There's Nothing There - Part 5

I was reading this article in Scientific American the other day all about Reality and how we don't know what it is. The conclusion reached - we can only understand anything in the universe by understanding how it is related to other things. That is, ultimately and finally, it is not just that everything interacts with everything else, but we can't understand the things themselves, which don't actually exist, mostly. We can only understand the interactions.


And the word they used in the article was ... "relations". Relationship.

Here's the link: http://www.tokseminars.org/Science_Articles/Entries/2015/12/3_New_Physics_Questions_the_Very_Nature_of_Reality.html. The link to the actual magazine is there, but (paywall).

Here's what they said:

"A growing number of people think that what really matters are not things but the relations in which those things stand. Such a view breaks with traditional ... conceptions of the material world in a more radical way ...

"... It runs as follows: we may never know the real natures of things but only how they are related to one another ...

"Now a question arises: What is the reason that we can know only the relations among things and not the things themselves."

"The straightforward answer is that relations are all there is."

All that there are, is relationships. It is not a universe that happens to have relationships in it. It is a universe that is defined by the relationships that are in it. It began with a relational act of observation that brought it into being, it proceeded by acts of observation that brought reality into being within it, and every action is part of a series of interactions - there are no actions in isolation, there are just interactions.

So you do not live or breathe or act in isolation. You are not alone. You are part of a series of relationships that started at the beginning of time and surround you like a cloud of angels and demons.

You might be caught up in your own existence, feeling isolated and lonely, abandoned and lost, unable to find your way, maybe in part because we have been indoctrinated to believe in fierce individualism, to believe that we must make it on our own without help or aid.

But we are caught up in relationships. They define us. They surround us. They are our curse and our salvation. They drive us to despair, they exalt us into glory. They are not just the answer.

They are all that there is.

You do not, cannot, will not exist in isolation. You exist only through and because of relationships. Richard Dawkins speaks of "The God Delusion". He is wrong. The greatest delusion may be that we are individuals.

I wish then to make a proposition.

Observer God. Relational God.

The highest form of relationship is love.

There is no love greater than to give your life for others.

All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.

And maybe dark chocolate. Which is the finest sign in the universe that God exists and loves you wildly.