The Power of Paradox

Copyright © 2012 by W. Brewster Willcox.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4691-9672-5

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-9673-2

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Contents

Part I

The Power of Paradox

1. Paradox Is What the Bible Is About

2. Paradox Is Nothing New to Science

3. Paradox in Theology, Old and New

4. Paradox Is Not an Enemy of the Person in the Pew

5. The Wonder of Paradox in Mathematics

6. Paradox Even in Dogs

7. Yes, I’m a Paradox, Too

8. You, Too, Can Be Paradoxical

9. The Last Paradox

Part II

The Search for the Higgs and Why It Matters

1. A Two-Horse Horserace

2. Looking Into Empty Space

3. Ether Revived

4. A New Way of Doing Particle Physics

5. The Theory To Be Tested

6. It Matters Because It Matters

Part III

Is It the Thing? Or the Bond? Whatever, it’s a Paradox!

1. A New Paradigm from the New Physics

2. Seeing the Other Side of Things

3. So What Difference Does It Make?

4. Things Change, Thank God

The Science of Muddling Through

I. Discovering the Muddle

II. Coming to Terms With the Muddle

III. Working Through the Muddle

IV. Critiquing the Muddle

V. Learning to Live With the Muddle

Appendix A

Two Anti-Poverty Projects

Appendix B

The Theory Detailed

A Monologue

Joseph’s Surrender

Acknowledgements

To Bob Webber

The Rev. Dr. Robert D. Webber is Professor Emeritus in New Testament at the Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When the author narrated to Professor Webber the story herein of Poncho’s romp in the woods, and its meaning, he responded,

It preaches!

So began this book.

THE POWER OF PARADOX

Part I

The Power of Paradox

1. Paradox Is What the Bible Is About

Years ago when I was young in the pastoral ministry and struggling weekly to come up with something provocative for my congregation every Sunday morning, my mother suggested that I preach a sermon entitled, Nevertheless. Nothing more specific than that, just the word, nevertheless.

I never actually wrote that sermon, but it has occurred to me many times in my career that I was always preaching it, regardless of what the title was. I didn’t actually check it out, but I knew it was a word that occurs a lot in the Bible, and it’s probably a pretty important concept somehow in Christian faith.

Since those days I have checked and I’m overwhelmed by how many times it is found in the English Bible: in the NRSV 57 times and its terser English equivalent yet 478 times in 468 separate verses. I haven’t taken the time to check how many of those yets carry a chronological meaning, up till now, rather than the contrary sense of nevertheless, or in spite of everything. Still, there’s surely a super-abundance of times when the Bible wishes to convey the notion that there are apparently conflicting ideas to be considered and they may in fact both be true.

We call this condition of two apparent opposites being the case paradox, and there’s no doubting that it keeps cropping up in Christian discussions all the time to the consternation of practical people who would like to keep things simple and straightforward. Jesus tells his disciples (John 16:6-7) that they may feel sorry that he’s told them he is leaving them; nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away. He tells them (Luke 10:19-20) that he has given them powers and authority over much in this world; nevertheless, do not rejoice at this… , but rejoice instead that your names are written in heaven. In the Old Testament God says to David (II Chronicles 6:8-9) that he is to be commended for considering building a temple to the Lord; Nevertheless, God tells him, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you will build the house.

The Greek word in the New Testament that generally conveys this meaning is alla, as in John 16:7, Alla indicates a difference with or contrast to what precedes,¹ in the instance here the truth that Jesus is surely leaving them, but a seemingly opposite fact is nevertheless true.

These are not isolated proof texts I’ve selected just to make some esoteric argument. Almost anywhere you look in the Bible God is telling people that things look obviously one way but they’re actually also, or more so, another way. When people get down to talking seriously about God there’s generally a lot of double talk. It isn’t just economists who proverbially speak of on the one hand… , but on the other hand… . Preachers and prophets do this all the time, and probably more shamelessly than anyone.

Of course, paradox is written into the very core of Christian faith. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, which is at the center of Christian belief and action, is the ultimate paradox of life, of creation: sometimes when things look bad they’re actually very good.

But what philosophers and just practical minded lay people who have to listen to Christian double-talk week after week in sermons and bible studies need to understand is that paradox is a very good thing. Paradox is your friend. Paradox is what makes life real!

2. Paradox Is Nothing New to Science

Paradox is a really not a bad thing; but sometimes it does take some getting used to it. Let me explain.

Scientists run into paradoxes all the time. They try to resolve them by trying to figure out a way two conflicting findings can be seen as fitting into one neat new paradigm. But sometimes they run into a problem that just doesn’t give in to unification.

In the field of cosmology and quantum physics a problem has developed since the revolution created by Albert Einstein’s second Relativity Theory—not the Special Theory of 1905 that gave us the famous E=mc² equation but his General Relativity Theory of 1915; you can’t explain gravity in terms of light and other electromagnetic radiation. Gravity, he told the world, is not radiated but is a field, and as a field it’s a characteristic of the space that is immediately present wherever you happen to encounter gravity. Forces are communicated from one place to another via some appropriate particle. They require time to be applied, albeit very little time, with packages of energy—which today we call quanta—moving at the speed of light, but requiring some time, nevertheless. Gravity, however, is just there—even before you expect it it’s already there as a characteristic of space.

The problem that has arisen—and Einstein understood the problem better than anyone, and it plagued him for the rest of his life—is that general relativity, which has to do with big things that we can see like stars and solar