Gaining Some Perspective
Craig Willms gives us all some perspective. He starts with the three pounds of the human brain, and sizes upwards to the supergiant stars, just to show that we aren`t all that and a bag of chips!
As Shakespeare stated in Hamlet ``there are more things in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy (science)``. We are liliputians in a Universe that is incomprehensibly vast. Let me give you an example; the Sun is roughly 864,000 miles in diameter, while a basketball is generally 9.5 inches. If we use this ratio of 864,000 mi/9.5in, we end up with 91,000 miles per inch. Using this measure, and substituting a basketball for the Sun, we have to place an object representing the Earth 86 feet from the basketball. If we want to represent the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) with another basketball we would have a slight problem; one light year is six hundred trillion miles. Using our model we would have to use one thousand miles to represent this distance, so our second basketball would have to be placed four thousand three hundred miles away! This is 4.3 times the distance from St. Louis to Boston!
The Universe is VAST, and we know so little of it, despite our arrogance. Now, just why are we so cocksure of ourselves? Also, do our little human minds really matter in the grand scheme of things to a God who created this vast Universe in His spare time, just for His amusement? Who are WE to try to judge such a God?
Yet this same God loves us, created us, lived here with us, and died for us. Think about that!
As Shakespeare stated in Hamlet ``there are more things in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy (science)``. We are liliputians in a Universe that is incomprehensibly vast. Let me give you an example; the Sun is roughly 864,000 miles in diameter, while a basketball is generally 9.5 inches. If we use this ratio of 864,000 mi/9.5in, we end up with 91,000 miles per inch. Using this measure, and substituting a basketball for the Sun, we have to place an object representing the Earth 86 feet from the basketball. If we want to represent the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) with another basketball we would have a slight problem; one light year is six hundred trillion miles. Using our model we would have to use one thousand miles to represent this distance, so our second basketball would have to be placed four thousand three hundred miles away! This is 4.3 times the distance from St. Louis to Boston!
The Universe is VAST, and we know so little of it, despite our arrogance. Now, just why are we so cocksure of ourselves? Also, do our little human minds really matter in the grand scheme of things to a God who created this vast Universe in His spare time, just for His amusement? Who are WE to try to judge such a God?
Yet this same God loves us, created us, lived here with us, and died for us. Think about that!
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 3:44 PM
5 Comments:
Indeed, vast it is---and about empty! It is called ‘space’ for a reason. We know that some use this near infinite size of the cosmos to somehow disprove the existence of God. “Look how puny is man compared to the grandness of the Universe!” But when has size mattered as a measurement of value? Who would choose an ocean of yak urine over a diamond?
It might be beyond our understanding now, but all of the Universe---every star and moon and everything moving around out there---is not as valuable as one human life. There is a reason why God made Man on the final day of Creation, and in His own image---imago dei. He saved the best for last.
He so loved Man that He became Man. He has promised one day to give us back our fleshy forms for all Eternity. (I hope that He, in His infinite Wisdom, will carve 15 pounds off my own flesh before He returns it to me.)
Far from disproving God, the cosmos acknowledges Him. He made it not for His amusement but for ours.
Hi Mike,
You said,
He made it not for His amusement but for ours.
Point well taken! I was trying to point out the immense power of God, which should make us all better appreciate the compliment He has paid us, but you are right.
I am mindful of the Bible passage where we are commanded to ``work out our salvation with fear and trembling``; the Creator God is indeed fearful, because of the astonishing power He possesses. That is, of course, why Jesus came to us-to act as a bridge between our meager existence and Him. The Bible also says ``it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God``, and that means, of course, that we should care about our ultimate destiny, because physical death is a minor inconvenience next to the ultimate death of Hell, and the power which could create the Universe should not be disdained.
In Milton`s `Paradise Lost` the Archangel Raphael visits Adam and Eve, and explains to them that the vastness and grandeur of the Universe serves the Divine purpose of keeping us humble. Man can far too easily become arrogant, become too big for his britches; contemplation of such things as Astronomy puts us in our place. ``My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts`` could not be illustrated any clearer than by seeing the immensity of the Universe.
Ever read Soren Kirkegaard? He used an analogy about a King who fell in love with a poor maiden. He could only fulfill his love by humbling himself and becoming a poor batchelor. The Great King of Everything, the Creator of all, so loves us that He willingly became a poor carpenter and allowed Himself to be painfully executed by evil men to prove it-and He did it for each and every one of us! Now THAT is a mind-blowing thought!
Oh, and I do hope He carves some of my copuous excess flesh from my new and improved body. For that matter, I have some plans for the overhaul; we can start with a picture of Brad Pitt and go from there...
This is a question I will not argue but with the Hubble floating around looking into deep space and NASA saying that it would take a million years of uninterrupted photographing to get the entire view of the universe it makes me humble. They also claim we are a mere billion plus light years from the universes edge. A figure that in miles is unimaginable.Then there is the string theory and although it is a theory there are those working hard to prove it. Does this prove or disprove God. After God made Adam and Eve and left them in the Garden of Eden could he have not populated other planets? Is it our God solely?
Tim: I have a movie poster from Troy in my classroom. My 8th grade girls love the pic of Brad Pitt. Alas, 20 years and 20 pounds ago I could have given him a run for his money!
I read a theologian who once said that we would be given the bodies we had at 33, the year that Christ died. Good enough for me.
I tried to read Kierkegaard but he was over my head. But your comment about man's arrogance is not. That fits me too perfectly. It is one of my standard complaints---laments, really---to God before Confession.
Learner: I have no idea if God populated other planets. It is not beyond Reason, certainly. I recall C. S. Lewis bringing this up---in Mere Christianity?---but he said the question had no relevance to our own need for Salvation. Lewis’ other point was this: If there were other peoples 'out there,' perhaps they had never Fallen. Lewis feared that if we encountered them we would corrupt them.
Interesting idea, learner! There is no way for us to know what lies out in that bewildering vastness!
I`d rather be 33 than my current age, but would much prefer being 22 with the mind I have now; at any rate, I`m certain my next body will be a marked improvement over my current one. We`ll have all of the best things and none of the problems!
I`m still trying to get over the vision of all that Yak urine; I suppose one could argue that, if you were out on a boat with no water, Yak urine would start looking pretty good compared to the diamond (I knew a Vietnamese guy who was forced to such extremities when fleeing the fall of Saigon) but I concede your point.
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