Glue, Nails, Strings and The Universe

When I was a preschool teacher back in 1984, I had a very interesting philosophical discussion about the universe, with a group of children (3 to 5 years old).

My question was: “If I throw this ball up into the air, it always falls back down. Why doesn't the sun fall down out of the sky too, I wonder....”

To answer this question, they immediately referred to their own experiences. Their answers were fascinating; a great illustration of human thought (and error) in action.

One 3 year old had a quick, easy explanation. “The sun is glued onto the front of the sky. That’s why it sticks up there.”

A much wiser 4 year old was quick to disagree. "No, you're wrong! Glue won’t work. The sun is hot. The glue would melt and the sun would slide off the sky. The sun is hanging on nails and....staples."

“Oh man!" a 5 year old laughed. "None of you guys know anything. The sun can’t be stuck on with nails and staples because everything up there moves. The sun, the stars, the moon, the clouds--it all moves around. That's why everything is hanging on strings.”

“On strings?" I said. “With all those things moving around up there, wouldn’t the strings get tangled?”

“They haven't yet, have they?" The 5 year old crossed his arms and frowned. "They all watch their strings. They keep their strings out of each other’s way.”

At that point, another 5 year old spoke up. “Wait a minute. All of you are wrong. It isn’t glue or nails or strings. It’s God. God holds everything up. "

“Everything?” I said, “There are hundreds and thousands and millions of things up there in the sky. How does God hold up all these things at once?”

“God has many, many, many arms,” said the 5 year old as she waved her arms around vigorously.

All the children looked at her and then frowned thoughtfully. Suddenly, everyone was silent and the conversation came to a complete stop. All of them (including the one who firmly believed in strings) were trying to visualize this huge octopus-like God upholding the universe.

Then the bell rang and we went onto easier things like digging our way to China with plastic shovels.

As adults, we still rely on our experiences and conjectures to fathom the universe. Even with all of our intellectual advancements in science and impressive sounding speculations (black holes, time/space continuums, etc., etc.), are we any closer to understanding the true nature of the universe?

Maybe, when measured in terms of infinity, we are right there with the preschoolers.

A rather humbling thought.