Mission & Quantum Physics
I want to share the following extract from one of my favourite books ; Margaret J. Wheatley's: Leadership and the New Science.
"In the twentieth century physicists faced for the first time, a serious challenge to their ability to understand the universe. Everytime they asked nature a question in an atomic experiment, nature answered with a paradox, and the more they tried to clarify the situation, the sharper the pardoxes became. In their struggle to grasp this new reality, scientists became painfully aware that their basic concepts, their language, and their whole way of thinking were inadequate to describe atomic phenomena. Their problem was not only intellectual but involved an intense emotional and existential experience, vividly described by Werner Heisenberg: "I remember discussions with Bohr which went through many hours till very late at night and ended almost in despair" ; .......Even after the mathematical formulation of quantum theory was completed, its conceptual framework was by no means easy to accept. Its effect on the physicists view of reality was truly shattering. The new physics' view of reality necessitated profound changes in concepts of space, time, matter; object, and cause and effect; and because these concepts were so fundemental to our way of experiencing the world, their transformation came as a great and profound shock.
As I reflected on the story of how scientist like Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and their collegues struggled to comprehend the new reality and the challenges it presented; I could not help but feel that the challenges that faced those early pioneers of Quantum Physics is not dis-similar to the missional challenge facing the Church in postmodern, post-Christian world of 21st century Europe. Perhaps much of what we regard as fundemental to the existence and shape of 'our' Christianity are merely the expressions of an understanding limited by such things as culture, knowledge, predjuices and asking and seeking the answers to the wrong questions.
"In the twentieth century physicists faced for the first time, a serious challenge to their ability to understand the universe. Everytime they asked nature a question in an atomic experiment, nature answered with a paradox, and the more they tried to clarify the situation, the sharper the pardoxes became. In their struggle to grasp this new reality, scientists became painfully aware that their basic concepts, their language, and their whole way of thinking were inadequate to describe atomic phenomena. Their problem was not only intellectual but involved an intense emotional and existential experience, vividly described by Werner Heisenberg: "I remember discussions with Bohr which went through many hours till very late at night and ended almost in despair" ; .......Even after the mathematical formulation of quantum theory was completed, its conceptual framework was by no means easy to accept. Its effect on the physicists view of reality was truly shattering. The new physics' view of reality necessitated profound changes in concepts of space, time, matter; object, and cause and effect; and because these concepts were so fundemental to our way of experiencing the world, their transformation came as a great and profound shock.
As I reflected on the story of how scientist like Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and their collegues struggled to comprehend the new reality and the challenges it presented; I could not help but feel that the challenges that faced those early pioneers of Quantum Physics is not dis-similar to the missional challenge facing the Church in postmodern, post-Christian world of 21st century Europe. Perhaps much of what we regard as fundemental to the existence and shape of 'our' Christianity are merely the expressions of an understanding limited by such things as culture, knowledge, predjuices and asking and seeking the answers to the wrong questions.
posted by tony at
3:10 PM
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