Story of the Cosmos

Daniel Ray

Description

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe What do you see when you gaze at the night sky? Do you contemplate the stars as the random result of an evolutionary process? Or do you marvel over them as a testament of the Creator's glory? Modern science has popularized a view of the cosmos that suggests there is no need for God and denies any evidence of His existence. But The Story of the Cosmos provides a differentand fascinatingperspective. It points to a God who makes Himself known in the wonder and beauty of His creation. This compilation from respected scholars and experts spans topics from ';The Mathematical Creation and the Image of God' to ';The Glorious Dance of Binary Stars' and ';God's Invisible AttributesBlack Holes.' Contributors include Dr. William Lane Craig, Guillermo Gonzalez, Melissa Cain Travis, and Dr. Michael Ward. Come, take a deeper look at the universeand explore the traces of God's glory in the latest discoveries of astronomy, science, literature, and art.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• History of science

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers
• Date de parution: 16 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780736977371
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Verses marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Verses marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Faceout Studio
Cover photo Vadim Sadovski / Shutterstock
The Story of the Cosmos
Copyright 2019 by Paul M. Gould and Daniel Ray
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7736-4 (Trade)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7737-1 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
D EDICATION
To him who spoke the world into being
and sustains it by his loving hands.
From Dan
Thanks to the Sandlin, Valerius, Hughes, Krygsheld, Barlowe, and McCarty families; to Paul personally for taking a chance with me; to our team of contributors; to Dr. Michael Ward and Dr. Holly Ordway for being patient with me as my professors at Houston Baptist University; to my mom; and to all the staff at Harvest House.
From Paul
Thanks to Terry Glaspey for taking a chance on a book exploring the connection between science and story, astrophysics and fantasy! And thanks to our editor, Steve Miller, for a stellar job of cleaning up the manuscript and bringing it to life. It is no small feat to help scientists, philosophers, artists, and apologists speak with one voice! Finally, thanks to the contributors to this volume-an all- star cast. Each individual essay is a thread ; together, this volume forms a cord connecting the natural order to the sacred order.
C ONTENTS
Dedication
1. The Heavens Are Telling of the Glory of God
Daniel Ray
Part I: Exploration of the Cosmos
2. A Glorious Resonance: The Intelligibility of Nature and the Imago Dei
Melissa Cain Travis
3. The Stones Cry Glory
Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ
4. Eschatology of Habitable Zones
Guillermo Gonzalez
5. The Glorious Dance of Binary Stars
David Bradstreet
6. God, Black Holes, and the End of the Universe
Sarah Salviander
7. Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler: The Gloriously Odd Couple of Astronomy
Wayne R. Spencer
Part II: Expressions of the Cosmos in Art and Literature
8. The Cosmos and the Starry Night
Terry Glaspey
9. Imagine There s No Heaven?: C.S. Lewis on Making Space for Faith
Michael Ward
10. Recovering a Vision of the Cosmos: Tolkien s Creation Narrative in The Silmarillion
Holly Ordway
Part III: Evidences Pointing to the Creation of the Cosmos
11. Creation Ex Nihilo : Theology and Science
William Lane Craig
12. The Cosmic Coincidences of Fine Tuning
Luke Barnes and Allen Hainline
13. Rediscovering the Discarded Image
Paul M. Gould
Afterword: Astronomy with Your Own Two Eyes
Daniel Ray
Contributors
Notes
About the Publisher
CHAPTER 1
T HE H EAVENS A RE T ELLING OF THE G LORY OF G OD
DANIEL RAY
T he heavens are telling of the glory of God and the expanse is declaring the work of His hands. 1 This is the opening verse of what C.S. Lewis believed to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world. 2 Written by Israel s ancient King David nearly 3,000 years ago, the prologue of the nineteenth Psalm holds true today more than ever. Within our present age of sophisticated ground- and space-based telescopes, perhaps there has been no greater affirmation of David s hymn than what astronomers have uncovered about the universe in just the last half century.
But increasingly it seems the formal sciences of the universe now explain everything with little or no reference to God and his glory. After all, we have been told by the brightest minds that we inhabit an insignificant planet orbiting a nondescript star, 3 that we have been dethroned and now must humbly come to grips with our insignificance in relation to the rest of the universe. 4 Popular astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson believes man to be cosmically insignificant. 5 Carl Sagan once described human beings as inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal. 6 Bertrand Russell said we were merely accidental collocations of atoms. 7 The question of human significance in the cosmos, however, is not finally a purely scientific question. When God is factored out of the equation, however, nearly anything goes. Brannon Braga, one of the producers of the newly revised 2013 and recent 2019 remake of Carl Sagan s 1980 PBS series Cosmos , which Tyson himself hosts, said in a speech given in 2012 that religion sucks, isn t science great, and how the hell do we get the other ninety-five percent of the population to come to their senses? 8 John G. West notes that the 2013 Cosmos series portrayed religion as the enemy of science, claimed that science shows how life organized through unguided processes, and even compared climate-change skeptics to Nazis. 9
But are these purveyors of disenchantment correct? Is there really nothing special about the cosmos or our place within it? We believe the cosmos is telling a rather different story-a story of hope, love, and purpose. Even more, we find a storyteller inviting us to enter into a divine drama-and a divine dance! For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the cosmos does indeed declare the glory of God.
Consider the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, which floats more than 300 miles above Earth taking some of the most hauntingly surreal images of the universe ever seen by human eyes. The breathtakingly beautiful light sculptures the telescope has uncovered since it was first launched in 1990 have captured the imaginations of generations of young and old alike. As the official Hubble website puts it, Astronomy has always been a preeminently visual science, going back thousands of years to the early sky watchers. Hubble s jaw-dropping views of far-flung planets, nebulas, and galaxies have redefined the universe for whole new generations. 10
Hubble has helped translate the luminous vernacular of the heavens for little ones in a most remarkable way. Former Space Telescope Science Institute director Bob Williams shared in a 2011 interview that he believed beauty had become one of the most significant aspects of the telescope s legacy, including beauty as seen through the eyes of children. The fact though that Hubble produces beautiful images that children like to see is very important for the funding of Hubble. Of course that is important for we scientists. 11
Williams also mentioned the results of a survey which revealed that pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope occurred more often than dinosaurs on the walls of the classrooms of America. That is quite an accomplishment. 12 Let the children alone and do not hinder them from coming to Me, Jesus reminds us, for the kingdom of the heavens belongs to such as these. 13 How remarkable that the legacy of one of the most advanced telescopes ever built seems to affirm this ancient truth. As David proclaims in Psalm 8, From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, Thou hast established strength And funding for a space telescope, we might add!

Taken by the Hubble Space Telescope s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in December of 1995, this image features some 3,000 galaxies ( galaxies , not stars) in a blank spot of sky just off the handle of the Big Dipper. 14 It is the first image of its kind ever taken. (Courtesy of NASA)
As director, Williams took a few risks with Hubble. During the Christmas season of 1995, for example, he and his team decided to point Hubble at a very small starless spot of sky and take pictures of it- for ten days. Considering Hubble s operational costs, this involved a serious investment. Williams believed, however, more existed in that apparent nothingness than met the eye. Hubble s images delighted the astronomical community. Formally known as the Hubble Deep Field, the blank spot contained some 3,000 galaxies of all shapes, colors and sizes, like presents under the tree on Christmas morning. As Williams said in a press conference shortly after the images were released to the public, Hubble found a myriad of galaxies. There are large ones and small ones, red ones and blue ones, very structured ones and also very amorphous ones. Most of these galaxies were never seen before Hubble. But we don t know the significance of