{"id":39537,"date":"2017-02-02T15:59:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T22:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=39537"},"modified":"2017-02-02T15:59:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T22:59:39","slug":"the-purpose-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/02\/the-purpose-of-the-universe.html","title":{"rendered":"The purpose of the universe?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_39538\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39538\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/02\/Richard_Smalley.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-39538\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39538\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/02\/Richard_Smalley.jpg\" alt=\"The late Professor Smalley\" width=\"320\" height=\"244\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39538\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Smalley, 1996 Nobel laureate in Chemistry<br>(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>\u201cRecently I have gone back to church regularly with a new focus to understand as best I can what it is that makes Christianity so vital and powerful in the lives of billions of people today, even though almost 2000 years have passed since the death and resurrection of Christ. Although I suspect I will never fully understand, I now think the answer is very simple: it\u2019s true. God did create the universe about 13.7 billion years ago, and of necessity has involved Himself with His creation ever since. The purpose of this universe is something that only God knows for sure, but it is increasingly clear to modern science that the universe was exquisitely fine-tuned to enable human life. We are somehow critically involved in His purpose. Our job is to sense that purpose as best we can, love one another, and help Him get that job done.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>Richard<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Smalley (1943-2005)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cRecently I have gone back to church regularly with a new focus to understand as best I can what it is that makes Christianity so vital and powerful in the lives of billions of people today, even though almost 2000 years have passed since the death and resurrection of Christ. Although I suspect [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The purpose of the universe?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cRecently I have gone back to church regularly with a new focus to understand as best I can what it is that makes Christianity so vital and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/02\/the-purpose-of-the-universe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The purpose of the universe?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; \u201cRecently I have gone back to church regularly with a new focus to understand as best I can what it is that makes Christianity so vital and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/02\/the-purpose-of-the-universe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-02T22:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/02\/Richard_Smalley.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/02\/the-purpose-of-the-universe.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/02\/the-purpose-of-the-universe.html\",\"name\":\"The purpose of the universe?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-02T22:59:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-02T22:59:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; 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