As you may be well aware by now of the monumental discovery announced yesterday with the evidence of gravity waves as predicted by Einstein practically a century ago, it will be interesting how this finding will affect theology, our understanding of God, and creation down the road.

One of the implications of this recent finding, other than validating the occurrence of the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and the rapid expansion of space (faster than the speed of light) within a fraction of a second after the Bang, is that this will most likely further the case for the multiverse theory – that our universe is just one in a whole sea of an infinite number of universes – as predicted by quantum theory.  Universes might pop in and out of existence all the time.  In fact, we might even be living inside a much, much larger universe that cannot be detected by our current technology, something like the omniverse.

Such a thought is absolutely mind-boggling and unfathomable to say the least.

If yesterday’s finding leads to confirmation of the multiverse theory in the next decade or so, or to even more things not even thought about, how much more in awe should we be of our Creator?  That in fact, God is the Lord of multiple, if not an infinite number of, universes!  We haven’t even begun contemplating all his fullness and glory.

However, many believers might be frightened by such discoveries or scientific confirmations (especially fundamentalists and creationists), that science might invalidate his or her faith.  But this need not be the case at all.

Likewise, scientific discoveries need not invalidate God’s existence or the need to believe in God.

It just means that our current thoughts and ideas about God and the creation need to be updated in light of recent discoveries.

Throughout history, major scientific discoveries almost always led to readjustments or great paradigm shifts in theology as well.

Think back to Copernicus and Galileo and their discoveries about the sun being at the center rather than the earth, the laws of motion by Newton, Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution by natural selection (a huge hot-topic that needs no introduction these days), Einstein and his theory of general and specific relativity, quantum theory by Max Plank, Erwin Schrodinger, Neils Bohr, etc., Edwin Hubble and the evidence for an expanding universe, the discovery of the DNA double helix by James Watson and Francis Crick, and the list goes on and on.

With each scientific discovery, theologians had to broaden, widen, deepen, change and even discard some of their previous understandings of God, the creation, what it means to be human, and even how believers should interpret the Bible.

Unfortunately, the church is woefully behind the times it seems and unwilling to change.  At her worst, the church is indifferent and content about keeping status quo.  And because of this attitude, I believe that many view the church (and therefore God) as being out of touch with reality and lacking any relevancy in their lives.  The church becoming irrelevant is probably one of the worst threats the church faces today.

Hopefully this attitude will change and the current trend of anti-intellectualism within the church (as well as in America) will abate.

It is my sincere prayer that scientific discoveries like this most recent one will not cause believers to feel threatened and cause them to run behind the confines of tradition or dogma, but be filled with wonder – a sense that many in the church have lost I’m afraid.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place, 

what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

– Psalm 8: 3 – 4