Quantum Physics and Spirituality

Last night was the first of an eight-week discussion on Quantum Physics and Spirituality, hosted by Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch. We met at his home to watch the first two episodes of a 24-part series on Quantum Physics, then discussed how this revolution in science might help us to better understand God.

Pagitt's premise is that we (the Church) use too many incorrect metaphors to explain the universe and spiritual matters. Most of the Church continues to use Aristotelian or Newtonian language when speaking of God. These ways of talking about God convey the idea of a mechanical universe, one that can be figured out, a world that is static, controllable. Pagitt purports that the language of Quantum Physics is a better method of communicating the relationship between the world and the heavens.

I'll post more on this later.

Movie star

Another very busy week of shooting. A company has hired us to recreate scenes from famous movies, starring some of the executives. Today we shot the President of this company with money to burn dressed as the Gladiator against a blue screen. I can't get the sight of his white, knobby knees out of my head. Tomorrow is the CEO as The Godfather; thursday is John Wayne and then "Doc Brown" from Back to the Future. We've rented a Delorean for that shoot. Austin Powers and The Men in Black round out this extraveganza.

I've always wanted to shoot movies.

Coldplay

These are the tickets of Silvi's first "official" concert. The concert was much better than I expected; lead singer Chris Martin sang in front of a huge video display, and the light show was flawless. They played all of Annie and my favorites, and Silvi was completely awed by the lights and 20,000 Minnesotans losing their usual Scandanavian reservedness. Silvi was the only baby we saw there, and stole the show. So many people stopped to play with her or yelled as they walked by, "First concert? All right!" We had some small earplugs for her, and they were very needed as it was deafening. She eventually just rested her head on my shoulder and let the sleep take over. Too bad she won't remember any of it. We took pictures, which I'll post later.

Garrison Keillor

Last night we introduced Silvi to the spokesman of all things Minnesota, Garrison Keillor. He was reading from his new book, an anthology of his favorite poems, and read his excellent introduction to the book. I was encouraged to hear him say that it is still quite hard for him to write, that he still has to sweat his way through the process. It seems to come so naturally to him. Catch the audio from last night on MPR radio's live webcasts.

Theology

"Theology is supposed to be the study of the fire and light that burn at the center of the world. Theologians have reduced it to the turning of pages in a catalog of ideas — a kind of butterfly collection for the mind.

As soon as we regard God from without as a mere object of knowledge, or a mere occasion for speculative study, without freshness of heart and the unrest of love, then all is over, and we have in our hands nothing but a phantom and an idol."

Hans urs von Balthasar

"Lovers are the ones who know most about God; the theologian must listen to them. Love must possess the innermost heart of man and must then 'reorganise' him. Man is then able to be a fragrance of Christ in the world."

Hans urs von Balthasar