Neutrinos

Scientists, philosophers, theologians, and regular folks like you and me all search for truth, for absolutes. However, science is not simply a matter of collecting facts. Science is a method of asking questions and then studying the answers to make sure they are accurate. Philosophers and theologians have systematic ways of analysis to determine the logical consistency of their Truth but they also give us ways of looking at reality in a way that makes us comfortable. We seek psychological comfort and believing this or that is integral to who we are. That doesn’t mean our philosophical and theological beliefs are wrong. Those things may be Truth, may be factual, may be partly right, may be completely wrong. Sometimes we’re sort of accidently right. We believe in something and later find out we were right but for all the wrong reasons. We reached the right conclusions but, when we showed our work the teacher circled it in red and wrote “Wrong” across it. We can protest we got the right answer but if we came to the right answer by the wrong method it’s still inaccurate reasoning.

Folks who espouse absolute beliefs are often comforting themselves and denying any challenge to their beliefs simply because it feels like an attack on them personally.

The reality is, we know, really know, so precious little we’re undoubtedly fooling ourselves on a constant basis.

Even when we put thing in purely scientific terms we only have a faint grasp of about 4% of the physical universe. We know nothing for certain about virtually anything.

Is that scary? Is it intimidating to realize how very little we know? The greatest scientists, philosophers and spiritual teachers are not intimidated by ignorance. They say annoying things like, “The questions are more important than the answers.” They’re right about that incidentally. When we accept how little we know, the best we can hope for is to ask good questions, not come up with absolute answers.

We, you and I, are made up of stuff created in the middle of stars. We know that is scientific fact. We know how elements are made. What we don’t know is what lies behind that veil of Creation. We aren’t smart enough and know too little to answer that definitively.

How about a scientific fact almost none of us have ever heard before? Approximately 100 trillion neutrinos pass through our bodies every second! Neutrinos are tiny subatomic neutral particles with so little mass and no charge that a Hundred Trillion of them can go through us every second and, apparently, do nothing to us. They’re the most common particle in the universe, or so we think right now.

We all need to park our egos out in the back somewhere and quit being so positive that we feel compelled to fight with one another and declare what is or isn’t true. You contain the Universe within you and so does everyone else. Ultimately there is no you, no me, only us.