The Hand of God Nebula, Evolution and Faith


If you go to NASA’s, “Hand of God” Pulsar Wind Nebula (www.nasa.gov/jpl/nustar/B1509) you will see a beautiful photograph of the ejecta from a supernova that looks—well—like the hand of God.  Of course, God is a spirit, without form, but the photo is an example of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of seeing familiar objects in random shapes.  Pareidolia is why we see animals in clouds and a face on the moon.  This nebula is also a lesson in the difference between science and faith, a dynamic duo producing rancor and debate where none really exists. 

This amazing X-ray photo shows a star, busily engaged in both death and rebirth.  Deep in space, a star destroyed itself in a supernova.  The remnants of that star formed a Pulsar, a neutron star, with an electromagnetic beam emanating from its magnetic poles.  This small, dense mass rotates at amazing speed.  The, “Hand of God” pulsar (PSR B1509-58) rotates at better than 7 times per second, sending atomic particles from the dead star blowing off into the material previously ejected from the star.   These particles interact with magnetic fields and create light in the form of X-rays.  
            The photo, taken by NASA’s Chandra X observatory shows a new view of a well known supernova.  The sizes involved are immense beyond understanding.   And while the nebula may be formed from a dead star, the material will, in the fullness of time, be recycled into new stars.  Some nebula are formed by stars that explode and others, like the Great Nebula in Orion are star nurseries, where star stuff is being coalesced by time and gravity into new stars (you can actually see them through a good telescope). 

            Stars evolve.  So do planets and the life that develops on a rare few.  These, “Goldilocks” planets are “…not too hot…not too cold…but just right.”  Earth is a lucky winner in the evolutionary lotto.  As a result of time and chance, trial and error, here we are—sentient, intelligent, curious creatures with opposable thumbs.  The world is our oyster!

            No, the NASA photo does not show the real hand of God, it is a grand, magnificent optical illusion which prompts us to create an equally grand metaphor.  Yes, God created the universe, but that doesn’t mean he created it in a way that is not logical or discernable to the same creatures He gave such a fine mind.  I am a baptized, believing, communing, church-going Christian who knows that evolution has and is occurring constantly in this universe.  The Big Bang did occur; we evolved from random collections of atoms first made in the stars—no creationism, no intelligent design—just evolution.  This took amounts of time that are incomprehensible to most people.  But I am not so vain as to think that the fact that I can not understand the mathematics of the Big Bang doesn’t mean it didn’t occur.  Nor am I so vain as to think that if you trace all that evolution back to the instant one microsecond before the Big Bang that you would not find the mind of God.  There is no problem here—if you are strong in your faith.   

            Science describes the natural world through experimentation, observation and repetition.  It is all subject to change based on new and better data.  Science is a self correcting process.  Faith is based on belief.  It is changeless in an ever changing world.  That which strengthens science (observable fact) is exactly the thing which cheapens faith.   And that which strengthens faith (belief without proof) is exactly the thing which cheapens science.  They are mutually exclusive.  One deals with the body and the other the soul. 

            Respect science and keep the faith. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Generation of Serfs

  On October 25, 1415, Henry V of England laid some serious hurt on the French at the Battle of Agincourt at Pas-de-Calais, France.   Part of the success of this campaign was due to Henry’s use of the longbow, but part of it also goes to the creative use of military indentures.   These legal contracts required all the English captains to provide specified amounts of men, material and time to the King’s cause.             An indenture was a document, written in duplicate and then torn along a jagged line, like little teeth ( dents ), in the paper.   One portion of the contract was in possession of each party and when the required conditions and period of service were fulfilled, the parts reunited, and the debt was considered paid.   Many of the people who first came to this country from England came as indentured servants, worked off their debt and became the backbone of the country.             Today we are creating a nation not of indentured servants, someone with a carefully
Read more

Our Beautiful Constitution and its Ugly Opponents

 The Constitution is our anchor of stability in a turbulent world!   We can withstand a bad President and a petulant Congress (for the short term, at least) because our Constitution both guides and limits.   If someone asked me to provide proof of a loving God, I would simply ask them how else so many geniuses in the matter of human governance could have been clustered together in the right time and place to create both our country and the means to govern it.    Our founding fathers had the vision to devise a way to not only govern themselves, but govern a country that they could not imagine, yet believed would prevail. The constitution of the United States is like a good parent.   It has allowed us to grow up as we have grown older, with the result that the United States of America is the oldest living democracy in the world.   The miracle of this document is that it lives, breathes and moves with the times.   The three branches of our government work together while standing alone
Read more

"You Didn't Build That:" Part I

Late in the day on Friday, July 13 th , President Obama mounted the stage of Historic Firehouse Number One in Roanoke , Virginia .   The room held around 800 people but it was hot and several people fainted.   In front of a carefully screened group of supporters he gave one of the most important speeches of his reelection campaign.    It was not meant to be a major speech.   That will come in the even more carefully scripted Convention Hall in Charlotte , North Carolina this September in front of adoring media and rabid political supporters.   But this speech in Roanoke is crucial to the 2012 election because on Friday, in Virginia , President Obama went off message.   Whether through error or hubris, he abandoned his script and spoke off the cuff.   And in so doing, he showed us the man behind the curtain.   The angry but controlled, insecure yet charismatic, market fearful, socialistically inclined man that Barrack Obama really is. I am speaking, of course, of the now famou
Read more