Starry, starry night

A man and his son stand out in the back yard on a starry evening. The son asks, "Dad, what's the name of that star over there?"
    "Which one Billy?" replies His Dad.
    "That one there, over that tall fir tree."
    "Well son, that one's called Betelguese. It's the brightest star in the night sky. See, it is the shoulder of the constellation 'Orion'."
    Billy is alive with wonder as he dreams of maybe traveling to the limits of the universe one day. "It must be pretty close to be so bright, huh Dad?"
    "Actually son, even though Betelguese is probably the closest of all stars, its's still a million light years away," says Dad, as he follows through with a short lesson on light years and the speed of light, and other details Billy will be proud to relate to all his buddies at school. Billy's dreams are dashed, though, realizing he''ll never be able to go that far.
    
     Silly story, I know. Not long ago, I was at Sunday school along with all the good folks there at church. In talking about the grandure of God's universe, I was taken by how quickly we all could spit out facts about the size and breadth of the universe. We were enlightening each other on the facts and figures. One would say, "a million light years." Another would quickly interject, "a light year is the distance light would travel over the course of a year." Yet another tossed out, "186,000 miles per second, ya know." I found it interesting that we all felt so sure of things. Maybe, we should leave the astrophysics out of our discussions about God. Surely, His Heavens are a wonder, but is there value in claiming knowledge about things we can't comprehend?
     I think we are so impressed with big that we forget to think about significance. Have you ever been to Texas? It's not really all that it's cracked up to be. There's a lot of dirt there. People don't brag much about the natural wonders or the great weather. That's because there isn't much of either. What they do brag about is how big the place is. I'll bet you didn't know that it's a longer drive from Dallas to El Paso, than it is from El Paso to Los Angeles. That's pretty big, but who really cares. Well maybe the guy driving from Dallas to LA, but not me.
     We Christians have a problem with science. It seems as though science is at odds with the Christian community as a whole. Maybe, it's the creation thing, or the miracles of Jesus, or the believing in things unprovable. The Christian reaction to this, by and large, is to dispute science in the areas where science chooses to conflict. I just don't see the point. As believers aren't we believing God along with believing in Him. Shouldn't any community of theorists who pretend to offer alternative explanations for the existence we all share be ignored? Why have conflict? They're wrong, aren't they?
     Here's where I follow up on my earlier writing entitled, "Patrick O'brian." I recommend you read that before going any further here. I've also got a rebuttal to Cindy's comments on the same article.
     First, Cindy. In your comments you suggest that while my thesis that Heaven is a place beyond time, where there is no time, is disagreeable to your views. You say, (I'm paraphrasing,) that heaven is the place where time goes on undefiled by the decay of sin. A Holy version of time. You also thought little of my "Hell is nothing but time" notion. You likened Hell to a place without time, who's inhabitants bear the full weight of the decay of sin without end. I'd say you had me waivering there for a while, that is until I rememberd that one word you relied on so much in making your point. Decay. Unless I'm mistaken, in virtually all its forms, decay processes all have one commen catalyst. Time. Yes, Heaven is free of the decay of sin, because where there is no time, decay can't happen. Hell on the other hand, is full of the ravages of decay. Decay's primary element is time. Therefore, I humbly submit that time is in abundance down there.
     Let's go back to that backyard scene and pull out the old calculator.  Sorry Billy, you'll need a TI model, because the numbers get pretty big. Science guesses that Betelguese is a million light years away. So we multiply the speed of light, (we're told it's 186,000 miles per second,) by 60 seconds, x 60 minutes, x 24 hours, x 365 days. According to my abacus, that's 5,676,480,000,000 miles. light will go 5.7 quadrillion miles in a year. Go ahead, you multiply that by a million. I wore holes in my socks trying to count that high.
     In Sunday school, we were so proud of our gifts of recall, but none of us ever stopped to think of how futile this all is. I for one can't even conceive of light traveling. My mind tries, but I have to eventualy take someone elses word for it. I can't conceive of a million anything either. I know it's a lot, but my mind would have a hard time determining if a massive pile of apples contained 100,000 or 1,000,000. I'd assume you knew if you told me with authority. God created the Heavens and the Earth. Unless we obtain new information to the contrary, we must assume that He did so for His glory. His glory must be perceived if it is to be glorious. So we were placed here to perceive His glory. Are there billions and billions of stars out there really? If you say so. All I know is that I see a multitude of the Heavenly Host.
     We love to be amazed. We'll accept anything if it's packaged well. Ethereal music and beautiful pictures of distant galaxies make us gape at the TV screen and feel small. We feel insignificant. We are humbled by the sheer numbers. We come to think the Earth isn't the center of the universe after all. We're stuck in the outer arm of a typical spiral galaxy. There are so many stars, how could there not be other inhabited planets. Steven Hawking, famous scientist, mathemetician, and all-around genius, recently was featured in the news. He claimed, with certainty, that there definitely was a multitude of life bearing planets, probably in the millions. Because he's such a smarty, the mainstream media prints his opinions. Because of his fame and reputation I want to believe him. who's the bigger fool, him or me. If he said there were 823,655 apples in that pile, who would argue? Not me. He's Steven Hawking.
    Here's a qoute for you. C.S. Lewis wrote his Space Trilogy in the 1940's. The second book has a scene at the end where the hero reveals to the King of a new civilization on Perelandra, (Venus,)  how men on Earth have surrendered to science even on the point of what made Earth the center of everything.

     "I am full of doubts and ignorance," said Ransom, (our hero). "In our world those who know Maleldil, (Jesus,) at all believe His coming down to us and being a man is the central happening of all that happens. If you take that from me, whither will you lead me? Surely not to the enemies talk which thrusts my world and my race into a remote corner and gives me a universe, with no centre at all, but millions of worlds that lead nowhere or (what is worse) to more and more worlds for ever, and comes over me with numbers and empty spaces and repetitions and asks me to bow down before bigness."

     Lewis saw it in 1943. Just like I'm telling you now. Anybody with a PHD can make a press release and find a willing audience. The more fantastic the story, the more we're willing to believe it. Is the Earth really 4 billion years old? Um, I guess so. If that's what they say. Can the Hubbel telescope take pictures of a galaxy that is 35 million light years away? Sure, why not? If I don't know what to believe, I'll believe anything you say, if you appear smarter than me, (not too difficult.)
     Now to wrap up my other article. If time truly is an earthly enterprise created by God for man on Earth, then we must agree that time doesn't matter in outer space. The light year is defined as the distance light travels in one year. No time in space, then our measurement is void. 186,000 miles per second doesn't mean anything when there are no seconds, much less years. Do the math. Anything times nothing equals nothing.
     Maybe my math is weird, but I think that attempting to measure the heavens is fruitless at best, and certainly irrelevant to our lives. What is relevant is that when God cast the stars out into the night sky, they landed in specific places to be viewed by men. Ancient mariners used the stars to navigate. The moon, sun, and planets established our Calendar and created the seasons by which all life depends for its cycles. Stars form constellations by which we develop a chart of their locations and know their names. We even get to sit in the back yard of an evening, and dream of knowing all that is out there to know. We revere our God for the splendor of His majesty.
     When Billy's Dad told him how far away that star was, I wish I was there. I'd have told him, "Billy, that star probably is really a long way away, but for you and me, God didn't put it a jillion light years away, it's right there, over that really big fir tree."
 Doesn't Christ say that God confounds the wisdom of the wise with the foolishness of the gospel? Let it be so in our lives.

His glory,

Joe