Have you ever been so lost that you didn’t know what to do next? I had a moment like that. As some of you know, I can be worse than the most stereotypical absent-minded professor when it comes to practical matters. So I was very proud this summer in Vancouver when I figured out how to take a bus from University of British Columbia where I was taking a course, to the science museum. I was supposed to meet Tim, who had taken the sky train, to the science museum, for a 2 o’clock show. And for once in my life, I made it without any problem, arriving around 1:30. Half an hour early! Woo hoo! So not like me, right?
Got in, paid admission including the 2 pm show, but that’s when things went sideways. I texted Tim, saying "I’m here, where are you?" He quickly replied, "right by the phone booth in the lobby." "What phone booth", I shot back. Turns out there’s two science museums in Vancouver, the Telus World of Science next door to the old Expo site on False Creek, and the H. R. MacMillan Space Museum near Grandville Island. And you guessed it, I was at the wrong one. Drat!
Well, more than just a drat, actually. It would take more than the now 20 minutes I had to get downtown and figure out which train to catch, and would miss the 2:00 show no matter what I tried, short of taking a taxi. So, feeling quite sorry for myself, I went up to the planetarium, and sat down grumpily to watch the 2pm show.
There’s nothing quite like a tour of our solar system to put one’s problems in perspective, and to come away with a renewed amazement at the beauty and complexity of our Milky Way Galaxy. We soared over Mars, dove in and out of the rings of Venus and Saturn, looked at the shrinking Red Spot on Jupiter and toured some of the closer constellations in the summer sky. Wow.
By the time the show was over, I felt a lot calmer and was able to find my way to the train station, Tim, and even back home where we were staying for the week. It’s truly breath-taking and still as mysterious as when the folks writing the Psalms and the Book of Job looked up at the sky and saw the Hand of God at work in the music of the spheres, as they called it then.
Planetariums have come a long way since I was a kid. They could only project stars on the roof of a big domed ceiling and a guide would point out different constellations with a flashlight. Now with computers and a touch of a button we can be zooming through a colorful kaleidoscope of breath-taking images from the Hubble Telescope. Our knowledge of space has grown and our computers too. 50 years ago it took computers the size of this church to land people on the moon. Now we have the same computing power as that room in a device small enough to fit in the palm of my hand.
50 years ago today, the first astronauts to land on the moon finally came out of quarantine and could safely reconnect with their families and friends back home. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and command module pilot Michael Collins returned to earth as heroes. Nasa had managed to do the impossible, send humans into space and back again. They did it with careful planning, by being prepared for as many different scenarios, and by testing their equipment over and over. But they also managed to do it with faith.
Not too many people know that the first food eaten on the moon was bread and wine. Before Neil Armstrong left the Eagle for his famous walk, Buzz Aldrin opened his tiny box of private items that each astronaut was allowed and pulled out a glass much like this one, a bit of bread and a little vial of wine. He read from a tiny piece of paper, “I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.” Then he ate the bread and drank the wine, making Communion the first meal to be eaten on the moon. The cup is kept in a special case in a Presbyterian Church in Houston Texas that likes to call itself ‘The Church of Astronauts’. Every July, they celebrate communion on the Sunday closest to July 20th just like they did in 1969 with Buzz Aldrin.
How often do we hear that science and faith are incompatible? How often do we hear of Christians scoffing at scientists or scientists writing books about how delusional it is to believe in God? There seems to be in most people’s minds a sense that we have to choose one or the other. I’ve even heard stories of Christians telling children not to waste their time on science because it’s not true.
Yet so many people find no such dichotomy. Dr. Donna Strickland won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year and was featured in Broadview Magazine as a faithful member of a United Church in Waterloo. She’s not alone.
Here’s a quick quiz for you: Who said this, a scientist, a theologian or a philosopher?
“The question of whether there exists a Creator and Ruler of the
Universe has been answered in the affirmative by some of the highest intellects
that have ever existed.”
–Charles Darwin, the
founder of evolutionary biology
“It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer
path to God than religion.”
“People take it for granted that the physical world is both
ordered and intelligible... However, even the most atheistic scientist accepts
as an act of faith that the universe is not absurd, that there is a rational
basis to physical existence manifested as law-like order in nature that is at
least partly comprehensible to us. So science can proceed only if the scientist
adopts an essentially theological worldview.”
–Physicist Paul Davies
“In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” Sir Isaac Newton
“I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism.” “If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God.”
—Lord William Kelvin, who worked on thermodynamics, the concept of absolute zero and the Kelvin temperature scale.
And last but not least, “The more I study science, the more I believe in God.” by none other than Albert Einstein himself.
These are just a few of the top physicists and scientists who have concluded that there is more to our existence than happenstance or coincidence. That this big beautiful planet we live on with just the right balance of water and carbon, heat and cold, liquid and solid, spin and tilt is no accident, and that the psalmists were scientists when they said,
When I look to the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their places, what are we mortals that you should be mindful of us, mere human beings that you should care for us? You have made us little less than divine, and crowned us with glory and honour. You have made us rulers over all your creation, and put all things under our feet.
May we learn to be as faithful as scientists and live with respect and gratitude in this beautiful universe that God has created.
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