The Trouble with Physics
String Theory, Law, God, and the Logos of Creation
Abstract:
Physics, once the crown jewel of empirical science, has entered a period of profound stagnation. This article examines three interconnected crises: the scientific impasse exemplified by string theory, the legislative constraints of “born secret” physics law, and the epistemological collapse that follows when science severs itself from God. We conclude by proposing a convergence model in biblical categories, where the pursuit of physical truth is recast under the governance of the Logos, using a formulaic representation of the physics–Scripture interface.
The Skinny:
The Trouble with Physics Isn’t Just Physics
Modern physics is stuck. String theory — the reigning paradigm — has spent half a century spinning elegant equations without delivering testable predictions. Meanwhile, America’s “Born Secret” laws make parts of physics literally illegal to think about. Under the Atomic Energy Act, certain concepts are classified at birth, even if you derived them yourself. Combine that with the Department of Energy’s Q clearance regime and you get a chilling effect that scares physicists away from entire fields of inquiry.
But the deeper trouble runs under both science and law: a civilization that rejects God loses the very reason to believe in truth. Physics without the Logos becomes a game without a rulebook — dominated by politics, money, and fear instead of reality.
The biblical worldview restores the scientist’s true calling: to listen for the speech of the Creator in the structure of creation. In that frame, the laws of physics are not an accidental code but the sustained utterance of Christ Himself, “in whom all things consist.” When we recover that truth, the equation for physics changes — from a sealed vault to an open act of worship.
I. The Trouble with String Theory
When The Trouble with Physics (Smolin, 2006) was published, it catalyzed a public recognition that modern theoretical physics had become trapped in a mathematical edifice with little experimental contact. String theory, originally conceived as a candidate for a unified description of all forces, has evolved into a sprawling formalism whose chief successes lie in internal mathematical consistency, not empirical verification.
Smolin identified five great unsolved problems — quantum gravity, foundational quantum mechanics, unification of forces, cosmological constants, and dark matter/energy — and charged that string theory had monopolized intellectual resources without solving any of them. The “landscape” problem (10^500 possible vacua) replaced prediction with anthropic reasoning, shifting physics from a falsifiable science toward a philosophical speculation divorced from measurable reality.
The sociological critique is that peer review, funding, and career structures have locked young physicists into pursuing only those projects acceptable to the dominant paradigm. The effect has been a de facto cartel of ideas, where novelty is often rebranded as a threat rather than an advance.
II. The Trouble with Bad Laws
While Smolin’s concerns focus on academic culture, Eric Weinstein and others have drawn attention to a more structural barrier: legal prohibition of certain physics research under the United States “Born Secret” doctrine. Established in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 and carried forward in the 1954 amendments, this doctrine declares that “Restricted Data” concerning nuclear weapons and energy is classified from inception, whether or not derived from classified sources.
This is unique in law. In most domains, only possession or dissemination of stolen state secrets is criminal. In physics, certain theoretical ideas — if they touch upon classified domains — may be illegal to conceive, publish, or even discuss without government clearance. This legal regime, administered by the Department of Energy under “Q Clearance,” turns parts of theoretical physics into a legal minefield.
The problem is twofold:
Chilling Effect — Researchers may avoid whole domains of inquiry for fear of inadvertent violation.
Centralization of Knowledge — By law, the most potentially transformative discoveries in energy, propulsion, or weaponry are the exclusive intellectual property of the state.
The stagnation of the Standard Model’s Lagrangian since 1973 — and the absence of open work on radical time, energy, or dimensional models — cannot be explained solely by academic conservatism; it is reinforced by legislative design.
III. The Trouble with Science without God
Even apart from academic sclerosis and legislative restriction, science has suffered from its philosophical divorce from God. The Enlightenment promise of a purely mechanistic epistemology has run aground on several shoals:
Epistemic Relativism — In the absence of an objective Creator, “truth” becomes a social construct, contingent on consensus and power rather than correspondence to reality.
Metaphysical Blindness — Without a Creator, final causes and teleology are banished, leaving science unable to explain why the universe is intelligible at all.
Moral Neutrality as Vice — Technology is advanced without a governing ethic, ensuring that power and profit become the chief arbiters of research direction.
Physics without God becomes physics without meaning. The logical end is either scientism (science as its own religion) or nihilism (the denial of truth altogether). In either case, the discipline is corrupted at the root.
Biblically, this is the “futility of their thoughts” (Romans 1:21), the darkening of the mind when the Creator is denied. Scientific progress depends not only on observation and logic but on the prior reality that the Word (Logos) sustains all things in consistent order (John 1:3; Colossians 1:17). To reject the Logos is to reject the only foundation that makes science possible.
IV. The Convergence of Physics in Biblical Categories
The biblical worldview offers not an alternative to science but its fulfillment — a frame in which empirical discovery is covenantally ordered. The Logos is the metaphysical bridge between divine speech and physical law.
We may formalize this as:
X = C \cdot B \cdot Y \cdot G \cdot Q
Where:
C (Core Language): The fixed semantic structure of creation — the “speech” of God into being (Genesis 1; Psalm 33:9). In physics terms: the invariant symmetries and conservation laws.
B (Babel Principle): The permitted variation and drift within created order, reflecting human interpretive limits and the multiplicity of frames (Genesis 11). In physics terms: the multiplicity of equivalent mathematical formulations.
Y (Etymological Ontology): The historical unfolding of knowledge from root to echo, analogous to the way physical constants emerge in cosmic history.
G (Noah Principle): The preservation of truth and order through judgment and catastrophe — akin to the stability of physical law through cosmic phase changes.
Q (Quantum Fusion): The joining of micro and macro realities in a unified frame — the “marriage” of quantum mechanics and general relativity under the authority of the Logos.
In this convergence model, physics is not an autonomous pursuit but a servant of truth, answerable to the Creator whose mind it seeks to trace in the fabric of the cosmos. The task of the scientist is not merely to manipulate equations but to listen — to attend to the speech-pattern of the One in whom “all things consist” (Colossians 1:17).
So it is:
The trouble with physics today is not just string theory’s dominance, nor bad laws, nor even the absence of God — it is the unholy alliance of all three. A monopolized academy, a security state’s legal cage, and a godless epistemology converge to suppress the very discoveries that might most reveal the majesty of the created order.
The biblical alternative does not fear new knowledge; it fears falsehood. When science is restored to its proper place — under the Kingship of Christ — the pursuit of physics becomes an act of worship, and the equations themselves become hymns to the One who is “before all things.”
From my perspective - the failings of modern physics are not entirely innocent - as Physics is now the foundation of State power - through various scientific fantasies - nuclear weapons, Moon landing, climate change etc.
of Cosmological constants...have you read this book? Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky?