Even if I am no scientist, I must confess a hidden love affair with science. It fascinates me. Lately I’ve come across the following statement: in the area of Quantum Physics “reality doesn’t exist until we measure it” (Science Daily, May 2015).
I happen to have also a love affair with reality. So the statement set me thinking. We humans seem unable to deal with what we cannot count, calculate or measure. Hence our obsession with numbers.
Human life itself is measured in years. The longer you live the luckier you are. The validity of arguments or statements are often judged by the number of people endorsing them. We have invented money to determine the worth of things, and also, tragically, the worth of people.
We apply the number game also to less tangible realities. The more rare or unique something is, the more money people are ready to pay to have it. Even beauty and art cannot escape this questionable dynamic. Works of art are prized as investments, trafficking items or status symbols for the rich and mighty of this world, rather than for the beauty they portray.
Even more fundamental realities and core values seem unable to escape this sucking vortex of numbers. Democracy itself, which should be a synonym for human freedom and dignity, is debased when we reduce it to yet another number game. People become votes, and votes become numbers, which, in turn, become the source and yardstick of power.
Little thought or importance is given to the values or non-values endorsed by the numbers of these votes. No wonder that democracy has given us great leaders and poor non-leaders, great liberators and terrible dictators. When numbers have the final say, we never know if they will save or destroy us.
It is as if our obsession with counting the stars reduces our ability to benefit from their light. I am not against counting the stars, so long as we remain capable of counting also our blessings.
Life’s meaningfulness is found when it is loved and lived beyond all measure
Our ability to measure and count may indeed become a means of control and power over reality. But the danger is all too real to forget that reality outnumbers our numbers and outshines our enlightenment. Consequently we simply choose to ignore, demean or even despise what cannot be measured or counted.
What can measure the sheer ecstasy of a child embracing a loving mother? How can you quantify the awesomeness of a glorious sunset or piece of music to an enchanted human heart? What numbers can fathom the self-sacrificing nobility of someone giving his or her life to save someone else’s?
In physics, reality may not exist until it is measured, but in life it can never be made to measure. Its meaningfulness is found when it is loved and lived beyond all measure. Numbers cannot decide or define what is right or wrong, what is life and what is death. They may help trace a necessary path, but only love and faithfulness bring meaning to the journey.
How amazing humanity is when it lovingly lives the reality it is so good at measuring. Love raises the human spirit above finitude and pushes time towards its real home – infinity and eternity.
No, heaven and earth are not two separate realities. Faith and science are not born enemies. The calculable here and now and the incalculable beyond are not two separate universes. Religion and reason are by no means irreconcilable opponents. The flesh and the spirit cannot have separate lives. Sacred and secular values are not rivals. Divinity and humanity, in Christ, remain distinct in one reality, not two, or any multiple. God and man are not locked in a struggle for survival.
If only we humans acknowledge that reality is neither monolithic nor one-sided we would be able to embrace it for what it actually is – a multifaceted wealth of being which reflects the myriad faces of the one truth.
When we recognise that time is just the point of entry into eternity and space is a taste of infinity, we will have discovered the full reality of who we are – God’s own children called to embrace a real heaven found right within our real Earth.
No, reality cannot be made to measure. It is the immeasurable measure!
pchetcuti@gmail.com
Fr Paul Chetcuti is a member of the Society of Jesus.