Everything Physical is Physics...

...but not everything is physical.

This is becoming my standard answer to my students when they ask, "What is physics?" You see, in the high school in which I teach, every student must take physics (thanks to this policy, I have a job!). So I initially get a lot of questions about what it is that they will be learning. My answer tries to point out to them that everything in the physical universe must obey the laws of physics, which we will be studying. We live in an orderly universe governed by law. This insight is astonishing in its own right: why is the universe orderly? This can lead to some very interesting conversations about design.

My point is a little different, however, when I respond, "Everything physical is physics, but not everything is physical." We live in a materialistic culture in which we are told in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways that we are nothing but our bodies. Our minds are reduced to our brains. Our feelings to chemical reactions. Our morality to evolutionary bric-a-brac.

So by saying that not everything is physical, I hope to put a stone in their shoe that there is more to this world than just physical stuff. For example:

• Souls
• Mental states
• God
• Information

None of these are physical, but they are just as real as a rock. I don't bring all of this up unless someone asks, but most students don't take the bait. Every once in a while, however, I get a student genuinely interested, and then we can launch into a meaningful conversation.

Just one more small way to push back the tide...