Watch my arm. [Rotates arm in a circle.]You are going to witness something more extraordinary than you probably have ever imagined. What do you think is happening right at this moment, other than the minister being a bit wacky? What you see is my arm moving through three spatial dimensions: The dimensions we name as height, width and depth. But what you're actually witnessing is something far more extraordinary.

     According to quantum physics' String Theory my arm is moving through as many as ten maybe eleven dimensions at this very moment. The first three dimensions with which we are familiar are large while the other seven or eight are exceedingly tiny. In fact, they are so tiny my arm can move right through them without my even being aware of it.

     Science continues to reveal a universe more astonishing, more remarkable, stranger than our imaginations can conceive. Yet, if we are to grasp the full significance of current scientific findings,it will be through our imaginations - our religious, our poetic imaginations. Through science the human ability to reason and analyze has revealed workings of the universe such as we have never known before.

     One revelation I find truly marvelous is String Theory. This theory, which is also known as Superstring Theory, seeks to unite Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity with quantum theory. That may not mean a great deal to many here. Very briefly, the theory of relativity deals with the immensity of the universe, while quantum theory deals with the universe on the smallest of scales.

     Throughout this century physicists have been trying to reconcile conflicting conceptions of the very large and the very small. It was something Albert Einstein struggled with for a long time even when no other scientists were interested. "He wrote to a friend in the early 1940's, 'I have become a lonely old chap who is mainly known because he doesn't wear socks and who is exhibited as a curiosity on special occasions.'" ("The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene, 15)

     An initial conception of String Theory was articulated in the early 70's, but it did not find wide acceptance even then. However, in the mid-80's the first String Theory revolution occurred with the second revolution taking place a decade later. Once String Theory is fully formulated, which is probably decades away, it may explain every fundamental feature upon which the universe is built. Imagine, String Theory may explain every fundamental feature by which the universe has come and continues to come into existence. I can understand why some scientists designate String Theory as the "Theory of Everything."

     Some time ago, while we were waiting for our dinner in a restaurant, I described all this to my daughter, Annemarie, who recently graduated from college. I even did the arm rotation thing, but by the time I arrived at the Theory of Everything her eyes were glazed. I said, "This doesn't really grab you does it?" She's kind enough to be polite. "Oh, it's interesting," she said, "but what's the point? I mean, what difference does it make to our lives?" "That's it!" I said excitedly, "That's precisely the point." Sometimes to her dismay and usually my delight we think a lot alike. "That is the point, "the difference it can make to our lives, to our understanding about life, to the way we experience life."

     I must warn you though, similar as we may be, even she never quite caught my enthusiasm. But who can get excited about abstract theories on an empty stomach? So, I hope you all had a good breakfast. Let me approach the difference it can make this way: Through our scientific exploration we have made wondrous discoveries that have transformed human life more dramatically than ever before. Life is physically better, more comfortable for a larger percentage of people than has ever previously happened in earth's history. But what has this cost the rest of humanity who continue to live in dire poverty? What has it cost the earth itself, and what has it cost the human spirit?

     Whether or not our culture is inherently more rapacious than earlier or existing native cultures, there is no denying that the tools we have acquired with our technology have greatly aided our exploitation and desecration of earth, as well as our capacity for wreaking devastation within humanity. I am certainly not proposing that science or the technologies, that have arisen through its application, are solely responsible for these dilemmas, not by any means. What I am suggesting is with all the advances that have been made in improving our material well-being, our understanding of life's fundamental interconnectedness, that is, the underlying oneness that resides in life's mystery, and the affects such an understanding would have on our ways of life, have failed to keep pace.

     In the last two to three hundred years science and our use of reason have given us wonderful gifts. Yet, during this same period scientific thought and religious thought have diverged. Not only have they not been used to inform the other, but their respective practitioners have often scorned each other. When some religious people have had the means, they have sought to suppress scientific discoveries. This division in our ways of understanding life has not served us well. We need the one to inform the other. Our religious tradition has been one that has not shied from incorporating scientific findings into our religious perspectives. I believe that needs to happen to an even greater extent. Equally, we need to bring our religious imaginations to the incorporation of scientific findings into the ways we experience and give expression to life.

     The prevailing world-view found in industrialized cultures -a world-view that has arisen in the last two to three hundred years- is one that tends to alienate us from the earth and its inhabitants. We have come to know the universe as little more than a lifeless entity made up of elementary particles, predictable forces and vast voids. How can we experience life's dance when we imagine we are surrounded by inert matter? How can we hear life's song when we imagine there is only inanimate silence? How can we feel life's embrace when we imagine the universe is lifeless?

     It is time for us to reintegrate our scientific with our religious ways of understanding. Our society's need for this is demonstrated in a number of ways, but one that is especially disconcerting is the growing acceptance of scientific creationism. Scientific creationists propose that science verifies the biblical account of creation. This view discounts evolution and the Big Bang Theory and stipulates that God created earth in six days. It stipulates that all of this -the earth and universe- rather than being billions of years old is only several thousand years old.

     In my view taking a preordained conclusion, the biblical story, and trying to validate it scientifically is a gross misuse of science. Nonetheless, a Gallup poll, taken in recent years, found that 68 percent of those surveyed favored teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools. Sixty eight percent! I find that frightening. Clearly, we hunger for something more than science alone can provide. Science offers us essential explanations about how this universe is put together and how it works, but it's unable to sing the songs our souls need in order to hearken to life's larger truths. At least it has been until now.

     It seems to me that recent scientific discoveries and theories call for understanding via our poetic, mythic, religious imaginations. Certainly, our religious imaginations can be awakened and inspired by them in ways that could bring us into new relationship with the universe, the earth and ourselves. So, how do we do this? We might get a taste for it by embarking on a journey. Quests for new understanding often require journeys. The 6-year-old cartoon character Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, understand this. In one strip they decided to journey to Mars. They packed tuna fish for Hobbes, a candy bar for Calvin and got into their little red wagon, pushing it down a hill off a ramp. Soon they were in the air far above the earth. "We did it!" Calvin exclaimed, "We cleared Earth's orbit. Mars here we come." As they disappeared into space, Hobbes asked, "Are you sure this is the way?" To which Calvin responded, "What? Didn't you bring the map?"

     As it happens I have a map for our journey that I have borrowed from Brian Greene's book, The Elegant Universe. In order to view it, though, you will need to access it through your imagination. Here's an apple. Let's imagine we are taking a journey into this apple. You may want to close your eyes, if that helps you to imagine. To begin, imagine we are becoming very, very small until we can fit onto the skin of this apple. A couple of you aren't quite there yet …concentrate.

     As we continue to shrink, we begin to see the atoms that constitute this apple. Smaller and smaller we become until we can distinguish the electrons, protons and neutrons of each atom. Look around at all the space between them. They are not compacted. I remember seeing diagrams of atoms when I was in junior high school. The neutrons and protons were portrayed as a tightly compacted nucleus around which the electrons closely orbited.

     In fact none of these atomic parts are tightly compacted. Most of the atom, that is 99.999% of the atom, is space. We have to wonder, Why does this apple seem so solid when most of it is space? When the Buddhists speak about all of matter being an illusion, is this possibly what they mean? The apple seems solid, and yet down here it is not solid at all. Is the apple really some-thing, or is it an idea we have? Well, we must keep going. Concentrate now, we need to become even smaller.

     Whoa, look at this! The protons and neutrons are made of…What are these weird little things… quarks? Doesn't that name come from James Joyce's book, Finnegan's Wake? Quarks were apparently named by a literary physicist with a sense of humor. Okay, one last time, we need to get smaller yet…really, really, concentrate. Excuse me for laughing, but you all look so funny down here. Do you remember earlier when I said the universe doesn't have just three spatial dimensions, but actually has ten or eleven? We're small enough now so we fit into those other seven or eight, and I've got to tell you, you look very peculiar in so many dimensions.

     But look, look at this! This is what I wanted to show you. This is where the name String Theory comes from. I know it doesn't look like a piece of string, but that's the best they could do in naming it. How would you describe it? It's like a one-dimensional string -an infinitely thin, incredibly short piece of string. Now, watch it! This is the most extraordinary part. That's right, it's moving, vibrating, oscillating, dancing. Each electron, each quark arises from the movement of these strings. That's what brings the electrons, the quarks into existence. That's what brings every thing -everything we see- into existence. It's these vibrating strings.

     What are these strings? Are they alive? Or could it be the breath of God blowing across them that creates their movement? In one of his poems, the 12th century Sufi mystic, Celaleddin Rumi said, "God picks up the reed-flute world and blows…Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated…" Here in the very heart of the cosmos, in the heart of all that is, we do not discern inert matter, nor do we find elementary particles. We don't find some thing as the basis for this universe. Rather we find motion. We experience dance. We encounter life's music, its mystery.

     Now, we need to come back up through the apple. We will go past the quarks, through the protons and neutrons, out of the atoms and finally out of the apple itself. With your selves back in this space, in your seats, look around you. Look around at the other people. Look at this room and all it contains. Look out the windows at the world and the sky beyond. All of this stuff of the universe, both seen and unseen, has sprung into being from the same source. It is created by movement, by song, by dance occurring deep in the heart of the cosmos.

     All of creation is a great symphony, and as part of that symphony we are called into life to live out our song. The implications of such an understanding are far-reaching in terms of how we experience our relationship with the earth, with other people and with ourselves. The mystic, Celaleddin Rumi, said,

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
           a passion, a longing pain.
Remember the lips where the wind-breath originated,
           and let your note be clear.

May we learn to do so.