Is the Universe Friendly?

You probably already know that Albert Einstein, who won a Nobel Prize for Physics, and was famous for his theory of relativity, which revolutionized our understanding of space, time, gravity, and the Universe, was a genius. But did you also know he was quite the philosopher?

Einstein wrote that the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the Universe a friendly place?’

He explained that, “ if we decide that the Universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that is unfriendly and I believe that we are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may either completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process.”

Einstein went on to say: “If we decide that the Universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially ‘playing dice with the universe’, then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.”

“But if we decide that the Universe is a friendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding the Universe. Because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives.”

So, if like me, you choose to believe that we live in a friendly Universe, in these super crazy times, it requires a recipe of emotional management as well as being able to surf the waves of uncertainty. It requires that we be with “not knowing,” and most importantly, trust that good things are happening (on both the seen and the unseen plane). Not an easy task, but when the going gets tough, just remember Einstein’s conclusion:

“God does not play dice with the Universe.”

Wishing you love and laughter,

Arielle