In my lifetime, I have seen an explosion of scientific “knowledge” and technological advancement. There are so many fields of scientific and technological studies now that it would be impossible for someone to be a “Renaissance man”, like Leonardo da Vinci, and, as an expert, participate in and contribute to all those fields.
Yet we do have experts in various, yet specific, fields of scientific study, trying to know, as it was posed in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to “life, the universe, and everything”. But what does science truly “reveal”? When a new “law” is discovered, what is really being uncovered?
I have heard many in the Church state that God Himself must follow natural laws or the laws of nature. I myself once thought that. Indeed, there must be “rules” that God follows, but we should not confuse those “rules” with the laws of nature we see around us and that are opened to our eyes and understanding through science.
Isaiah, quoting the Lord, wrote:
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8,9)
The “natural” laws we have around us, the “truths” of this existence, were put in place and given to us in this mortal realm by God. They are laws that apply to us. Over time, He has revealed to scientists (and prophets) an “understanding” of these laws. In many, if not most, instances, that understanding extends only to how to measure and use some of the physical things that obey these laws. We may know the “how to use”, but we do not know the “why” or “how it works”. The fundamental concept of and answer to “what is it?” is missing. Think of magnetism. We can describe its influence in terms of fields and tensors, and we can use it in a myriad of ways, but we do not know what it is.
And this is in part or in whole because of what Isaiah said. God’s ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than our. His “rules” are beyond our mortal comprehension.
Jacob, in the Book of Mormon, exclaims:
8 Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God. (Jacob 4:8)
Yet it is by His rules and His words that our laws were given, both temporal and spiritual. And these laws, what we call the laws of nature, pertain to our “sphere of action”.
30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. (D&C 93:30)
36 All kingdoms have a law given;
37 And there are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom.
38 And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions. (D&C 88:36-38)
Though natural laws may govern our particular “sphere of existence”, they are mutable by, or subject to, the word of God and His higher laws. We say the speed of light is a constant (which causes all sorts of strange things in the world of relativity, including a “universal speed limit” or even time running backwards), but maybe it is only constant to us in our sphere of action. Science is not even sure about this. Some think the speed of light (its constant speed in a vacuum) may actually vary. But the Lord and His agents have no such restrictions (think of the Holy Ghost’s influence being everywhere at once). A limitation to us it may be (to keep us here at “home” on this world), but only a law given by the Lord, operative in our sphere of action.
We must understand that science does not discover truth. It only describes those laws of our sphere of existence that the Lord has allowed to be revealed. Newton
Quantum mechanics is another system of describing things, very small things, in our world. It’s based in large part on a statistical way of looking at particles. This in and of itself poses some very odd paradoxes and conclusions (like two states of a particle existing at the same time… until it is observed that is…).
I guess the main gist of this post is to emphasize that the laws of nature are laws given by God, but laws He has given for us in our current sphere of existence. And that they may change according to His needs.
Elder Orson Pratt has said:
“The same Being who gave the law to materials by which they act, can counteract the law. He did so in the instance when Elisha caused iron to swim….
“God is the great Author of all law, and is just as able to counteract a law, as he is to continue a law. Let him withdraw the command that materials shall attract all other materials; let him say to matter, "I no longer require you to act according to that law," and you would not find the earth going in an orbit around the sun. There would be no bond of union to keep things in their proper place; everything would be left to itself. Let God withdraw his law, or let him command adversely, and he will be obeyed; because he has the power thus to direct; and the intelligence which surrounds these materials, the spirit that is in and through all these things, would understand the command and act accordingly.” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 21, pp. 238,239)
It also means we should take the laws of science in the light of revealed truth, knowing that those scientific laws may not be, and indeed probably are not, eternal laws (nor may they describe eternal laws). And in this light, some of the scientific theories espoused as fact and truth today may not be so tomorrow.
We must not rely on the “arm of flesh”, science in this case, for our eternal truths. For “no man knoweth of His ways save it be revealed unto him.” The laws of nature may not be immutable. And given that, spiritual, eternal, truths, the immutable laws of God, cannot be discerned solely by science.
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