Concepts of darkness and light have always had profound metaphysical implications. Light implies a beneficent divine presence, or wisdom, or holiness while dark implies just the opposite.
By our physical natures, as well, we are drawn to light. all life is derived from the electromagnetic energy of the Sun through the miraculous process of photosynthesis. Just ponder this truth. Energy is extracted by living cells, through the green pigment chlorophyll in a chemical reaction which also extracts carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere. Energy is stored in chemical bonds which are then incorporated into the carbon based sugars that all life, animal life in particular is totally dependent upon.
To make matters more fascinating, these carbon condensations are also used as the building blocks of plants. We eat plants that have done the hard work for us. We obtain the carbon that forms our bodies indirectly from carbon that is in the form of invisible gas. That seems astounding to me. True alchemy.
Equally puzzling is the discovery that everything we see as well as every demonstrable piece of matter in the universe [as well as the energy it emits] represents only 4% of reality. And God said, ‘Let there be light" . So who created the rest?
There is the present scientific proposal that dark matter [called dark because it emits no energy at all as we know it] represent 22% of the universe and dark energy represents a whopping 74% of the rest.
The metaphysical implications of these findings are yet to be even discussed. Here in the early years of the 21st century, science is uncovering a level of reality which they cannot explain. We thought that relativity and quantum theory were perplexing [and they are!]. This adds insult to injury.
Yet the mystery is appealing as well.
Let us be very careful before we deny the possibility of a whole host of paranormal phenomena. As physicist Paul Davies noted, ‘A rational explanation for the world in the sense of a closed and complete system of logical truths is almost certainly impossible. We are barred from ultimate knowledge…..We have to embrace a different concept of understanding…..Possibly the mystical path is the way to such an understanding.’