Summer Solstice, the Light of the World, and some raw thoughts on ultimate reality

I read this in Proverbs 3 this morning.

19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;
20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.

In my increasing persuasion to read Scripture in terms of Christ, I thought of Colossians 2, which says,

in (Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (v. 3)

What is the wisdom in God's anointed one Jesus that was instrumental in creation? Scripture speaks in many places of Christ as the agent of God's creative work (Col 1:16; John 1:1-5; Hebrews 1:2-3 are the main ones I think of), but how? It seems that if creation exists through a person, Jesus Christ the Son of God, then it should be more obvious, right? I asked to be shown better how this is true, and I didn't have to wait all that long for what I think is the beginning of an answer.

I had left up on the computer at work a talk on "God, Math, and the Multiverse":

I'd tried to listen to it the night before, but got distracted and had to leave. When I got to work, Jay said it looked interesting, so we put it on. I'm woefully ignorant and in my ignorance skeptical of many ideas I overhear from the field of cosmology, among them that of a multiverse. It seems to me like a copout taken by scientists who don't want to allow the possibility of a God who has fine-tuned the universe for life. And if our existence is bound within the constants and laws of our particular "verse" within the multiverse, how can we presume to know anything at all about existence beyond those confines? Continuing on the verse/literary theme, it would be like a character in The Chronicles of Narnia figuring out by events in his own story that C.S. Lewis had also written a space trilogy. It just seems to presume an awful lot that is pure speculation and, to my mind, not even reasonable.

I've been told that an understanding of quantum theory might help me make sense of it, but the problem is understanding quantum theory, and frankly, there are only 24 hours in a day and too many roads left to be ridden in York County. Apparently the dual slit experiment described in the lecture above (something I'd forgotten about since high school physics) is key to quantum theory in that it demonstrates how light operates as both a wave and a particle. With a little help from Jay, I got the basic idea that such properties of light, as Hawking proposes, indicate that the basic nature of existence is "multi-" rather than "uni-", to oversimplify. I still don't get how the properties of light particles diffusing(?) in a box dictate the fundamental structure of all that exists, or again how any observation or knowledge or pattern within this part/verse/version/manifestation of the multiverse can tell us anything about its entirety, but I'll go with it. I suggested that light might be some kind of "bridge" that gives us a window beyond this "verse" into the multiverse, and Jay said that's getting at the idea.

As I pondered it more, it struck me as interesting that physical light would be such a bridge. The lecturer in the clip above spoke of the glories of quantum theory as displayed in light waves and particles, the wonder of the enlightenment that gives us clean restrooms, among other good things, but also of the inadequacy of both of them ultimately to rectify the human predicament. Quantum theory makes predictions more accurate than any theory ever theorized by human minds, and because of the enlightenment, we can fight off disease and ailment that in past centuries decimated entire continents, but we still can't live in peace or overcome death. Perhaps the enlightenment that gave us the intellectual tools to guide us to light as the paradigm for understanding ultimate physical reality are pointing beyond that physical reality. On this note I find it striking that in the biblical texts that speak of Christ as the agent of creation, He is also spoken of as the light:

". . . through (Christ) also (God) created the world, who is the radiance of the glory of God . . ." (Hebrews 1:2-3)

The Greek word for radiance, ἀπαύγασμα, only occurs here in the New Testament, but is used of crepuscular rays in other Greek literature.

All things were made through him (the "word" who was with God and who was God, that is, Jesus, the Son, the 2nd person of the Trinity), and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:3-5)

And also as the "image" (Gk. eikon) of the invisible who creates both visible and invisible things.

He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16)

If these things are true, and Jesus, who claimed to be the light of the world spiritually, also created the world and everything in it, including light with all its wonderful properties, shouldn't we expect to find in physical light clues to ultimate reality? If theology were a science, is this a theory that allows us to make accurate predictions? It seems to be lining up today, on the best lit of all days this year.