Seeking God in the Quantum Age: Dynamic!

Lexi, the modern woman, needs a framework to find meaning in this world. It must be true to modern understandings and also true to the profound concepts of philosophy and theology. I believe the framework of Process philosophy with Open and Relational Theology can give us a path of well-being in our Quantum Age. Process philosophy with Open and Relational Theology offers a new worldview that correlates modern truths of the universe with profound insights about God. We can embrace the fact that everything in the universe is changing moment-by-moment and believe this includes God as the source of all creativity and value.

This is Part 3 of the Quantum Age series

Segments include:

Needing new answers in the Quantum Age

The dynamic God for our ever-changing life

Lexi’s life and the dynamic God

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Transcript

Movie-goers of 1932 were enthralled with a young woman named Dorothy. Swept up by a Kansas tornado, she landed in a strange land filled with weird people who were living in a crisis time. Holding close her dog Toto, Dorothy whispered, “I have a feeling we’re in Kansas anymore.”[1]

If Jesus, Charlemagne, or my 10th great grandfather, Edward, came alive today they would not understand the views we hold about the world. Over the past 500 years, a complete paradigm shift about every part of life has created a new world that I call the Quantum Age. People living now operate with a worldview of materialistic causes, complex psychology, incomprehensible energies in an immense and ancient universe, and historical events that both horrify and inspire.  I covered this whirlwind of change in Parts One and Two of this series. 

We need a framework to find meaning in this world. It must be true to modern understandings and also true to the profound concepts of philosophy and theology. I believe the framework of Process philosophy with Open and Relational Theology can give us a path of well-being in our Quantum Age. The next episodes will bring more highlights of these ideas and the power they bring for living abundantly now.

In the preceding segments, I introduced Lexi, the woman of today’s American society. This 30-something professional has a lot of questions about how to be happy and fulfilled. She has appointments with a therapist to figure out how to do this. She regularly talks with her grandmother about life and even religion, though she was not raised by parents who followed any faith tradition.  She thinks about her small place in a huge, old universe and worries about the future since so many global events are bad. She hopes that different leaders and improved technology will make things better. She occasionally thinks about God, sorting out her own belief system that is different from her parents.

Considering millions like Lexi, Bishop John Shelby Spong states the situation boldly. “The primary way that Western human beings have conceptualized God has gradually lost its meaning and has become discredited… rendered nonsensical by the advance of knowledge… A crisis of faith is now afflicting modern men and women.”[2]

Process philosophy emerged from the work of world-renowned mathematician Alfred North Whitehead in the first half of the 20th century. Open and Relational Theology emerged in the 1960’s to become a major school of religious thought today. What could these concepts provide for Lexi and our own journey in this Quantum Age? Many believe Process/Open and Relational Theology presents a way forward which respects the universe as we know it today and the complimentary truths of the faith that lead us toward a new worldview of well-being.

The acronym PORT will refer to these paradigm-shifting concepts.

 First, the universe is a dynamic field of universal energy, never static, always in process and becoming. From a plankton cell in the ocean, to a toucan in the rainforest, to a woman on an Asian farm, to a megastar in a distant galaxy, every material entity is an aggregate of energy fields composed of successive “occasions of experience.” We know instinctively our world changes constantly. That insight is the center of PORT ideas. Every entity is in the process of becoming, not the same as it was a moment ago, or the same as it will be a moment in the future. The universe and all within it have been evolving for billions of years. We as humans are as not just human beings but “Human Becomings.” 

With this fact, PORT asserts God is the ultimate exemplification of reality, the most dynamic and ever-changing entity within the universe. God evolves with the universe as the future unfolds. God understands all possibilities of every given moment and the value of enhancing the highest purposes each possibility might achieve. While God’s essential and primordial nature is unchanging in love and creativity, in complementary fashion, God’s knows and responds to every occasion of experience that occurs across the universe. Every actuality enters God’s life and will be responded to, providing a loop of interdependent reality.

We find this interaction throughout the Biblical narratives. One example comes from the compilers of the Torah describing God listening to the suffering of the people in Egypt. “Their cry for help rose up to God from their slavery. God heard their groaning, and God remembered the covenant.”[3] The story pictures the awareness and interaction of God with the universe and the needs of humanity. God is both unchanging with a nature of love and changing with actions of deliverance. 

We can imagine Lexi sitting with a friend at a restaurant for lunch. Her body is composed of quadrillions of energy fields combining to make cells, nerves, muscles, bones, and electrical signals. Not a single bodily entity she has now was in existence when she was born, being made and replaced many times in her 33 years. Each successive moment energy from her past body cells and mental concepts pass on their influence to carry her identity through time. God has been active in all her physical processes and mental concepts from her conception. At this moment, these energy fields are producing the cognitive abilities to see the restaurant, balance in the chair, talk to her friend, and think about her goals for the future. God participates in this dynamic, creative energy flow to give regularity to the natural world but also to convey to Lexi the possibilities which advance the best for her life. 

To summarize, Process philosophy with Open and Relational Theology offers a new worldview that correlates modern truths of the universe with profound insights about God. We can embrace the fact that everything in the universe is changing moment-by-moment and believe this includes God as the source of all creativity and value. This universe is clearly interconnected in the deepest ways possible. Within this world, we can grasp through the revelations of many faith traditions that God is present to lure us toward the most beneficial in every moment.

I believe these insights promote our well-being by linking us with all that God is doing. All of us are seeking to live with the greatest well-being, just like Lexi. God is not far and away, perfect and unmoved by our experiences. God is ever-present and always loving toward the most beneficial outcomes possible. In both our happy moments and the sad ones, the progress and the mistakes, God is active for our well-being in the ultimate Shalom of the universe.  

There is more to PORT that I will cover in the next episode. Lexi is on a pilgrimage through the challenges of modern life. Her journey with God in the Quantum Age offers her a blueprint toward well-being, healthy relationships, and a just society. Stay tuned! 

[1] Russell Walsh, “The Wizard of Oz.” https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/the-wizard-of-oz-have
[2] John Shelby Spong, Unbelievable: Why neither ancient creeds nor the Reformation can produce a living faith today. HarperOne, 2018, p 33-34
[3] Exodus 2:23-24 NRSVUE