Brush with greatness

While watching Jeopardy, I learned that Galileo Galilei, the father of observational astronomy and father of modern experimental science, was born on Feb. 15, 1564...exactly 400 years before me. I'm going to consider that a good sign.

"It is a very funny thing that the sleepier you are, the longer you take about getting to bed; especially if you are lucky enough to have a fire in your room."


The Silver Chair

Faith engaging science and technology

(This is a fantastic article. I strongly recommend reading the whole thing, but this is at least a snapshot of what I wanted to share)

A pastoral letter by Rev. John H. Thomas
General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

"When we hear the cosmologists speak of how our
universe seems finely tuned in its fundamental properties
for the possibility of life, defying all the odds by being the
one universe capable of an earth full of living creatures,
we hear echoes of Genesis and of a universe created
with a purpose. Behind it all is a God who seeks our
companionship. Some look at this evidence of cosmic
fine tuning and say that there are many universes and
that of course, we live on the one that has life. Others
see cosmic fine-tuning as a hint that there is some sort of
creator behind it all.

For this reason, the word that we speak to this searching
and restless culture must be informed by science but
grounded deeply in faith. We believe in God, not in some
cosmic force or impersonal designer. We trust in a loving
Creator who is personal and relational, who seeks our
companionship, who comes as Christ incarnate in the
thick of things, and whose life-giving power permeates
the whole cosmos as the creative Spirit, calling us to
lives of gratitude in communities of justice. This great
and bounteous God has created us in the image of God’s
own inexhaustible mystery.

Confident in such unfailing goodness, we know we
can open ourselves and our theology to the momentous
conceptual changes of our times, finding in them new
occasions, new duties, and new language of praise. The
transformations of today’s scientific vision enrich our
faith, and our church honors our members who answer
God’s calling with careers in medicine, science, and
engineering. And we find ourselves strangely compelled
to explore the mysteries of the cosmos and unravel its
secrets, to dream of comprehending the whole, to ponder
its source and destiny and ultimate meaning, and by our
technology to transform nature itself. We are insatiably
curious, and our profound curiosity fuels equally the
venture of science and the quest of faith.

As a result, our universe has expanded and so has our
understanding of God. Our faith has nothing to do with
clinging to ancient misconceptions. Our faith is not in the
worldviews of ancient theologians, as majestic as these might have been. Our faith is in the living God, who always goes ahead of us, speaking, calling, and creating. Gone is the old view of a small, static universe, with fixed species dwelling on a
fixed earth. Gone is the old view of a small, static God.
We believe that God yearns for us to understand nature
more fully and to love it more deeply. God speaks in many
ways and through many voices. Today, one of God’s most
provocative voices is science. We listen and respond,
grateful that our theology is enriched by new ideas."