Constant Change

I just graduated from Indiana University, which I am very proud of. I thank God for the journey he blessed me with, for all the ups and downs, and the truth I’ve learned along the way. However, the journey continues as I will be going to more school. I will soon be a graduate student studying information systems, which basically connects every aspect of a business over the internet or allows a business to function digitally using computers.

Throughout college, I had a lot of time to think about what this life really is. I’ve come to realize life is composed of a relationship between constancy and change. I call constancy the “math” (or science) and change the “art.” I feel that life definitely has constants and these are found through math and science. But I’ve also found that once you know these constants, you can manipulate and change them into different combinations to create art. That’s what makes life enjoyable for me: knowing the constants and producing different combinations with them. A classic example of this is cooking. You know what ingredients are sweet and which are not. That is the constant. How you combine them to create something tasty is the art. However, creating good taste takes a balance. Does it taste good enough or is the dish just a tad bit off?

I’ve found that in my life, I have always strived for balance. I believe life has a humor to it, in that I strive to reach this perfect balance point where everything will be alright or perfect. I strive and strive and strive, but somehow I always seem to not be totally satisfied with what I’ve obtained or how far I’ve come. It’s like life keeps constantly changing and giving me different combinations to master as soon as I think I’ve mastered them all. As Albert Einstein once said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”

Personally, I think the only way I can ever reach this perfect balancing point is to believe in Jesus. He is the balancer. I think God designed this world using math and art, but designed it in a way where I can never enjoy this world to the fullest unless I include Him in it. It’s kind of like how we need the sun to survive but we can barely look at it directly, unless we have sunglasses. I view God as our sun and Jesus as our sunglasses. Jesus allows us to look at things that we wouldn’t be able to see without him. For me just graduating, the phrases “go accomplish your dreams” and “do what you love” have certainly been used. While I would like to accomplish my dreams, I know that as long as I believe and develop my relationship with Jesus, he’ll be able to open my eyes to things I would have otherwise been oblivious to. And maybe I might not be able to do what I love all the time. But I know that as long as I continuously pursue love, I will be ok. Because God is love (1 John 4:8).

-Brody

My Opposites Theory

My motivation in writing this post is to share with you a theory I have as to how God might have designed the physical world. I call it my opposites theory. As a biology major in college, I observed that nature seems to be designed with several puzzling tools or mechanisms that reappear consistently throughout the world. I’ve observed that it likes to use opposites (inverse methods, cycles) and trinities to produce it desired effects. Let’s name a few examples:

1.     Magnetism = opposite poles attract.

2.     Acquiring energy = Photosynthesis (plants) and cellular respiration (human cells). Photosynthesis (6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light energy à C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂) and cellular respiration (C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ à 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + ATP energy) have the same chemical formula except one is the inverse of the other. Cellular respiration uses food to create energy for the body and photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide, water, and light to make its own food for energy. Both these processes create energy so that the body or plant can live. However, their chemical formulas are the inverse of each other.

3.     Spring and Fall = Leaves bud and blossom to life in the spring only to show their true colors before gliding to their death in the fall season. However, nature resurrects itself and the cycle starts over again next spring.

*Bonus Example: The Pixar template = I didn’t major in Pixar but they do have really good examples of using opposites to complement each other and make a good story. For example, Ratatouille is about a rat who sheds the label of king kitchen pest to become head chef and boon of a fancy Paris restaurant. Inside Out is self-explanatory. It tells a story about how emotions inside the brain dictate actions outside of the brain. The main emotions are also opposites, joy and sadness.

*Bonus Example #2: Have you ever tried frozen hot chocolate? It’s just as good if not better than liquid hot chocolate.

To take these inverse, opposite, and cyclical tactics further, I read somewhere that two things can be distinct only if there is a third thing between them. While this might not be true, I do think there is something to it. Here are some examples of trinities in the world.

• Temperature = hot, warm, cold 
• Atom = proton, neutron, electron
• Trinity of trinities = Space, time, and matter form our physical world
• Space (length, width, heighth) 
• Time (past, present, future) 
• Matter (Liquid, solid, gas)

All in all, the point of this post was to share with you this fun theory I have about one possible scientific mechanism God used to design the physical world. While I gave only a few examples, I have provided more examples at the bottom of the page. I don’t know how true any of this is, but these patterns have been popping up in my life over and over again and I thought I’d try to write some of them down. And it’s fun to think about how the world around you and me was built. The Bible has given me clues as have my own observations of nature. I hope in the future, you too will look around and try to notice reoccurring patterns that you see on a regular basis.

-Brody

(More Examples)

Inverses: 

•  Old marketing style = What, how, why / New marketing style = Why, how, what (https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action)
• We look into the past to predict the future
• The internet and the iPhone has “connected” us more than ever but also disconnected us more than ever.
• Photosynthesis equation:

• Cellular respiration equation:

Opposites:

• Less is more philosophy 
• Love-hate relationship
• Oxymorons (examples at very bottom of page)
• Albert Einstein – “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
• Is the glass half full or half empty?

Cycles:

• Make money to pay taxes and the phrase “got to spend money to make money”
• Nature dies to create room for new life and that life later dies to create room for other new life
• The sun rises and sets everyday (or the earth just keeps spinning)
• The law of conservation of mass = matter is neither created nor destroyed (it goes somewhere and gets reorganized)
• The water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle

Trinities:

• Christianity = God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Paradoxes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes

https://www.buzzfeed.com/moerder/17-mind-bending-paradoxes-that-will-hurt-your-brain?utm_term=.eua0GN5Nm#.exmmwngnb

https://www.britannica.com/list/8-philosophical-puzzles-and-paradoxes 

• Crocodile dilemma = If a crocodile steals a child and promises its return if the father can correctly guess exactly what the crocodile will do, how should the crocodile respond in the case that the father guesses that the child will not be returned?
• Card paradox = The next statement is true. The previous statement is false.

100 Oxymorons: (http://www.oxymoronlist.com/)

1. A new classic
2. Accurate estimate
3. Act naturally
4. Active retirement
5. Advanced beginner
6. Agree to disagree
7. Alone in a crowd
8. Big sip
9. Bittersweet
10. Blind eye
11. Boneless ribs
12. Business casual
13. Calculated risk
14. Center around
15. Completely destroyed
16. Consistently inconsistent
17. Constant change
18. Crash landing
19. Daily special
20. Definite maybe
21. Doing nothing
22. Dry ice
23. Enormously small
24. Expect the unexpected
25. Extra ordinary
26. Extremely average
27. Fictional reality
28. Fighting for peace
29. Final version
30. First annual
31. Forgotten memories
32. Found missing
33. Friendly argument
34. Going nowhere
35. Graduate student
36. Group of individuals
37. Grounded airplane
38. Half empty
39. Halfway done
40. High ground
41. Huge shortage
42. Icy hot
43. Ill fortune
44. Inside out
45. Instant classic
46. Jumbo shrimp
47. Ladies man
48. Lamp shade
49. Last initial
50. Least favorite
51. Limited freedom
52. Man child
53. Minor crisis
54. Modern history
55. Near miss
56. Never again
57. New routine
58. Night light
59. Numb feeling
60. Old news
61. One choice
62. Original copy
63. Paid volunteer
64. Peaceful protest
65. Permanent substitute
66. Pool table
67. Pretty ugly
68. Practice test
69. Random order
70. Removable sticker
71. Round edges
72. Rush hour
73. Safe bet
74. Science fiction
75. Second best
76. Seriously funny
77. Short distance
78. Single pair
79. Slumber party
80. Small fortune
81. Stand down
82. Still moving
83. Student teacher
84. Study break
85. Swiss Army
86. Tame beast
87. Taped live
88. Timeless moment
89. To infinity and beyond
90. Top floor
91. Unknown identity
92. Upside down
93. Victimless crime
94. Virtual reality
95. Weak muscle
96. Weekday
97. Wet drywall
98. White chocolate
99. Whole piece
100. Young adult