1 The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament* proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice* goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4 NRSV
I heard this morning that the Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to three researchers "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy." I was a little disappointed because it puts my research work on hold, but I'm big enough to let this go. Do any of us really understand this realm of science, and what does it all mean, anyway?
Hearing that Penrose was one of the co-winners rattled something in the cluttered attic of my brain about faith, although I wasn't sure what it might be. It turns out that theoretical cosmologist Penrose, a self-described agnostic, has not closed the door on the possibility of God. Years ago he diverged from his long-time colleague, Stephen Hawking, who made rather definitive statements about God not existing. He has also been willing to enter into civil conversation with others, including Christian philosopher William Lane Craig, about different perspectives on cosmology. A year ago they exchanged ideas which the moderator summed up, in part, this way:
Despite the complexities involved in modern cosmology, however, the most profoundly simple and timeless questions about the existence of the universe and our place within it remain. And that is where we can all have a say.
Why is there something rather than nothing? From where did the universe come? Why are we here to observe it? Who am I in the midst of all this cosmic vastness?
One does not need to be a preeminent physicist or philosopher to think about and respond to such questions. The ‘voice’ of the heavens, as Scripture says, has gone out throughout the whole earth. From the humblest child to the most erudite cosmologist, God’s glory can be understood by everyone. “Day to day pours forth speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19 v2).
Who then holds the correct interpretation of that tacit celestial language?...
During the conversation, Justin mentioned a quote from the late British astronomer Fred Hoyle. After extensive analysis of carbon atoms, Hoyle, himself not a theist, famously quipped that
“A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
When asked about his thoughts on Hoyle’s remarks, Penrose, with cheek in hand, somewhat listlessly replied “I’m agnostic on that one.” He went on to say, “I don’t know, you see. We don’t know enough about that…And there are some nice examples from science fiction which show different alternatives…a completely different way of imagining a conscious being…” He told two stories, one about Hoyle’s fictitious “cosmic cloud” and one about a “dragon’s egg” in which sentient life was imagined to exist on a neutron star.
Pondering the universe generally makes my brain hurt, whether it is considering the Deity who could bring it all into being yet choose to be present to us in the human form of Jesus, or imagining black holes and other aspects of theoretical physics. Despite my limitations I am a "true believer" that these conversations should and can happen. I'm of an age that I can say "cosmic man (woman)!"
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