In trying to figure out this thing called life because I’m a man of equal parts faith, and science. I am a bigger fan than most of movies like The Matrix (#2, meh, and 3 not so much) and Back to the Future – but had really resigned to all of that being science FICTION. But I believe that we didn’t randomly get here, despite the suffering and chaos in the world. There has been some order to us on a grand scale as well as sub atomic one.

Last year my coworker let me borrow his copy of Beyond the Cosmos: What Recent Discoveries in Astrophysics Reveal About the Glory and Love of God by Hugh Ross, a Christian astronomer and astrophysicist, it breaks down a lot of quantum dynamics for the layperson and illustrates how many biblical incidents, contradictions and paradoxes can be explained. It was heavy reading but very engrossing. I’m still working on it.

Having been intrigued in the subject matter, another book book is I picked up was Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension by Michio Kaku. I’ve seen him on Discovery. His book touches on a lot of similar themes from a purely scientific level.

A few of the concepts that fascinated me from reading:
* Time is the 4th dimension
* Time did not exist before the big bang (in our universe)
* There exists multiple universes/timelines potentially one for every choice that you make
* God exists outside of these dimensions so he sees all possible outcomes outside of all timelines, therefore providing for both Free Will AND Predestination (my conclusion from Ross’s book)

what trips me out is that while that’s all mindboggling and “out there”, some of my favorite shows have picked up some of these theories for plotlines.
The Big Bang Theory and FlashForward both mention Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment which I wouldn’t have known about previously w/o reading these books. This experiment supposes both states exist until observed.

This final season of Lost seems to suggest it as well, that 2 states based on an atomic event can exist simultaneously. It’s a lot for our 3-Dimensional minds to try to handle (like trying explain the concept of “depth” to a 2-dimensional Flatlander – also referenced in The Big Bang Theory)

The plot of FlashForward itself seems based on Quantum Mechanics, where apparently some scientists visit an alternate reality in an experiment which causes everyone else on the planet to black out for a couple of minutes while seeing six months into their possible “future.”

Remember the old Fox show Sliders – Michio Kaku speaks on that and Back To The Future:

This is the tip of the Iceberg on these topics, and I’ve ranted enough. This week I discovered Hugh Ross’ podcast and it is much food for thought. I will keep you posted on any breakthroughs!

*Props to the NPR program for the title.