“Anything But Pedestrian”

Last updated on: April 10, 2018 at 11:12 pm by Dan Peterson

“Anything But Pedestrian” 2018-04-10T23:12:25-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Earth from just above the Moon. (NASA public domain image)

Two more passages extracted from Gerald Schroeder’s 2009 book God According to God: A Scientist Discovers We’ve Been Wrong About God All Along:

. . . the one-of-a-kind behavior or water expanding just before reachings its freezing temperature. Almost all other liquids contract upon changing from liquid to solid. That contraction makes them denser than the liquid from which they solidified (froze). As such the solids that form sink within the parent liquid. Because water expands as it freezes from water into ice, the ice is lighter than the water from which it froze. Being lighter, it floats. If it were otherwise, oceans would freeze from the bottom up, a reality that would in time bind most of the water permanently at frozen ocean bottoms. No abundant supply of liquid water means no advanced life. (74-75)

Notwithstanding the late Carl Sagan’s claim in his Cosmos series that our solar system is “ordinary, even mediocre,” and Preston Cloud’s statement in his widely quoted book Oasis in Space that our sun is “an unexceptional main-sequence star,” our placement in the cosmos is anything but pedestrian. So special is our home in the universe that, in what is considered by many to be the most authoritative geology textbook, Earth, written by Frank Press (of the National Academy of Sciences and formerly head of geology at M.I.T.) and Raymond Siever (of Harvard University), the opening section is titled “The Uniqueness of Planet Earth.” That says it all, though Press and Siever expand upon this uniqueness in the following pages. (75)

***

Exceptionally short-lived supernovae are creating a degree of puzzlement among the scientists studying them. “If nothing else,” one of them comments, “our work confirms that astrophysics and cosmology are still sciences with a lot of unanswered questions!”

“Astronomers Just Found 72 Stellar Explosions, But Don’t Know What’s Causing Them”

***

I think that faith and reason are both gifts from God. And if God is real, then faith and reason should complement each other rather than be in conflict. Science is the child of reason. Reason has given us the ability to establish the scientific method to investigate the world around us, and to show that the world and the universe in which we live are far vaster and far more complex, and I think far more wonderful, than anyone could have imagined 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. . . . Does that mean that scientific reason, by taking some of the mystery out of nature, has taken away faith? I don’t think so. I think by revealing a world that is infinitely more complex and infinitely more varied and creative than we had ever believed before, in a way it deepens our faith and our appreciation for the author of that nature, the author of that physical universe. And to people of faith, that author is God. — Kenneth R. Miller, cell biologist and molecular biologist; Professor of Biology and Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence, Brown University; practicing Catholic.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 10, 2018

Some Notes on English Translations of the Qur’an (Part 3)

Next Post

April 11, 2018 "I wished to inquire what she meant, but she was gone."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the repeated phrase at the end of Psalm 136?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Let everything praise him Praise the Lord His love endures forever Blessed be the Lord