each and every one of us at the same time. How He feels our pain, knows our sorrows, shares our joy, hears our prayers. This is how one of my favorite authors, Ellen White, explains it:
"The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the spirit of Christ abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Saviour; who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil, for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him except by our Lord's permission, and 'all things' that are permitted 'work together for good to them that love God.' Romans 8:28. Mount of Blessing, page 71 (emphasis mine)
Doesn't that sound like a constant connection, maybe just a bit like sister photons with instantaneous reactions? I don't know about you, but I want to be "entangled" with God; attuned to Christ. I want the peace that comes from knowing that everything will work together for good and that "He who began a good work" in me "will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6
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