Look at the Stars

Let’s keep it colloquial this week. When we’re talking about Science and Religion, what are we talking about, exactly? 

Most of us when asked about science and religion would jump to the controversies created whenever scientific discovery or technology pushes into parts of human experience that religion had previously held ultimate authority over, things like the big bang, evolution or when human life begins. Those are important parts of the discussion, flashpoint topics that make us realize the depth of our beliefs, but I’d rather not use those topics as my entry point for Science and Religion¹. It’s not an empowering place to start from- you’re in a position of listening to existing arguments and picking a side instead of making discoveries for yourself. 

So let’s reframe the discussion. When you look at the night sky, how do you feel? 

The Sunflower Galaxy. Image credit to Bill Synder.

1. You look up and see stars, planets, galaxies, meteors and satellites and stand in awe of what we know. That red dot there, we know that there’s water flowing across its surface. That red dot over there, we know its size, distance, and lifespan. We can study the ground on another planet and measure the ages of the stars and galaxies. There is a whole universe of worlds to discover and systems to study, full of unanswered questions and brilliant possibilities, and we, as tiny insignificant mammals on one middle-sized rock near one middle-sized star, have the ability to understand it. 
2. You look up and see a creation, singing the glory of the One who made it, in awe of the Being who set the stars and the planets in the sky, ordering their courses, leaving them as one last bastion of untouchable beauty in a broken and hurting world. The universe is huge and filled with wonders and we are so small and insignificant in comparison and yet we are loved. The same God who made the galaxies and the nebulas is the one who came to save us from ourselves because He loves us. The night sky is a humbling miracle. 
3. You look up and see the constellations, the patterns of stars with hundreds of stories to tell. You feel connected to people from thousands of years ago who looked up at these same stars and saw heroes and monsters and people and beasts? There’s the Big Dipper, or the Plow, or the Drinking Gourd, but it’s the same seven stars pointing to the north of our sky. And Orion, a hunter or a shepherd or a giant or a drum, but with those three stars anyone can pick out of any northern hemisphere winter or southern hemisphere summer sky around the world. No matter our differences, we’re joined together with everyone around the world, all living and dying under this same sky.
4. You stay inside because you can’t see any stars from where you are anyway, content with the world as seen on the TV or phone or computer screens. Because if you wanted a pretty picture of space, you could just google it without the discomfort of outside. 

What did you pick? None of those choices, right? Nothing fit exactly. Maybe you’ve felt each one of those over course of your life. Maybe you’d like to combine one or two or all of the choices or maybe your choice depends on your mood or the day you’ve had. Maybe one of them hints at a universal truth, or maybe none of them do. But the beauty of human existence in the twenty-first century is that we have this choice. We have options for what we want to believe. We get to set the definitions. 

That, to me, is what Science and Religion is about. It’s about how we choose to view our experience of existence, where we go to find answers about the deep questions of who we are, where we came from, what we should do with our lives. Religion in power used to have the main say on those kinds of questions, but science has opened up the universe and made it knowable, bringing in a whole host of new questions with that opening. The controversies are the growing pains of maturing human thought.

Practically, of course, none of that matters. You can live your life trying to be nice to other people, at least when it’s convenient, and you’ll probably get by just fine. You can find happiness without pondering the existence or lack thereof of God. Probably, actually, you’d find much more immediate happiness by avoiding that question altogether. There is such a wealth of experience found in interactions with other humans, enough to make a full life of it, that we don’t need to look for any other “deeper” meaning. 

But if the night sky or the mountains or the ocean or the laugh of a baby or the impending death of the Sun has ever made you pause and think about the wonder of it all, stick around. We’ve got some fascinating places to go.

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1 Starting at, say, evolution leaves me with the feeling that I should be talking in a hushed voice because mommy and daddy just had a fight and I don’t want to upset either of them again, like religion is your mother who’s so kind but who is also convinced she knows best and your dad is science who can do so many awesome things but can also be kinda a dick sometimes.^↩