When you measure the distance from one city to the next, you chart the distance in miles. If you measure the distance between stars, you cannot use inches, feet, yards or miles to specify the distance. That type of measuring breaks down in the vastness of the universe. You measure the distance of stars by light years.
A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. The speed of light is 186,287.5 miles per second. You can find out the number of seconds in a year by multiplying the number of seconds in a minute (60) by the number of minutes in an hour (60). Then multiply that by the number of hours in a day (24), and multiply that by the number of days in a year (approximately 365.25).
So a light year is about 5,878,786,100,000 miles. That’s almost 6 trillion miles. The distance from the earth to the Sun is 93 million miles. The distance to the neareststar is 4.3 light years, and the distance to the Andromeda galaxy is 2 million light years. That’s a long ways off.
Scientists tell us that the universe is still expanding.
If the universe started with a big bang, then who started the bang? Did matter just start exploding? And if so, where did the matter come from? If we believe that the universe—the size and weight it is currently—was compacted into the first matter that exploded, then that little bit of matter was extremely heavy stuff.
Allow me to explain. Scientists tell us that a black hole is matter and gravity trapped and unable to escape, being sucked into a black abyss. If a star collapses, it can form a black hole and the inescapable matter of the collapsing star becomes compressed to equal the same weight in its collapsed, compressed state as it was when it burned as large and bright as our sun. Remember says Newton, matter can not be created or destroyed only changed from one form to another.
In regards to a universe catalyst, men like St. Thomas Aquinas would say it has to do with a first cause. In other words although there were the right components around in the beginning to evolve into a human form, there had to be a catalyst to bring together the right stuff called—man. The ancients said that to every effect there is a cause. The first cause of all things is God. He, of course, is without cause. He is who He is, the self-existing one. He was, He is, and He will forever be. He is the first and last cause of all things.
At one time it was thought that the universe was constant and then came Albert Einstein who published a scientific paper in 1918 entitled, “General Relativity.” Among the many things this paper did to upset the world of science, for one it suggested that the universe is ever expanding. The light emitted with the original bang of the universe is still traveling across space. If this is true, then the universe is a big place, making sizeable room for millions, billions, and trillions of galaxies—some not unlike or own. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are hundreds of billions of stars—none smaller than our sun. The nearest star in our galaxy is 4.3 light years away. The nearest galaxy is 2 million light years away. How does God keep up such a huge backyard?
How many galaxies are there in this ever expanding universe? Hundreds of billions? And how many stars in each galaxy? Hundreds of billions? Yes, that what we are told. And yet the Bible says that God knows everyone of them and calls them by name. That’s amazing. But, then again, He’s God.
Nothing is too big or too difficult for God, especially when it comes to shouldering the burdens of His people. God is an Awesome God who cares for us and helps us overcome the tragedies of life. He is our joy and our strength. He is the “glory and lifter of our heads.” When we are downcast, He can lift us up to life sublime.
God is beyond the vast universe, and beneath the unseen atom.
God is in the unseen realm. The Bible declares that Jesus is before all things. It says that He is the force that holds the unseen realm together (Colossians 1:16-17). At one time, the smallest of things was the atom. Now scientists know there is a subatomic level. And in this subatomic existence the laws of physics seem to contradict the laws of the subatomic particle. For example, when light is taken to its basic element, it appears as waves and particles at the same time. This is impossible or is it? Jesus said that He is the Light of the world. Light is a paradox alright. He is fully human, fully God. How can this be? Some things just can’t be explained in this life because our minds don’t have the capacity to know as God knows. Therefore, I accept this paradox of Light by faith.
A Quantum leap of faith…
The quantum theory of the atom developed as an explanation for the electron’s staying in its orbital, which could not be explained by Newton’s laws of motion and by classical electromagnetism. For example, if Newtonian mechanics governed the workings of an atom, electrons would rapidly travel towards and collide with the nucleus. However, in the natural world the electrons normally remain in an unknown orbital path around the nucleus, defying classical electromagnetism.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_physics
Until recently, there have been two camps: One camp belongs to relativity and the other to quantum mechanics. Because quantum physics, or quantum mechanics, states that everything is the result of a random occurrence and the theory of relativity states that there is an order to all things, and that nothing is simply a random occurrence, the camps have remained divided. And not even Stephen Hawking has been able to reconcile the two camps into one.
Stephen Hawking writes:
“Where do we come from? How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? How will it end?
“All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist. The questions are clear, and deceptively simple. But the answers have always seemed well beyond our reach. Until now.
“The ideas which had grown over two thousand years of observation have had to be radically revised. In less than a hundred years, we have found a new way to think of ourselves. From sitting at the center of the universe, we now find ourselves orbiting an average-sized sun, which is just one of millions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. And our galaxy itself is just one of billions of galaxies, in a universe that is infinite and expanding. But this is far from the end of a long history of inquiry. Huge questions remain to be answered, before we can hope to have a complete picture of the universe we live in.
“I want you to share my excitement at the discoveries, past and present, which have revolutionized the way we think. From the Big Bang to black holes, from dark matter to a possible Big Crunch, our image of the universe today is full of strange sounding ideas, and remarkable truths. The story of how we arrived at this picture is the story of learning to understand what we see.”http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/html/home.html
While writing this paper, I visited Stephen Hawking’s web site and sent him an e-mail. It’s a fascinating age in which we live, isn’t it? I wrote a word of encouragement to him and told him that although his thoughts are hard for me to grasp, one day I would be able to converse with him without the limitations of human intelligence. I told him that I hoped to meet him in the next life where he and I could converse with, truly, the mind of God—knowing as God knows.
And so it all comes down to this. Although intelligent men of history and science have speculated and theorized about the beginning and ending, about the thermodynamic and quantum mechanics, it all boils down to this: In this life with natural limitations and mortal frustrations we must continue in theory, scientific discovery, and faith until—as the Bible says—“this mortal must put on immortality…” When for the first time I awaken to see with the eyes of God, I will then know as I am known by God. But for now, I am content to live beside the field of science with a belief and faith in the God who created the earth and everything therein. God has promised me a new mind, a new body, a new heaven, and a new earth.
Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon to put all things right.
Pastor T.
