--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Terence McKenna once famously said that…" description: "\"“Terence McKenna once famously said that science asks “Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.” That miracle is the instantaneous arrival ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg" --- # Terence McKenna once famously said that science asks “Give… ![“Terence McKenna once famously said that science asks “Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.” That miracle is the instantaneous arrival of all the laws of nature and all the matter and energy in the universe, appearing out of nowhere at the moment of the Big Bang, before going on to…” quote by Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg) > ““Terence McKenna once famously said that science asks “Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.” That miracle is the instantaneous arrival of all the laws of nature and all the matter and energy in the universe, appearing out of nowhere at the moment of the Big Bang, before going on to expand in uneven and unexplained ways.”” [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Science seeks a single, all‑encompassing explanation for the universe, but the origin of laws and matter remains a mystery. **In simple terms:** Science looks for a miracle to explain everything, yet the Big Bang’s cause is unknown. Key Takeaway Accept uncertainty while exploring. Themes science philosophy mystery Mood curious thoughtful Type philosophical inquisitive When to use this quote - academic discussion - personal contemplation - teaching physics Key Concepts cosmology theology epistemology Questions to Reflect On - What does it mean to accept unknowns? - Can science ever fully explain its own beginnings? A Different Perspective The “miracle” may be beyond human comprehension. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Big bang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/big-bang/) [Free Miracle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/free-miracle-1185463/) [Miracle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/miracle/) [Miracle Instantaneous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/miracle-instantaneous-5100735/) [Miracles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/miracles/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Physics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/physics/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) [Terence Mckenna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/terence-mckenna-229907/) ## Related quotes > [“It’s almost as if science said, “Give me one free miracle, and from there the entire thing will proceed with a seamless, causal explanation.”’17…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupert-sheldrake/it-s-almost-as-if-science-said-give-me-one-free-miracle-and-from/) [Rupert Sheldrake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupert-sheldrake/) > [“Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terrence-mckenna/give-us-one-free-miracle-and-we-ll-explain-the-rest/) [Terrence McKenna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terrence-mckenna/) > [“All the elements were there: the frozen feeling bubbling up and permeating my body like quantum foam fizzing up to engulf the fragmenting mind,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-metzner/all-the-elements-were-there-the-frozen-feeling-bubbling-up-and/) [Ralph Metzner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-metzner/) > [“The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls. (translation/paraphrase: Terence McKenna)”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heraclitus/the-aeon-is-a-child-at-play-with-colored-balls-translation-paraphrase/) [Heraclitus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heraclitus/) > [And I want to thank all the women that support me. I have wonderful support systems from women of all types who seem dedicated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terence-mckenna/and-i-want-to-thank-all-the-women-that-support-me-i-have-wonderful/) [Terence McKenna](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terence-mckenna/) > [I've been watching a lot of Joan Didion interviews on YouTube. I love her. My drummer has gotten me into looking at Terence McKenna…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/st-vincent/i-ve-been-watching-a-lot-of-joan-didion-interviews-on-youtube-i-love/) [St. Vincent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/st-vincent/) > [“It is precisely to prevent us from thinking too much that society pressurizes us all to get out of bed. In 1993, I went…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-hodgkinson/it-is-precisely-to-prevent-us-from-thinking-too-much-that-society/) [Tom Hodgkinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-hodgkinson/) > [ “Terence McKenna pointed out that "the profundity of \[hallucinogenic inebriation\] and its potential for a positive feedback into the process of reorganizing the personality… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-doblin/terence-mckenna-pointed-out-that-the-profundity-of-hallucinogenic/) [Rick Doblin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-doblin/) > [Terence McKenna says, "The culture is not your friend." I am not sure we can change this culture. But I think we can rise…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eve-ensler/terence-mckenna-says-the-culture-is-not-your-friend-i-am-not-sure-we/) [Eve Ensler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eve-ensler/) > [We artists give daily thanks for the miracle of our planet and for the inclination and the capability to honour it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-genn/we-artists-give-daily-thanks-for-the-miracle-of-our-planet-and-for/) [Robert Genn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-genn/) > [It was a world that I wanted to record because it was such a miracle visitation to me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurie-lee/it-was-a-world-that-i-wanted-to-record-because-it-was-such-a-miracle/) [Laurie Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurie-lee/) > [Miracles are like candles lit up until the sun rises, and then blown out. Therefore, I am amused when I hear sects and churches…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ward-beecher/miracles-are-like-candles-lit-up-until-the-sun-rises-and-then-blown/) [Henry Ward Beecher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ward-beecher/) > [This, at last, was where things were as they ought to be. Everything was in its place -- the tree, the earth underneath, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-liedloff/this-at-last-was-where-things-were-as-they-ought-to-be-everything-was/) [Jean Liedloff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-liedloff/) > [The ability of the gospel to unite us on common strengths and common truths is one of the great miracles . . . of the gospel.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffrey-r-holland/the-ability-of-the-gospel-to-unite-us-on-common-strengths-and-common/) [Jeffrey R. Holland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-r-holland/) > [“As I do not seem able much to heal, then maybe I can simply be a responsible witness to the miracle of the ordinary…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sebastian-barry/as-i-do-not-seem-able-much-to-heal-then-maybe-i-can-simply-be-a/) [Sebastian Barry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sebastian-barry/) ## More by Gordon White > [“Particularly when it comes to chaos magic, building your own optimal metaphysics becomes more challenging when you have to shoehorn it into whatever preferred…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/particularly-when-it-comes-to-chaos-magic-building-your-own-optimal/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“At the paranormalist end, Jacques Vallée once famously remarked “just because a message comes from Heaven doesn’t mean it’s not stupid.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/at-the-paranormalist-end-jacques-vall-e-once-famously-remarked-just/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“You are certainly free to join whatever nineteenth-century swingers club masquerading as a magical order you like, but do it on your own time.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/you-are-certainly-free-to-join-whatever-nineteenth-century-swingers/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“Anyone else who misspent their largely-sexless adolescence playing role playing games would be aware that games nights are often accompanied by peculiar states of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/anyone-else-who-misspent-their-largely-sexless-adolescence-playing/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“The very best magicians are scavengers of the useful and banishers of the useless.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/the-very-best-magicians-are-scavengers-of-the-useful-and-banishers-of/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“The magicians of the Golden Dawn built a history that now appears inaccurate but was cutting edge for its time. 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Team Animism wins again.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/live-an-active-life-closer-to-nature-and-you-will-be-physically-and/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“Anyone with even trifling experience with spirit work will have seen how they often make their presence, wishes or intentions known via a string…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/anyone-with-even-trifling-experience-with-spirit-work-will-have-seen/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“Materialism, it must be understood, is a premise of science, not a finding.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/materialism-it-must-be-understood-is-a-premise-of-science-not-a/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“As it got away from its founders, chaos magic came to mean ‘doing whatever you want’ in popular parlance, which is probably close to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/as-it-got-away-from-its-founders-chaos-magic-came-to-mean-doing/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“One end accepts too much, the other end accepts too little, and there in the middle is the western magical tradition exemplified by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/one-end-accepts-too-much-the-other-end-accepts-too-little-and-there/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“History may well be written by the victors, but victors change and if we do not unwrite history then the propaganda from the previous…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/history-may-well-be-written-by-the-victors-but-victors-change-and-if/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“I am the Headless Daimon with sight in my feet; I am the mighty one who possesses the immortal fire; I am the truth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/i-am-the-headless-daimon-with-sight-in-my-feet-i-am-the-mighty-one/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“It is more useful for the magician to consider living systems not as some unaware little eddies in a universal consciousness field, but as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/it-is-more-useful-for-the-magician-to-consider-living-systems-not-as/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) > [“A Greek term, kaos means the void, the abyss, the First Created Thing. The word derives from the Proto-Indo-European term for gaping, or yawning,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/a-greek-term-kaos-means-the-void-the-abyss-the-first-created-thing/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) [Explore all 31 Gordon White quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) ## More Big bang quotes > [About 120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. If our polls are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-harris/about-120-million-of-us-place-the-big-bang-2-500-years-after-the/) [Sam Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-harris/) > [Tune your television to any channel it doesn't receive and about 1 percent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-bryson/tune-your-television-to-any-channel-it-doesn-t-receive-and-about-1/) [Bill Bryson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-bryson/) > [ Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre, the guys who run that show \[Big Bang Theory\], are really funny and really smart, and the cast is… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brent-spiner/bill-prady-and-chuck-lorre-the-guys-who-run-that-show-big-bang-theory/) [Brent Spiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brent-spiner/) > [Sure, nobody will make a fortune if we figure out why the Big Bang happened. But just about everyone would like to know.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/sure-nobody-will-make-a-fortune-if-we-figure-out-why-the-big-bang/) [Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/) > [“The Creation of the World or Omniverse is the Creation or Recreation of the Absolute itself through the two poles, two “sides” of its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dejan-stojanovic/the-creation-of-the-world-or-omniverse-is-the-creation-or-recreation/) [Dejan Stojanovic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dejan-stojanovic/) > [All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. It's lies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-broun/all-that-stuff-i-was-taught-about-evolution-embryology-big-bang/) [Paul Broun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-broun/) > [For example, if the big bang had been one-part-in-a billion more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for the galaxies to form…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-lanza/for-example-if-the-big-bang-had-been-one-part-in-a-billion-more/) [Robert Lanza](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-lanza/) > [God created... light anddark, heaven and hell-science claims the same thing as religion, that the Big Bang createdeverything in the universe with an opposite."Including…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-brown/god-created-light-anddark-heaven-and-hell-science-claims-the-same/) [Dan Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-brown/) > [Scientists estimate the universe unfolded from its state of infinite destiny\* - a moment commonly referred to as "the big bang" - approximately 1.3-2…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-z-danielewski/scientists-estimate-the-universe-unfolded-from-its-state-of-infinite/) [Mark Z. Danielewski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-z-danielewski/) > [Chemistry seems to be pretty much nailed down, and biology gains ground all the time. But physics seems to be mired in idle rumination.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-hardy/chemistry-seems-to-be-pretty-much-nailed-down-and-biology-gains/) [Jeremy Hardy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-hardy/) > [The big bang made the foundations for the 1st atoms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tiesto/the-big-bang-made-the-foundations-for-the-1st-atoms/) [Tiesto](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tiesto/) > [“Only three of the naturally occurring elements were manufactured in the big bang. 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Scientific laws are as valid as our understanding at any particular moment. Scientific laws are not absolute. Scientific laws…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dejan-stojanovic/science-is-a-human-construct-scientific-laws-are-as-valid-as-our/) [Dejan Stojanovic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dejan-stojanovic/) [Browse all 442 Big bang quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/big-bang/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Terence McKenna once famously said that science asks “Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.” That miracle is the instantaneous arrival of all the laws of nature and all the matter and energy in the universe, appearing out of nowhere at the moment of the Big Bang, before going on to expand in uneven and unexplained ways.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gordon White" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that-science-asks-give-us-one-free/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Big bang" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that-science-asks-give-us-one-free/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/236/gordon-white-19927_big-bang_terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that_633427.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Terence McKenna once famously said that science asks “Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.”…” — Gordon White", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Gordon White", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Terence McKenna once famously said that...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that-science-asks-give-us-one-free/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/terence-mckenna-once-famously-said-that-science-asks-give-us-one-free/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```