Some background...I'm learning about atoms, and how no one can know both where an electron is and how fast it is moving within the atom at the same time. There are some complex reasons for this that I won't go in to (mainly because I haven't totally grasped them) but it is something that is evading scientists, and they just can't figure it out, nor will they ever probably be able to.
So here is an excerpt from my textbook:
...we can estimate some
properties very accurately, but we cannot know everything about an atomic/molecular-level system at
one time. This is a very different perspective from the one it replaced, which was famously summed up
by Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827), who stated that if the positions and velocities of every object in
the universe were known, the future would be set:
"We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes." -- P.S. Laplace.
"We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes." -- P.S. Laplace.
That quote just gets me. This metaphorical "intellect" that Laplace speaks of isn't so metaphorical after all. The Lord knows the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and of the tiniest atom. HE CREATED THEM. And in that great God we have salvation, redemption! This God is good and loving and compassionate and full of grace.
And do you see what Laplace, probably unknowingly, says about our God??
...for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes...
NOTHING is uncertain for our God. Our just and good God. He sees the future like it's today, for He is timeless. All things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).
Rejoice in this truth. Live in it. When things don't go your way, remember that it is the Lord that is in control. And who better? He is sure and steadfast, and when we look to Him as we walk through our days, our hearts and minds can rest in this truth and we can live full lives for God.
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