Meaningless Physics

"'Meaningless, meaningless' says the teacher" or rather the student, in this case.

As most of you may know I am working on my PhD in physics, and as some of you know I am doing it at a secular institution, where as my undergrad was at a "Lutheran" university. The question of Valpo's Lutheran affiliation aside, there were still plenty of strong Christians there who influenced me deeply, and it is in these thoughts of comparison that I come to find physics absolutely meaningless and depressing.

Physics in an of itself is not evil or bad. It is the study of the created world, and if we take that Creation is good than the study of it cannot be inherently wrong. Instead the philosophy which dwells behind the physics of today makes it wicked, the paradigm by which modern physics views the world contaminates it and makes it worthless.

To put it flatly and as controversial as possible, physics which denies the Trinity and His work within the universe is worthless and a meaningless endeavor. Now there are plenty of ways to argue the point, but the one I wish to consider now is that of experience. In undergrad when I was studying physics in a Christian atmosphere, where a base axiom was that the Trinity works in the world, physics was beautiful. Physics described the universe, and in doing so instilled a wonder of creation and therefore the Creator. Physics done in the Christian sense also acknowledged that there are things that exist outside of our human experience and therefore we recognized eternity and realized that this material world is not all there is. Physics actually mattered then. Rather than it being the study of something that will cease and is fleeting, we were studying something solid, eternal. Physics in the action of understanding the material instilled insight into the immaterial and therefore the immortal.
But not so in the secular environment. Physics in the secular paradigm is the study of only that which we can perceive, and therefore that which will decay and die, that which will not last, and that which does not matter in the final assessment. If the here and now is all we have, if material existence is it than life is meaningless. Who cares if we understand the universe if that knowledge will just die with us? what does it matter how we act as scientist if there is no ultimate judge? Secular physics is meaningless. In denying the existance of something it cannot explain, it makes itself worthless.

I find studying physics at a secular institution terribly painful and depressing. The predominate paradigm within the department sees only this and nothing beyond, and therefore life is a meaningless toil through terribly painful work to get a degree then a job, accomplish nothing and die and disappear....how can anyone live with the secular view? how aweful! how terrible! And so I find my physics department depressing. Lord open the eyes of the blind that they may have Life and have it abundantly. Amen