“Okay,” Joan started. “Well, the larger questions we ask when we talk about God seem to be ‘Why are we here?’ And ‘Is there an order to all of it? Is someone or something in charge?’ But the thing is, science is largely about figuring out answers to those very questions.”

“Science is about figuring out the meaning of life?”

“Science is about figuring out the order to the universe. Yes.”

“Okay…”

“The theory of general relativity explains the rules of the physical world at large scales, the world we can see with our eyes. Quantum mechanics explains the subatomic world, like electricity and light.”

“Gravity and electromagnetism—I’m with you.”

“You combine them with the two other forces we know of in the universe, the strong force and the weak force—”

“I’m familiar.”

“Well, okay then: that’s already a pretty significant order to the universe right there! Everything that we know of since the Big Bang is ruled by those four forces. We are all connected by these four rules. That’s the beginning, at least, of learning how we are here. Now, we still need a unifying theory—our understanding of the laws of gravity and quantum physics are not currently compatible.”

“It’s a big caveat.”

“But the unifying theory does exist. It must. We just haven’t figured it out yet. And I think the pursuit of finding one law to explain the universe is, yes, science, but it’s also the pursuit of God.”

“Not the God that most people are talking about,” Vanessa said.

Joan considered this. “The Jewish philosopher Spinoza said that God did not necessarily make the universe, but that God is the universe. The unfolding of the universe is God in action. Which would mean science and math are a part of God.”

“And we are a part of God because we are a part of the universe,” Vanessa said.

“Or better yet, we are the universe. I would go so far as to say that as human beings, we are less of a who and more of a when. We are a moment in time—when all of our cells have come together in this body. But our atoms were many things before, and they will be many things after. The air I’m breathing is the same air your ancestors breathed. Even what is in my body right now—the cells, the air, the bacteria—it’s not only mine. It is a point of connection with every other living thing, made up of the same kinds of particles, ruled by the same physical laws.

“When you die, someone will bury you or turn your body into ashes. Eventually, you will return to the Earth. You already are a part of the Earth. What better reason do we have to take care of this Earth and everything on it than the knowledge that we are of one another?”