07 Jul 05 Infinity and Beyond
You don’t know where the wind will blow, and you don’t know how a baby grows inside the mother. In the same way, you don’t know what God is doing, or how he created everything. (Ecclesiastes 11:5 NCV)
But that hasn’t stopped us from trying to figure it out!
I’m a big fan of NASA. I’m in favor of space research and exploration. The air and space museum is one of my favorite places to visit. The new air and space museum out in Dulles is spectacular. So, today, I’m not writing to criticize NASA just to express confusion.
Here’s a quote from an article in yesterday’s Washington Post:
NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft completed a flawless journey to oblivion early Monday, slamming into an onrushing comet to vaporize itself in an Independence Day blaze of glory.
That sounds like a pretty cool job. “So what do you do?” “Oh, I build multi-million dollar spacecraft and crash them into comets, and you?” “Me? I craft multi-word messages and crash them into crowds.”
The Deep Impact project must have been an interesting mission. I just saw such tremendous irony in the project. Here’s the stated purpose of the mission:
By assessing the shape and size of the crater and chemically analyzing the debris that belched from it, scientists hope to gain new insights into the composition of the solar system at the time of its formation 4.5 billion years ago.
Now here’s what I find ironic. Upon impact of the spacecraft with the crater one of the scientists was quoted as saying:
“Oh, my God, look at that!” JPL astronomer Donald Yeomans shouted as the first images were posted.
It just struck me that in a mission designed to give insights as to the birth of the solar system (via the big bang) one of the scientists is calling out to God.
Again, I’m not against NASA and space exploration. Without NASA we wouldn’t have pens that write everywhere and anywhere, we wouldn’t have freeze-dried ice-cream and other such technological marvels. I’m just saying that with faith in God we could have saved some money on this project.
I’m also thinking they are looking in the wrong place for answers.
But they do not want to remember what happened long ago. By the word of God heaven was made, and the earth was made from water and with water. (2 Peter 3:5 NCV)
The LORD created the heavens. He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He did not want it to be empty, but he wanted life on the earth. This is what the LORD says: “I am the LORD. There is no other God. (Isaiah 45:18 NCV)
In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God’s Spirit was moving over the water. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3 NCV)
God, the LORD, said these things. He created the skies and stretched them out. He spread out the earth and everything on it. He gives life to all people on earth, to everyone who walks on the earth. (Isaiah 42:5 NCV)
God, the Holy One, says, “Can you compare me to anyone? Is anyone equal to me?” Look up to the skies. Who created all these stars? He leads out the army of heaven one by one and calls all the stars by name. Because he is strong and powerful, not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:25-26 NCV)
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My thoughts were, “And all they found out was that God knew what He was doing!”
Save this one (and the last one) for your book. This is excellent stuff.
I’m a big fan of NASA too. And I’m grateful for the graphing calculators and other techo-gadgetry I have that wouldn’t exist without people being forced to come up with ways to get things like space missions done. But the irony of that “Oh my God” is rich. I understand man’s need to explain everything, but the pride that lurks behind all of these quests must irk our Creator.
He garbled all the languages at Babel. I often wonder what He plans to do about things like comet ramming spacecraft.
Good post, Randy. I was talking to a man today who was reflecting on his university evolution classes verses just walking outside and looking around at life. God signs his name to the universe and our best minds spend a lifetime trying to find what’s right in front of them. There are none so blind as those who will not see … so someone has said.
Ah, well, the bible does say that God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world. Here’s another irony for you - there is a whole lot one can learn from observing God’s creation without knowing the creator. So many of the best brains in the world marvel at the intricacies, complexity and power of nature but scoff at the “intelligent design” behind it all. People spend thousands of hours and enormous resources trying to understand the organizing principles of various aspects of nature but leave no room for an organizer and so on. Come to think of it, man’s natural disposition of doubt and unbelief is one of life’s greatest ironies.
I wanted to respond to your blog to perhaps give you a little hope in NASA if one can have “hope” in a governmental agency. A friend of mine at church, Mike, works at the Kennedy Space Center, as do many of our members. Mike is trying to convince NASA that a study needs to be done on the long term effects from a spiritual perspective, of a manned flight to Mars that would take about 2 years. Believe it or not according to Mike, NASA is interested and is looking into how Mike can combine such a study with his work at Harding Grad School on spiritual formation. Keep Mike in your prayers as he continues to lobby NASA with this proposed study.