Human beings are dependent upon God, whether they like it or not, and slowly the human family is moving in the direction of acknowledging it. The more it speeds up, the better.
As society has become more integrated, we have become dependent upon each other. It began in the family and developed with education.
Now that Wikipedia has arrived, we are becoming more and more dependent upon the collective knowledge of mankind – “no man is an island”. It shows the folly and pride of independence, and the attempt to be independent of God, the source of all knowledge, is even more proud and foolish.
We are moving towards and beyond what Carl Jung called the Collective Unconscious. The real identification of this extra-terrestrial intelligence is of course God, not a vague collective unconsciousness. Slowly mankind is moving collectively towards this Consciousness known as God.
Wolfgang Pauli understood this when he mystically wrote in a letter in 1950: ‘It is my personal opinion that the science of future reality will be neither psychic nor physical but somehow both and somehow neither’. In saying so he was drawing upon his knowledge of quantum physics and trying to integrate it with known events in providence, illustrated by ‘meaningful co-incidences’ or ‘synchronicity’ by his friend and collaborator Carl Jung.
Pauli was a Nobel Laureate in physics whose name is associated with the Pauli exclusion principle, which describes why matter has the form that it does. His interest in quantum physics and psychic phenomena were two sides of the same coin, recognising what the Bible describes as the physical and spiritual worlds, and which find their combination in man’s body and soul.
The Grand Unification Theory (GUT) tries to unify the fundamental laws of physics, but it does not do so as long as it omits the known events of providence and human behaviour. Pauli wrestled with this unification, and most quantum physicists do not understand why he did so, because most of them are still hide-bound to explaining all events by purely scientific laws. Pauli knew that this could not be so, which is why he penned the above quotation. Yet astrophysics is the very area of science where scientific language comes closest to theology – instantaneous creation ex nihilo (from nothing), infinity, eternity and time, uncertainty, and quantum entanglement, which comes close to predestination, etc. Pauli was beginning to feel his way towards the proper scientific appraisal of the cosmos as a whole, and in his day he was visionary in realising the limits of classical physics in dealing with quantum entities. However, it is easy to state the problem it is more difficult to find the answer.
This year’s Nobel laurate in economics is Richard Thaler for his work on behavioural economics. He had the insight to see that we need to integrate human behaviour into economics because people will do ‘what is easy’ sooner than ‘what is right’. This is the thinking behind ‘nudging’, which encourages people to do the right thing by nudging them, such as shops putting healthy food at eye-level, by opt-out schemes rather than opt-in schemes for organ donation and pensions, etc.
Explanations of real life need to include human behaviour, and so does scientific research. No amount of studying and understanding scientific laws will be able to predict when I will pick up my cup to drink, or if I will use my right hand or my left hand, how much I will drink and when I will put it down. Such matters are in my mind, and whereas PET scans of the brain, Functional MRIs and other tools may in the future be able to anticipate what I might do, they will not be able to predict what I will decide, which resides in my spirit, my soul, which secular scientists don’t believe exists. Such prediction is more difficult than the three-body-problem, which has been mathematically proven to be impossible to predict. This is what makes the prediction and fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, such as those about the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the evidence of divine authorship of Scripture, which Scripture itself asserts is the evidence of God’s work. ‘Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’ Isa 46:9-10.
God’s fingerprints can be seen all over the inspired Word of God.
It is well known that self-interest maintains a paradigm. It is so with evolutionary theory and other hypotheses and models that involve human behaviour. Fellow economics Nobel laureate Robert Schiller, professor of economics at Yale and fellow believer in How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism illustrates the animus and resistance to such incorporating human behaviour into his field of economics in his appreciatory article on Thayer’s winning the Nobel prize, citing one example of an economic Nobel laureate who “would not even make eye contact when passing [Thayer] in the hallway at the University of Chicago”. This is ungodly human behaviour in action, even in ‘the great and the good’ so-called. The Economist comments “It is difficult to model the behaviour of creatures as irrepressibly social as humans.”
The theology of human behaviour is the crying need of the hour and its importance for the whole of human life is paramount. Theological illiteracy makes human beings repeat the same mistakes out of theological ignorance, just as Thaler points to the repetition of the same mistakes in economics through psychological ignorance. As Socrates said: “Know thyself.” The theology of human behaviour includes repentance, sanctification and truth and so the Lord Jesus Christ addressed these matters because they are fundamental to the human condition. He pointed to the absolute need of being born again Jn 3:7 and of being sanctified through the truth Jn 17:17. For this, we need the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
So, here is the rub. How do we find God? ‘Who by searching can find out God?’ Job 11:7. We cannot comprehend the Universe and we cannot comprehend God. However, we know enough about the Universe and about God to leave us without excuse – ‘For the invisible things of God from the creation of the cosmos are clearly seen, being understood by His works, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse’ Rom 1:20.
Rather, we need God to reveal Himself to us, and He has done so to a varying extent in creation Ps 19:1, in providence Ps 107:43, in our own being Gen 1:27, in our dreams Job 33:14-15, in the written Word of God 2Tim 3:16 and in the Personal Word of God Jn 1:1,14, the Lord Jesus Christ Heb 1:2.
Donald's Thoughts 