Some thoughts on God

Energy and matter are two forms of the same thing. Most people don't think much about that, but that's because most people are idiots.

Matter and energy are one and the same. Two different forms of the exact same thing. Interchangeable.

Isaac Newton is the first person I know of to have had this thought, back in the early 18th Century. It, amongst the many other amazing thoughts he had, led him to the same conclusion it leads me to: there is simply no way that this can be an accident.

There is simply no way that the Bible can open with a "myth," as the loonies call it, that essentially describes the conversion of energy to matter - an insanely improbable concept even today - and not be Divine.

Remember, this thought is still bigger than most people care to think about, even in this "enlightened age" of ours. You can hear all about Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton, but when's the last time you heard Couric or O'Reilly say "hey, you know, this matter to energy thing is really the most amazing reality in the universe. What does it mean?"

In and of itself, I think only a fool wouldn't see the Divine in it. I mean, how could this possibly be, without the hand of God?

But, let's allow for the doubters. Let's allow the "hey, that's just the way it is... it's 'nature'" people. Matter and energy can be converted, just by chance.

If you've ever taken any chemistry at all, you quickly learn that the math involved in converting moles and such can be daunting. "Elegant" is hardly a word you'd use. The SMILE formulae for most organic compounds are kludgey, with their elegance hidden.

And physics? Just to calculate the forces that a flag puts on a wall-mounted flagpole will require you to deal with good'ol geometry. Sines, cosines, the works.

But consider this: E = mc2 (squared)

Not even a hint of SOHCAHTOA in that one. No deltas, square roots, or even parentheses.

It might have taken the greatest minds to ever walk the planet to discover this relationship - and that's what it was, a discovery, not an invention - but the relationship itself is freakishly direct. A sixth grader can do the math. If you tell a sixth grader how much a dime weighs and tell her that you can find the value of c on Google, she can tell you how much energy that dime contains.

She can't tell you what force that flagpole is exerting on the bolts. She can't tell you how many BTU's you get by burning a liter of acetone.

YOU CAN'T EVEN CONVERT A TEMPERATURE FROM CELSIUS TO FAHRENHEIT as simply as this.

Energy and matter aren't only one and the same thing; their relationship is absurdly simple. There is no plausible "natural" reason for that. There is no "natural" reason why energy and matter have to be related by nothing more than the square of the speed of light. Matter could be related to energy via an absolutely byzantine equation that made cryptology appear simple in comparison, and still be the most amazing relationship in the universe.

But it's not. It is related only via a constant: the squared speed of light.

At what point do you have to accept that God is beating you over the head with the evidence that he exists? What does it take for you to step away from your pride and realize that God not only exists, but he has built a universe for you to explore?

Our creations really are filthy rags. We pride ourselves on our technological achievements, such as the internet. God points to handiwork such as the conversion of energy and matter, parallel universes, time-space... and we ignore it in the same way that our dogs ignore the wonder of our televisions. It is simply beyond their capacity to even notice, let alone understand.

Once in awhile you'll find a really, really smart dog that watches TV. That's Einstein and Newton and Fermi, etc. They had the brains to notice the universe. But, like dogs, the rest of us are only interested in the next time we get our tummies rubbed, our mouths fed, and our feeble minds entertained by having the same stick thrown again and again and again.

People are insulted by the concept that they are nothing compared to God, and that they should be thankful each and every moment. That's Pride, and I suffer it as much as the next person.

But that just makes me as foolish as you. It's not a contest we should want to win.

Energy = matter's mass times the speed of light squared. Nothing more complicated than that.

If you can't see God in them, then you win: you're a bigger fool than even I am.