Sunday, April 27, 2008

NASA published this past week images from the Hubble Space Telescope of colliding galaxies (Cosmic Collisions Galore!). I see these images during the same week that I am reading a Smithsonain Magazine article about black holes at the center of galaxies, including our own Milky way, detectable via applying Kepler's laws of planetary motion to the orbits of stars (Homing in on Black Holes).
I'm amazed at the massive amounts of space and time involved in these events and am reminded of the ancient Hebrew meditation.
When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,
and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place,
Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them,and make them a little less than the heavenly beings?
You grant mankind honor and majesty (Psalm 8)
This, of course, is a theological statement, an integration of the scientific observation of the natural world, the existence of God and the dignity of human beings.

Johannes Kepler (d.1630) also made a theological statement when he wrote, "I had the intention of becoming a theologian. . . but now I see how God is, by my endeavours, also glorified in astronomy, for ‘the heavens declare the glory of God.'"

Well crafted statements of integration between science and theology take some thought. I've found these sources helpful to varying degrees.

Is the Cosmos All There Is? by Owen Gingerich
Owen Gingerich - Wikipedia

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