Pale Blue Dot

I use the title with apology to Mr. Sagan.

It’s been a little while since I last posted, and I apologize for that. I’ve been out of town a lot recently. I still have more traveling that I have to do, so my posting may be irregular until I get settled down again. (I encourage those of you who manually check blogs to learn how to use an RSS Reader- it makes things much easier and saves an incredible amount of time.)

I came across an interesting thought while reading a post on rhetoric sans pareil, Ubiquitous Che’s blog. (Sorry Che, I don’t plan to respond to every one of your posts, but they do get me thinking).

For those of you who don’t remember or are new readers, Ubiquitous Che is a “bright,” or an atheist who, instead of attacking theism, aims to promote the positives and beauty a naturalistic worldview.

In the post, Che makes a culinary analogy: he compares religion to a primitive dish, and natural science to a gourmet meal. People who cling to religion are only eating fast food, and cannot grasp the taste of a fine meal without trying it.

He makes it his goal to prepare an elegant meal to showcase the Bright worldview, and then posts a video of Carl Sagan. For those of you who aren’t familiar with PBS stars from the eighties, Carl Sagan was a very famous astronomer and skeptic of religion. He wrote the book Contact, which was later made into a movie. Here is the video Che posted:

First of all, I just want to make sure people understand, religion and science are not enemies. Theists should not treat science as a threat to be destroyed, and it is very, very important for theists to remember that, whatever part of science is currently in the scope of religion, be it evolution or abiogenesis or whatever, if science is correct on the issue it is part of God’s marvelous creation and deserves to be treated as such. I don’t claim to know all the ways of the Almighty, and certainly won’t tell Him how I think He should have done something.

What’s funny is, I see no incompatibility with this video and theism. On the contrary, this video actually superbly illustrates an oft-overlooked facet of theism: God is immense and powerful. His being is larger than we can ever know in this earthly shell. He is bigger than us. To Him, we are insignificant, we are nothing.

Except that, to Him, we are something. Although we are nothing more than a speck of dust, He loves us, and sent His son to die for us. The Creator and Lord of the Universe, sent His only Son to die, so that a pale blue dot would not have to suffer for its own crimes.

Frederick William Faber, a British hymn writer in the 1800s, wrote these words:

Great God! our lowliness take heart to play
Beneath the shadow of Thy state;
The only comfort of our littleness
Is that Thou art so great.

As Carl said in the video, astronomy is a humbling experience. “Humbling” is the perfect word to describe this. We need to remember that we are not as great as we sometimes think we are, and all of our doings, all of our accomplishments, all of our failures, all of our daily rituals, all of our trials, all of our problems, all of our worries, take place on a pale blue dot, a mere speck suspended in the presence of the Lord of the Universe.

But this Lord of the Universe, this God, will take care of the dot.

Fireworks

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, which, for the international readers, is the day America celebrates her succession and independence from Great Britain, which took place on July 4th, 1776.

A traditional part of this celebration is fireworks. Firework shows are put on by different cities, municipalities, and even private parties. I live in an area with lots of small suburbs, so many different shows were going on at once. From my back yard, you could stand and have fireworks exploding all around you. It was a very beautiful sight.

A thought occurred to me as I watched them: fireworks are happy things. While they have their dangers, watching colorful explosions in the sky is something most people find entertaining. They are just innately happy.

It feels like I’ve been writing a lot recently about how uncertain the present is, and how bad things could happen very suddenly. Perhaps people think that Christianity is an unhappy or depressing worldview, always fretting about how unsure tomorrow is, and never able to see the fireworks.

This is not the case at all. A central idea of Christianity is “good news.” Yes, this world is uncertain, yes, troubles do come, and yes, Christians should keep theirs eyes forward and looking up. But that does not mean they cannot find happiness within the present. A Christian’s happiness within the present, though, comes from acknowledging the fact that the present is uncertain, but enjoying it anyway, knowing that whatever changes and troubles come our way, our lot is with God, and our end is with Him. All our current and future trials are quick and fleeting, so we need not worry about them in the present.

It makes me think of one of my favorite hymns, “Farther Along.” You read the lyrics and hear the melody here (beware of auto-playing music). Here is the chorus:

Farther along we’ll know all about it,
Farther along we’ll understand why;
Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine,
We’ll understand it all by and by.

A line that always stuck out at me was “cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine.” The song talks of encouragement, and how in the future we’ll understand our present troubles. And then it says that line; we should cheer up even in the present, because in the end we’ll know why we had to undergo the trials and we’ll see the entire picture.

A Christian does not need to dim to present with fears of the future. Instead, one may relax and be content with the present, and enjoy the fireworks, knowing that whatever may come, we will eventually reach an eternal glory.