Of all the scientific theories out there, string theory is the one I find the most fascinating.
To give you a very loose, layman's definition of it, we're going to get very, very small and see things from the tiniest perspective. Everything from the chair you're sitting in, the food in front of you, to the air you're breathing, is made up of molecules. When you break down those molecules, you get atoms. Each atom has a nucleus orbited by electrons, inside this nucleus are protons and neutrons, which themselves are made up of quarks.
Now, these quarks are very, very interesting because string theory says these tiny fundamental particles are actually strings that are vibrating at certain frequencies. These frequencies by which they vibrate effectively decide what everything that stems from it will be. So if it's vibrating a certain way alongside its other quarks held together by "gluons," everything else, from the protons and neutrons to the nucleus, to the atom, to the molecule, will come together to make an orange, a whale, or a Reese's peanut butter cup.
At least, this is what string theory proposes, and at this time, string theory is the strongest contender for the "theory of everything," though there are a lot of physicists who would disagree with it. Like most theories that venture this deep into explaining the universe, it's not empirically verified, but mathematically, it's very compelling. It's an educated guess at best.
But let's say the math is right and string theory is no longer a theory. The question then becomes "what are the strings?"
This is where science comes to a screeching halt and physicists shrug their shoulders. They can't tell you what the strings are, why they vibrate at the frequencies they do, or even what keeps them vibrating.
A Christian like myself would step in here and fill the blank with "God," which you already knew I was going to do, but let's dip a bit further into that, and to be clear, everything that follows is speculation on my part.
Read: Christianity Is an Intellectual Practice
Usually, when science runs out of language, scripture often has some ready to pick up the slack. I think it's very interesting that, according to John 1:1-3, the universe starts with a sound:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Genesis has God speaking many things into existence, including light, land, trees, the solar system, animals, and various creatures such as lambs, sloths, carp, anchovies, and orangutans, along with breakfast cereals and fruit bats.
Psalm 33:6 notes that "by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made. Psalm 29 says the word of the Lord "breaks the cedars" and "shakes the wilderness," which means it has a material effect. You find sound as a driving force throughout the Bible. The walls of Jericho fell due to shouting and trumpet blasts, but we'll focus on creation for now.
As we know, sound is vibration. You speak by vibrating your vocal chords. A piano's strings create the sounds it does by a hammer striking the strings to vibrate them. Even the wind vibrates your eardrums, which your brain interprets as whistling and wooshing. Interestingly, even the things you see are an oscillation of electromagnetic waves. Vibration and oscillation are cousins.
So what if the "Word" that is with God, the very expression of creation, is the vibration by which the entire cosmos is made up?
"For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together," says Colossians 1:16-17.
"He upholds the universe by the word of His power," says Hebrews 1:3.
Sometimes, I think the Bible isn't trying to be metaphorical at all. It's telling us exactly what's going on; we just didn't have the understanding to square what it was telling us.
I would like to emphasize again that what I'm proposing is a theory built upon another theory. I don't want to claim to know something I don't, but I do think that if the math of string theory checks out, you could marry it with scripture in some very interesting ways, including one more.
String theory suggests that higher dimensions are real, we just can't perceive them because our bodies were built to exist in 4D space, or three-dimensional space + time. However, in string theory, there are 10 to 11 dimensions, with each dimension opening up directions and concepts that are hard to discuss or describe because we don't know how to.
The closest anyone has come to explaining this extra-dimensional idea to the best of human ability was, in my opinion, Carl Sagan, who told the story of a 2D being encountering a 3D one.
Before I even began looking into string theory, I referred to God in both conversation and my writing here on RedState as an "interdimensional cosmic mathematician." He lives outside space and time in a much higher dimension than what we can perceive or even conceptualize. He is often referred to as the "most high," which is in reference to His authority, but I also think that with string theory, we could even apply that to mean His dimensional position.
I think He is also the most high being in terms of interdimensionality. He is omnipresent and in all things, suggesting that He's not just the piano player, He's the piano. Angels are suggested to exist in a lower dimension because they don't seem to know the timing or means of execution of His plans. Matthew 24:36 makes that clear and suggests angels actually do live in time with humanity, as they are described as waiting and reacting to events. First Peter 1:12 says that angels "long to look into" mysteries. This is temporal behavior.
Angels are not omniscient, but God is, suggesting levels of dimensionality through perception alone.
String theory suggests that these vibrating strings exist in other dimensions beyond the four we can perceive. In fact, the theory requires that to be so for the math to work. We're often told the Kingdom of Heaven is "in the midst of you," as said in Luke 17:20-21. It's present but unseen, meaning that the higher dimensions are around us; we just can't perceive them.
Again, Sagan's story could help to conceptualize this idea, but it shows that string theory and Christian belief can, in various ways, find a connection.
To be sure, string theory is way more complicated than what I just described, and the more I dive into it, the more confused I become, but if it's correct, then it could provide the slightest peek into the "how" of God. I could, of course, be way off, and the theory is totally nuts. Even our most brilliant scientists are still just toddlers trying to explain the internal combustion engine, and God Himself noted that we couldn't possibly understand His mind and ways.
But He did program us to wonder and search, and who knows? Maybe we're sniffing in the right direction with string theory?
