Monday, February 02, 2009

The Edge of Reality

A very interesting news item was presented on the Paul Harvey morning radio program this morning (2/2/09). The GEO600 project in Hanover, Germany has detected a noise in the Universe with their giant wave detector that they cannot explain. This huge measuring device has been searching for gravitational waves--or ripples in space-time caused by things like neutron stars and black holes. But the project has discovered something that they did not expect.
The noise that was detected by the GEO600 project could possibly be the "most important discovery in physics for half a century." Before the discovery, Craig Hogan (pictured left), a physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois predicted such a discovery. Hogan's explanation is featured in the January issue of New Scientist and has become the most popular news story in the publication's history. You can read the article on their website by clicking here.
According to the article, Hogan is suggesting that the noise is evidence of the place where space-time stops. His conclusion is "If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram." He is suggesting life, as we know it, is being projected by light to recreate a 3D holographic image. The source of the image would be outside of the known Universe. Certainly this hypothesis, if proven, would have huge ramifications in the world of physics. However, would it not also have ramifications theologically?
Paul Harvey Jr. said it well in the broadcast that detailed this discovery. He observed that life as we know it, our very lives themselves, is all being played out on a stage. Meanwhile, what is real is sitting in the darkened theater watching our actions upon the stage of life (cf. Genesis 11:5; Genesis 18:20-21). He then ponders the question, will the audience applaud our performance on the stage or be appalled by us?

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