By Babatunde Jose
“Surely there is nothing that is hidden from Allah whether it be in the Earth or in the Heaven.” Quran 3:5
It is relatively easy to focus on what we know, yet the wonder of the universe, the awesomeness, is never greater than when we contemplate all that we do not know.
It is true that when we take note of the impossibly brief slice of time that our entire species has inhabited the earth, compared to the billions of years before, and the untold billions ahead, one can feel refreshingly small. Or, if we contemplate the billions of trillions of other worlds that must exist across the observable universe, we can grasp momentarily at just how tiny our daily existence is. However, nothing compares to the perspective, the shock, or the excitement, of being reminded of what we do not know.
To start with, we do not know why the universe exists: But in terms of physics, although there are some very appealing, very promising, theoretical frameworks that attempt to answer the question, the simple truth is that we are not sure which might be right. It may be that the universe springs from an inherently unstable ‘nothingness’.
Furthermore, this may not be the only universe, but rather one of a vast part of a multiverse. So, we don’t know why all of these exist.
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 90% of the matter in the universe. Although researchers have made many suggestions about what kind of particles might make up dark matter, there is no consensus. Its presence is implied in a variety of astrophysical observations, including gravitational effects that cannot be explained by accepted theories of gravity unless more matter is present than can be seen.
It’s an embarrassing hole in our understanding. Astronomical observations suggest that dark matter must make up about 90 per cent of the mass in the universe, yet we are astonishingly ignorant what that 90 per cent is. There are scientists who would like to learn that Newton’s laws must be modified to correctly describe gravitational interactions at large distances. “If the results turn out to be real, the implications are profound. We may have to rewrite physics and chemistry”
Another serious puzzle is that we don’t know whether life exists anywhere else: Here we are, conscious beings on a planet seething with life. And now we’re confident that there are lots of planets out there, and that many of them could have an equal shot at playing host to life. But we still don’t know whether we are alone. No clue.
We probably haven’t really figured out the quantum world: While it’s true that our present mathematical framework of quantum mechanics can do wonders, from describing atoms and molecules to the bizarre nature of entanglement and qubits.
One need only cast a look over the literature to see that the most fundamental aspects of the quantum nature of the universe are still causing headaches and disagreements. People are still reformulating the ways in which we cope with the quantum nature of reality.
Which brings us to the fact that we don’t even understand our own biology: It is not too radical to say this, after all, if we did understand every detail of how it worked, we would presumably be able to eliminate disease. We would also be able to customize ourselves. But we’re not close to doing this any better than we can come up with ‘engineered’ crops – lots of misses and a few hits. What a good example of our pitiful lack of knowledge?
There is no doubt that man emerged in the scheme of life. Man did not evolve from some scrawny, hairy monkey, chimpanzee of primate. Man has always been man, with the ability to make sound (talk), always erect and bi-pedal. Most importantly, WITHOUT A TAIL!
We don’t know how the Earth works: Yes! No human, or robot, has ever physically traveled deeper than a few miles into the Earth’s crust, everything else is extrapolation and interpolation from ‘remote sensing’ and clever physical analyses. It took us a ridiculously long time to figure out that the outer planetary skin is moving and sliding around; plate tectonics was not generally accepted until the mid-20th century! We’re still not sure exactly how the inner dynamo works, how rolls of convection, conducting material in the outer core generate our planetary magnetic field.
There’s also so much confusion after 4.5 billion years of geophysics that some of our best information about the planet’s origins come from meteorites and the cratering of other worlds – outsourced. Speaking of other worlds, we’re not even sure we understand where the Moon came from, maybe it was a giant impact, maybe not. For an allegedly clever species on a small rocky planet this is a bit of an epic shortcoming: The Sumerians have told us, but we will not believe. Our astrophysicists are on an ego trip.
We can’t prove or solve many of our own mathematical conjectures and problems: There’s a long list of unproven, unsolved problems and unproven conjectures.
It is a perennial problem, and one that speaks to both our desire to understand ourselves. As well as to understand what might be ‘out there’ in the vastness of the cosmos, wrought by billions of years of alien evolution.
Doctors at the Royal Cancer Hospital in Cranberry, Australia, were amazed at the result of a placebo effect carried out on one of their patients in 1998. John Dalton was terminally ill with cancer and had a short time to live. He was however, one of those patients who subscribe to medical journals and followed developments in the world of cancer treatment.
He came across a notice that a new cancer drug was being tested and he drew the attention of his doctor to it. He expressed an interest in taking part in the test, believing that it might be the silver bullet to his cure. The doctor could not shake him off and after a while decided to give him placebo. Dalton was excited and became convinced that the new wonder drug would work for him.
The doctors were amazed to discover that after a few weeks, Dalton started showing remarkable improvements that later warranted his discharge. On his return home, he picked up his life from where it stopped and became a new man.
A year after, he came across a story in the journal about the failure of the experimental cancer drug. Immediately, John went into rapid remission and had to be readmitted to the hospital. A few weeks later, he died.
We have a lot to learn about what is happening here, but one thing is clear: the mind can affect the body’s biochemistry. The relationship between expectation and therapeutic outcome is a wonderful model to understand mind-body interaction.
Researchers now need to identify when and where placebo works. There may be diseases in which it has no effect. There may be a common mechanism in different illnesses. Yet, we just don’t know.
Apart from placebo, there are other mysteries which we do not understand such as faith healing, miracle working that defy laws of nature, clairvoyance, and predictions. There are also the mysteries surrounding seers such as Edgar Cayce and Michel de Nostredame usually Latinized as Nostradamus. We might never understand the dynamics of their performance, but the results are telling as to arouse our credulity.
But Allah our creator knows and in the fullness of time He will reveal the hidden things to man. With Him are the keys of the Unseen, the treasures that none knoweth but He. He knoweth whatever there is on the earth and in the sea. Not a leaf doth fall but with His knowledge: There is not a grain in the darkness (or depths) of the earth, nor anything fresh or dry (green or withered) but is (inscribed) in a Record clear (to those who can read). (Quran 6:59)
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend
Babatunde Jose
