“The Song of the Galaxies”

“The Song of the Galaxies” August 4, 2018

 

The Carina Nebula, mit Farben
The Carina Nebula, visible from the southern hemisphere (Wikimedia Commons image)

 

“In the last few years astronomy has come together so that we’re now able to tell a coherent story [of how the universe began]. . . .  This story does not contradict God, but instead enlarges [the idea of] God.”

Joel Primack, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He studies dark matter, particle astrophysics, cosmology and quantum field theory.

 

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“When I tell a young person: Look, there is a new star, a galaxy, a neutron star 100 million light-years away, yet the protons, electrons; neutrons and mesons which are found there are identical with those which are found in this microphone. . . .  Identity excludes probability. That which is identical is not probable. . . .  Therefore there is a cause, outside of space, outside of time, the master of being, which made being to be in this way. And this is God.”

“The being — I am speaking scientifically –- which has caused things to be identical at a distance of billions of light-years, exists. And the number of identical particles in the universe is 10 raised to the 85th power. . . .  Do we wish then to take in the song of the Galaxies? If I were Francis of Assisi I would say: O Galaxies of the immense heavens, give praise to my Lord, for He is omnipotent and good. O atoms, O protons, O electrons, O bird-songs, O blowing of the leaves and of the air, in the hands of man as a prayer, sing out the hymn which returns to God!”

Enrico Medi (d. 1974), former chair of geophysics, University of Palermo

 

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“To find the metaphysical beliefs…governing scientific research…it would have been enough to speak of one belief, the belief in a personal rational Creator. It was this belief, as cultivated especially within a Christian matrix, which supported the [scientific] view for which the world was an objective and orderly entity investigable by the mind because the mind too was an orderly and objective product of the same rational, that is, perfectly consistent Creator.”

Dr. Stanley Jaki (d. 2009), formerly Distinguished Professor of physics, Seton Hall University

 

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“Four ways we know pre-Columbian America was plagued by megadroughts: Tree rings tell much but not all of the story of decades-long dry spells that transformed terrain and disrupted civilizations.”

 

“Scientists measure severity of drought during the Maya collapse”

 

“The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Also Jumbled Shark Evolution”

 

 


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