The question “What is everything made of?” is more important than you may think. It affects how you look at the world, how you treat others, and what value you place on life, nature, and people.
Since the beginning of time men and woman have looked around and asked themselves: What is everything? Although the answers to that question have been as varied as nature itself, let’s look at some of the more well-known answers that have been put forward by thinkers, scientists, and philosophers over the last 200 years:
- Atomic Theory – Everything is made of little things called atoms. These atoms form molecules which are the building blocks of all life.
- Particle Theory – Everything is made of small particles that don’t have a shape or size. These particles form atoms, that in turn are the building blocks of life.
- Quantum Theory – Everything is made up of ‘waves’ of potential. This means that everything exists as a kind of ‘possibility’. At the moment that you look at such a ‘wave’ it turns into a particle, which in turn are the building blocks of all life.
Despite the differences in these views, they all have one thing in common: They describe the world and everything in it as being built up of increasingly smaller things. Over the last 100 years scientists have continued to probe, search for, and investigate what everything is made up of. However each time they discover something new, they discover that it too is made of other things. (Atoms are made of protons and neutrons, protons are made of quarks, etc.)
Quantum Theory is particularly interesting in that the true nature of reality is no longer based on ‘things’, but waves of potential that spread out through the universe. Scientific research over the last 100 years has demonstrated that there is in fact no ‘space’ between things as had long been thought. This means that instead of us living in a world where atoms or molecules ‘bump’ into each other, all things are in fact interconnected and part of each other. All things are ONE.
If this theory is correct, it leads to a very important and fundamental question: If everything is ONE, who is choosing, why do things move, and what is really causing what?