It is almost impossible for us now to imagine what it was like when science first began to discover a universe unlike anything anyone had conceived of previously. The telescope, in particular, opened our eyes to an immensity and an unguessed at order that simply could not have been conceived of before the birth of science. What did it mean for people to know that the Earth is a globe that circles the sun along with other globes and that the stars are all other suns that might have globes of their own? How did it affect them to learn that the Earth moves—that it is not stationary?Writing in 1686, the French author Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle pretended to engage in a discussion with an educated woman of his time concerning the new findings in astronomy. He had her observe, "...you are making the universe so unbounded that I feel lost in it; I don't know where I am, not what I'm about. " Fontenelle replied,
"For my part...I think it very pleasing. Were the sky only a blue arch to which the stars were fixed, the universe would seem narrow and confined; there would not be room to breathe: now that we attribute an infinitely greater extent and depth to this blue firmament, by dividing it into thousands of vortices [solar systems], I seem to be more at liberty; to live in a freer air; and nature appears with astonishingly increased magnificence. Creation is boundless in treasures; lavish in endowments. How grand the idea of this immense number of vortices, the middle of each occupied by a sun, encompassed with planets which turn around him!" (Bernard de Fontenelle, Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds. Translated by Elizabeth Cunning, London, 1803, pages 111-112). [A copy of this book is available on line (here).]One of the greatest theological challenges that faces us today, as it has since the beginnings of science, is to understand what the immensity of the universe means for our understanding of and relationship to God. It is understandable but ultimately sad that so many Christians have refused to join Fontennelle in the boundless universe where one can breathe and experience the freedom of a holy awe in the presence of God's handiwork. The rejection of the findings of geology, astronomy, and biology does our faith no credit. Embracing the reality of God's boundless creation does. Amen.
