Catholica Commentary by Fr Peter Dresser: God is Big .... Real BIG! (Chapter 7: Our Universe Part 1)

"God is Big ..... Real BIG!" by Fr Peter Dresser (Chapter Seven - Part 1)

The advances in our knowledge of the Universe are expanding at an accelerating rates. In the news in the last 24 hours has come the results of a second experiment carried out at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern that are suggesting the speed of light might not be the upper limit of speed in the world [LINK]. The implications of this new piece of information are incalculable at the moment. It might yet overturn many of the scientific certitudes that have emerged since the great breakthroughs by Albert Einstein and other theoretical physicists early last century. These advances in our knowledge of the universe, and of science, also have huge implications for our theology — our understanding of this mystery we endeavour to compress into the term "God". These are the raw issues Peter Dresser puts before us today in the first part of Chapter Seven of his book, God is Big .... Real BIG!

Chapter Seven (Part 1): Our Universe

Each of us is a mere bit of stardust...

he Ant Nebula taken from the Hubble Space Telescope

This image of the Ant Nebula taken by the Hubble Space telescope is from a collection titled the "Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope". Click the image above, or HERE, to see all ten images.

You will notice that the title given this chapter is Our Universe and for a very special reason. For billions of years our universe has been evolving. Following the Big Bang, the greatest explosion of all time with the temperature exceeding 1,000,000,000,000 degrees centigrade, "an irruption of infinite energy danced into being".[47] Galaxies formed, giving birth to the first stars some five billion years ago. From these stars new stars formed including our Sun. About 4.5 billion years ago our solar system was formed from interstellar dust and ultimately our Planet Earth was born. As Diamuid O'Murchu describes it, the dance of life from the first algae and bacteria continued to reach greater complex levels of integration and our own species Homo sapiens emerged around 40,000 BCE. The point of all this is that each of us is a mere bit of stardust, just like anything else that exists, that developed and formed from other bits of stardust over a period of between 15 and 20 billion years! In a beautiful way we are all connected with the universe, with the cosmos and we are all connected with each other and with everything that exists because we are all integrated partners in the dance of life. We humans have developed to the point that we can indulge in reflective thought; and so in a beautiful and wondrous way we bits of stardust and bits of the universe can reflect on ourselves as bits of stardust and bits of the universe. It is our universe – not because we own it but because we are part of it.

In the past twenty years or so we have come more enlightened about the fact that we live in a universe that is alive. This idea of being alive need not be in the same sense that we humans are alive but rather an appreciation ofthe creative spirit in the cosmos, an idea that James Lovelock in 1979 referred to as Gaia. O'Murchu cites some members of the scientific community warming towards the notion of the earth as mother after hearing stories shared by cosmonauts throughout the 1960's and 1970's. In describing their view of the earth from outer space, many related "an experience of awe and wonder on beholding the planet, not as a lump of dead, inert matter but rather as an organism that resembled a living creature".[48] The Gaia hypothesis can be applied to the entire universe, to the entire cosmos that dances the dance of life.

Our increasing knowledge of the universe must change our view of God...

Let us now turn our attention to some of the descriptive ways modern theologians and scientists have attempted to paint the enormity and age of our cosmos. Various writers have attempted to do this by presenting us images that hopefully will give us a wow experience of our universe. It is important for us to have some idea of the immensity of the universe. Firstly because it teaches us something of our own smallness and insignificance, and secondly it must do something to our image of God. We will examine some of the images presented by one or two writers. Let us first take a look at what Michael Morwood has found out about the size of our universe.

Michael Morwood: "in colloquial terms, can we allow our image of God to blow our minds?"

Morwood tells us of a visit to the space radio telescope outside Parkes, New South Wales. An item in the visitors' centre suggests that we imagine the sun and its planets, i.e. our solar system, represented on a scale the size of a postage stamp. Using the same scale, it asks what would we need to depict the rest of the Milky Way. The answer: an area the size of Australia. Put a postage stamp on the ground: on that scale even the smallest dot on the stamp would be too big to represent our planet earth. Compare the dot on this stamp with an area the size of Australia and we have an idea of how insignificant Earth is in this galaxy. Some more information:

There are more than 200 billion stars in this one galaxy.
Our galaxy is so wide that light, travelling at 300,000 kilometres a second, takes 100,000 years to cross it.
The sun with its planets travels around this galaxy at a speed of 210 kilometres a second. One trip around the galaxy takes 250 million years!

Of course our minds have enough difficulty trying to cope with just this one galaxy. Astronomers now estimate that there are more than three hundred billion galaxies (and I did read somewhere an estimate of four hundred billion). Morwood, citing John Gribbin, then observes that "discoveries have led to the idea that our universe is just one among a multitude of universes, and that in some sense the many universes are competing with one another for the right to exist".[49]

This information must do something to our image of God. If God is part and parcel of this universe, then we cannot put God in a box. We will of necessity have to be expansive in our image of God or as Morwood continues "in colloquial terms, can we allow our image of God to blow our minds?"[50]

When it comes to talking or gasping in awe and wonder about planet earth there have been several efforts to depict just how late was the arrival of human beings on the scene by imagining the history of the universe on a scale of one year. Citing Michael Dowd, Morwood presents this view:

"If we imagine that our 15 billion year history was compressed into a single year:

The Milky Way galaxy self-organised in late February; our solar system emerged from the elemental stardust of an exploded supernova in early September; the planetary oceans formed in mid-September; Earth awakened into life in late September; sex was invented in late November; the dinosaurs lived for a few days in early December; flowering plants burst upon the scene with a dazzling array of colour mid-December; and the universe began reflecting consciously in and through the human, with choice and free will, less than ten minutes before midnight on December 31st...

We have known we are in fact the Earth thinking about itself for only the last few seconds.[51]

On a scale of 12 months, Jesus would be born on December 31st at 11:59:45 pm. The major scientific discoveries of this century would be in the final second before the end of the year.

Not only are we latecomers but we have been and continue to be totally dependent on an ecological system that nurtured us extremely slowly into existence. We are a by-product of the chaos and upheaval and order and development that stretched over a period of millions and millions of years of our planet's existence.[52]

NEXT WEEK: Chapter Seven Part 2: "Our Universe"

“Literalism and fundamentalism will sound the death knell of our beautiful religion unless our church authorities quickly address the problem.” ...Peter Dresser

FOOTNOTES:
[47] Diarmuid O'Murchu, Quantum Theology, Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, 1997, p.94.
[48] Ibid p.97.
[49] Michael Morwood, Tomorrow's Catholic, op.cit., pp24-25.
[50] Ibid
[51] Ibid p.28
[52] Ibid p.29

IMAGE CREDITS:
Clicking on the images in the body of this article will take you to the original source and further information.

Peter Dresser grew up in Orange NSW. On completing his Leaving Certificate he studied for some years at Springwood and Manly Seminaries. His life journey has led him down diverse paths and he enjoyed the experience of many and varied employments including postman, public servant and factory worker. He has appreciated his exposure to different life styles and religions and his involvement with music and sport, particularly Rugby League. He eventually turned to teaching where he found an easy rapport with and respect for young people. Peter decided to continue with his studies for Priesthood and entered St. Paul’s Seminary. He was ordained in 1990. Peter's love for his Catholic religion dates from his very early years. His involvement with Science is only a recent phenomenon. His fascination with nature has always been predominant. His continuing pastoral concern is that the Good News proclaimed by Jesus be preached and mediated meaningfully in all its richness and fullness to the contemporary world. Peter holds degrees in Arts and Theology and a Diploma in Education. He produced this document in 2004 whilst Parish Priest of Kandos in Central West NSW. He now lives privately in retirement at Kandos where he spent six memorable years.

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[Index of Commentaries by Fr Peter Dresser]

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