To Infinity and Beyond
Buzz Lightyear says “To infinity and beyond!” However his adventures were limited to a neighborhood and only one on this planet — at least in the first Toy Story… not to mention he’s a cartoon… sorry he just isn’t real.
Let me first say how beautiful the universe is, discovered through the Hubble Telescope. We can visually travel “to infinity and beyond” viewing spectacular sights. Unfortunately, they are millions of light years away. Just one light year is about 5.88 trillion miles. It took 7 months for the most recent Mars rover to get there, roughly 36 million miles away… “The closest galaxy is the recently discovered Canis Major dwarf galaxy, which is “only” 25,000 light-years away. Sorry, Buzz. It would take 25,000 years to get there if you traveled at the speed of light.” (curious.astro.cornell.edu)
Unlike Buzz’s puppet-mindset, why this real life quest? The stated mission is to discover evidence of the existence of ancient life on Mars. You see, in my way of thinking. the billions of dollars being spent on this crusade could be used for better causes The cause for sustaining life on this planet, for one.
So, for me the question remains, why this project?
It is apparent to me that this is actually a religious pursuit, a crusade for the faith. Big Bang theory or the theory of Biblical Creation? Where do we put our faith? Because staking one’s claim to either is truly a matter of faith. After all, we have no photographs… Right? Now, when I was growing up, half a century ago, it was verboten to assert the Big Bang as the true Creation story. Why? It matched too closely the Biblical account of Creation. So? Religion cannot be taught in Public Schools!
If the universe and all things in it, including living things, including the human species, can be explained by Science, then mankind is not answerable to anyone but himself and to anything but Science. There is no particular moral code. People can make our own rules to live by and our own laws for society to live by. Mankind is free. There is no accountability. Nations will spend billions upon billions of dollars to prove, “Yes! we are masters of our own destiny. We are masters of the universe, and we are able to master the whole universe.” How? Science. Science was the method by which the universe came into being, and by Science, we will rule over it!
Science has proven to be an extremely useful tool. There is no denying that. Yet, I question its ability to self govern and to self initiate and to self direct and plan Creation being omnipresent before even time existed. Yes, there is a certain science to determine how everything works, the Theory of Everything comes to mind (but still in development). However, Science explains the how, not the why… which brings me back to my point: It is a matter of faith.
If a holy and moral God, all-knowing, all-powerful, able to be everywhere, unencumbered by time and space, if that God of Biblical fame was the author of both the Creation and if Mankind is the crown of creation, if this is His world and we are living in it, we are no longer entitled to be masters of our universe. God is. He made the world, and He makes the rules. In fact, if God created the universe and everything in it, He also knows its systems, its mechanics, how everything works. If this is so, then He used the same science to build everything — energy into atoms, DNA into life — and it is possible with that uniformity for us humans to figure things out — like cures for diseases, like turning rocks into steel, how to hybridize plants to be able to feed the world, and so forth and so on. Art lovers know a Rembrandt when they see one, because the brush strokes, for example, are done with a certain technique and style and even the type of paint used… Science proclaims chaos. God proclaims predictability.
So, in the end, I propose it is still a matter of faith, what we believe to be true. It’s a choice between two. Science might be able to explain the whats and hows, but never the whys and wherefores. So, I choose the Bible account.
Distances in the universe are prohibitive. It is cold and beyond dangerous. It is dark and lifeless. If there ever was life on Mars where did it come from? It is dead now anyway. So, what are we trying to prove? What actually is the question we are seeking to answer? And as a pragmatic question, what is the return on our investment?
I’ll never experience the Andromeda Galaxy in person or return to the moment of the Big Bang, but I have experienced the beauty of the amazing God of the Bible. So, yes, I chose to go by that theory.
Call me crazy for my choice. (I’ll never call you crazy for yours.) Nevertheless, I have chosen to put my faith in the Creation by God as told in the Bible, because I also have been convinced through experiences, and like the apostle Paul, writing of his experiences, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:36–38, NIV)
You can experience God in a personal way: In between watching Mars rovers traversing a dead planet, please pick up a Bible or search online and read any of the Gospels to find life on this planet.
