The more things change the more the stay the same.
I do remember studying the Byzantine ideas about how the Liturgy on earth was a mere reflection of the real Liturgy that was ongoing in Heaven. We on earth imitate what is happening in heaven. As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven.” That is what the Byzantines thought liturgy was supposed to do: make present on earth what is in heaven.
Our earthly Liturgy not only makes present on earth what is in heaven, it simultaneously elevates us to that real heavenly Liturgy – we mystically imitate the Cherubim in our earthly liturgical actions but in so doing lay aside earthly cares so that we may receive He who comes to us escorted by the angelic hosts. It was an ancient idea embedded in their worldview – in fact the entire world, the entire Byzantine empire was in some way imagined as a reflection of what was happening in heaven.
On some level I can accept that idea about the liturgy, but I must admit my modern mindset does not continue that thinking into world politics or what is transpiring on earth today. The pre-scientific ancients may have believed such ideas but it hardly conforms to our Post-Enlightenment rationalism.
But then along comes modern mathematics, quantum physics and information theory looking into the Black Holes of the universe, and suddenly the ancient worldview isn’t so antiquated any more.
We are in this blog going to explore a few seemingly unrelated threads and then in the next blog tie them all together.
A Black Hole, as far as I can understand it, is the polar opposite or reverse of a mirror. A mirror simply reflects everything before it. According to Stave Nadis, “Beyond the Event Horizon,” in June 2011 DISCOVER MAGAZINE:
“Black Holes are massive objects that have collapsed in on themselves, creating a gravitational suction so intense that their insides become cut off from the rest of the universe. A black hole’s outer boundary, known as the event horizon, is a point of no return. Once trapped inside, nothing—not even light—can escape. At the center is a core, known as a singularity, that infinitely small and dense, an affront to all known laws of physics. Since no energy, and hence no information, can ever leave that dark place, it seems quixotic to try peering inside. … Black holes are vaults harboring some of the most fundamental truths of the cosmos.” (p 30)
A Black Hole irreversibly absorbs and contains information. A mirror on the other hand, contains no information, it simple reflects it. The mirror’s ‘surface’ upon which we see the reflection has no depth, yet it reflects so much. The mirror holds no information because it reflects it constantly. A mirror, known in antiquity, shares a relationship with Black Holes, known first in the 20th Century. The relationship may be an obverse one, but it is there.
Because of computers, binary thinking, digitalization, and quantum mechanics, the sciences of physics, mathematics and information theory have come to understand the entire universe as information or capable of being quantified as such. Thus the Black Hole which allows no information to escape is the new Mystery of the universe and even a possible doorway to what lies beyond.
Beyond the universe? Aren’t we talking about God? Brian Greene, “The Hidden Reality,” in June 2011 DISCOVER MAGAZINE, explains:
“There was a time when the word universe meant ‘all there is.’ Everything. The whole shebang. … The word’s meaning now depends on context. Sometimes universe still connotes absolutely everything. Sometimes it refers only to those parts of everything that someone such as you or I could, in principle, have access to. … universe has given way to other terms that capture the wider canvas on which the totality of reality might be painted … the metaverse, megaverse or multiverse…”
Science has the empirical universe which it can study, and at one time as a direct confrontation with Theistic believers (‘faithists” is the pejorative term), science denied there is anything worth knowing beyond the empirical universe – not heaven, not God. Suddenly however those Black Holes in the space-time continuum are convincing scientists there is mystery: there is more to the universe than meets the eye, more that we can know or explain. And our universe may be but a tiny part of this greater whole that remains a mystery to us and yet may be influencing everything we do and say.
Next, tying it all together: Of Cosmic Mysteries and Mysticism (2)
God bless you for writing this post. :-) Too many people think Christianity is anti-science.
I like the Byzantine idea about liturgy. Hard to believe it, but it is a beautiful picture.
Yes, unfortunately Christianity and science too often get pitted against each other – partially because some Christian denominations do oppose anything science says! Truth is truth, however one comes to it.
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