To Wonder At

Though I follow closely what is reported about the wonders of what lies beyond this planet, the immensity of the universe continues to amaze me. In the past week I had to express a mental “Wow!” at a BBC story about the four galaxy clusters that go by the combined name of Pandora. The element of reporter Jason Palmer’s story that amazed me was not the almost incomprehensible concept of dark matter that was point of the account, but the size of everything. Palmer says: “Galaxy clusters are the largest structures we know of in the Universe, comprising hundreds of galaxies and trillions of stars - along with huge amounts of hot gas - and dark matter.”

The image of the Pandora cluster shows haphazardly scattered galaxies,

hot gas (false-coloured red)  and dark matter (blue) - BBC

To put that “trillions of stars” into perspective I went to one of the NASA websites NASA websites, which has these details about our own Milky Way: “The Milky Way is a gravitationally bound collection of roughly a hundred billion stars. Our sun is one of these stars and is located roughly 24,000 light years from the center of our Milky Way.”  That brought me up against another massive number – a  light-year is thedistance light travels in one year -  at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, or about six trillion miles: 6,000,000,000,000 miles.  That translates into approximately 10 trillion kilometers, or 300,000 kilometers a second.

COBE image of the Milky Way (Courtesy of Ned Wright), from the NASA website

NASA says the Milky Way galaxy has three major components:

    “A thin disk consisting of young and intermediate age stars - this disk also contains gas and is actively forming new stars. Dust in the disk makes it appear orange in the picture. Dust absorbs blue light more than red light and thus makes stars appear reddish. Our galaxy has spiral arms in its disk - these spiral arms are regions of active star formation.

   " A bar of older stars (white in the COBE picture).

   " An extended dark halo whose composition is unknown. Since the matter in the halo does not consist of luminous stars, it does not show up in the COBE image. The existence of the dark halo is inferred from its gravitational pull on the visible matter.”

The wonder of it all! However some people don’t bother to try to grasp this immensity, and others say “It’s big, but so what?” There’s more, too. I can’t see how all this is simply inevitable based on the belief that because gravity existed the Big Bang had to occur as a natural consequence.  How is it that a law of gravity should be proposed as an uncaused phenomenon when all our knowledge and experience is that there must a cause for everything ­- except God. 

The key idea is: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." What an astounding jump in logic! The issue is kept in perspective by the results of a poll at The Guardian in Britain shown at the end of its article on Professor Hawking's latest book. 

 

My mini-Gospel

Jesus said, “No one can be the slave of two masters; they will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.” (Matthew 6:24)

“That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing! Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can you, for all your worrying, add one single inch to your span of life? And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed as one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field, will he not much more look after you? So do not worry: do not say, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink?’ Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to them. Know your Father in heaven will give good things to those who ask him!” (Mathew 7:7-11)

“So you should pray like this:

 Our Father in heaven,

 may you be held holy,

 your kingdom come,

 your will be done

 on earth as in heaven.

 Give us today our daily bread.

 And forgive us our sins,

 as we forgive those who sin against us.

 Give us strength when we face tests,

 and rescue us from the forces of evil.”

 (Matthew 6:7-13)

Adapted

Jerusalem Bible London 1966

The Infinite

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

          e e cummings          (1894-1962)

Listen to Cummings read this poem (above).You might enjoy the poem set to music. The Eric Whitacre setting is well-known, but the one below by Elliot Z Levine is a fitting upbeat rendering. Enjoy!   

Prayer of Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, let me sow pardon;
where there is doubt, let me sow faith;
where there is despair, let me sow hope;
where there is darkness, let me sow light;
where there is sadness, let me sow joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
not so much seek to be understood as to understand;
not so much seek to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[   
This is one of several striking prayers Francis left to his followers.  Francis was born at Assisi, Italy, in 1182. After a carefree youth, he turned his back on inherited wealth and committed himself to God. Like many early saints, he lived a very simple life of poverty, and in so doing, gained a reputation of being the friend of animals. He died in 1226, aged 44.

Ho Chi Minh City: The Tall...

At 68 storeys, this new office tower in Ho Chi Minh City is the highest in Vietnam – though Hanoi plans to soon outdo us. The helicopter pad is a striking feature. In contrast, French colonial buildings, as in the foreground, remain in the city, though the rate of loss through wear and tear and pressure for development are taking their toll. The Bitexco Financial Tower opened in October 2010 and when fully occupied about 10,000 people will work there. The design is based on the shape of a closed lotus flower. The building is well-lit at night, adding to Saigon’s attractive profile after dark. -  Thanks to Rachel and Anh Son for the photos

And The Tiny...

Houses with rooms and shops
in the tourist hub of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Architectural oddities abound in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, a term still widely used, officially as well as unofficially. The skinny building is an extreme form of what are called "tunnel" houses. They often have no windows at the sides, and can have an impressive depth. Though dark, the houses of this kind are cool, so very suitable for the region's tropical climate. However, there is one more feature of interest beyond the thick skein of phone, Internet, cable TV and electricity wires that mar the street scenery around the city, and that is that the price of the skinny house would probably exceed the cost of a reasonable apartment in most big cities in the US or Europe. Property owners can get huge prices, such is the demand - and the ability to pay big money -  given the rapid growth of the  economy at about 6 per cent a year.

The Meaning of Christmas

Those who greet Jesus at Christmas shall be called 'The Holy People' (1). Why 'holy'? Surely only God is holy? Perhaps it's that, with Christmas, in the first and ever since,

Light shines forth for the just
and joy for the upright of heart.
Rejoice, you just, in the Lord;
give glory to his holy name.(2)

Those who are holy, whether human or divine, are just, upright or full of integrity. It is that fullness of integrity that enables one to be  'holy', and a definition of holy is 'being separated, apart from, beyond what anything less than what dignity demands as right and true'. When there is no impurity in the mix the outcome is  a perfect state.

A king rules by integrity
and princes rule by law;
each is like a shelter from the wind
a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in dry places.(3)

And Christmas is a time when we get an inkling of the perfect state that should be:

Once more there [is] poured on us
the spirit from above;
then shall the wilderness be fertile land;
integrity will bring peace,
justice give lasting security.
Happy will you be, sowing by every stream,
letting ox and donkey roam free.(4)

We also get some insight into the goodness of God,  who, by becoming human,  is prepared to do what is incomprehensible by any measure other than love. This is the summation of the 'good news' of  Jesus, at once true man and true God, that Paul makes in his letter to his young colleague Titus, when he writes (in this edited form):

When the kindness and love of God for mankind was revealed...it was for no reason except his own compassion that he saved us. He did this so that we should become heirs looking forward to inheriting eternal life.

That relationship with God who loves us demands that we be focused on fulfilling God's wish that each person follow a way of life that has integrity at its heart.

(1) Isaiah 62:11-12
(2) Psalm 96:11-12
(3) Isaiah 32:1-2
(4) Isaiah 32:15-17, 19-20