By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 26, 2015
Einstein was famous for his “thought experiments.” He worked his way into radical new insights, not through careful research in a laboratory, but through careful work in the imagination. The same is true for almost all work in cosmology. You cannot simply observe the data generated from particle experiments and announce a conclusion. What is required is a work of imagination to describe a universe in which what has been observed makes sense. If you have read about various ideas such as String Theory or Multiverses, then you are certainly aware of just how much imagination is involved. The difference between a truly great physicist and a merely good physicist will not be found primarily in their IQ, but in the ability to push their imaginations past what has previously been thought.
With this in mind, it occurs to me that modern Atheism is largely a lack of imagination. If someone tells me that they cannot imagine a universe that behaves as ours does and is the creation of a good Creator, then I can only include that the failure lies in their imaginative powers and not in the universe itself.
But, on the other hand, if such a universe can be imagined, then it would seem that the only reasonable response would be curiosity. If it can be imagined, then it is not impossible. And if the existence of God is, indeed, possible, how is that not the most important thing to consider?
What if the universe that exists as the work of a good Creator has as its Creator, the God who largely remains hidden? Can you imagine a reason such a thing would be true?
And if the hidden God chose to reveal Himself, how might that be done?
If the hidden God is largely hidden because He does not belong to the realm of material, observable things, then isn’t that exactly what you would expect? But how would such a God reveal Himself?
Now, I am a believer. So, perhaps such exercises in the imagination come easily to me. But I am only moderately smart. Surely those who argue from science that there is no God must be smart, since science is not a work for the unlettered. So surely they can imagine as much as I do.
Imagination is another word for wonder. St. Gregory of Nyssa said, “Only wonder understands anything.”
~Fr. Stephen Freeman, Glory to God for All Things, https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2015/10/26/atheism-and-the-imagination/.
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