Social Affairs

Thinking Anew: There is so much more to be discovered

Every person, whatever their circumstances, is absolutely unique

A composite image of Jupiter obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope. Photograph: Nasa/AP

Gordon Linney
Sat Sep 3 2022 - 10:00

The powerful James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched last Christmas from French Guiana, is a joint American, European, and Canadian project in which Irish scientists played an important role. We are told that the images being recorded can provide visual insights into the birth of the universe more than 13 billion years ago, that it might not only explore the origins of the universe but also “our place in it”. In the vastness of such limitless space and time, and dimensions possibly yet unknown, we humans can feel very small indeed.

Speculation and curiosity about “our place in it”, however, is not new. Some 2,500 years ago, the psalmist wondered: “When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8).

The Webb project reminds us that there is a lot going on that we don’t yet understand both in science and theology. Science is exploring what has been there from the beginning; scientists are discoverers not creators. Theologians and people of faith are discoverers too, given that in St John’s gospel we are told that there is more to learn because “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” Christians believe that in the person of Jesus Christ we have been given an experience of God adequate to our needs, but it is incomplete; there is more to be discovered under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In a recent sermon, Dr John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester, who is a scientist, describes creation as an ongoing process in which God sustains us in life every minute of every day. He went on to say that he was “always dismayed when people suggest such a statement as that is incompatible with science, when they say that science and faith are at odds with one another. They most certainly are not. It was Albert Einstein, possibly the greatest scientist ever, who wrote that ‘whoever is devoid of wonder, whoever remains unmoved, whoever cannot contemplate or know the deep shudder of the soul in enchantment, might just as well be dead for they have already closed their eyes upon life’”.

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A song from way back begins “I see the moon; the moon sees me.” The first statement is true; the second is not because unlike the moon you and I are conscious beings able to think and, unlike robots, enjoy relationships that involve emotions and feelings. We can also be creative in art, literature, and music. There is more to great artworks than marble or oil and canvas.

Tomorrow’s psalm 139 reflects on how amazing we are and why: “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away… I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Thanks to DNA, finger-printing, voice-printing and facial imaging, and other recent discoveries modern science tells us that we are even more “wonderfully made” than the psalmist could ever have imagined, that every single person, whatever their circumstances, is absolutely unique. In the Oruchinga refugee settlement in Uganda, for example, the World Food Programme ensures that people get their fair share of food by using a process which relies on personal iris (eye) identification. Even our eyes are unique.

Leo Tolstoy insists we are even more special than that: “Everyman, though he realises that he was conceived by a bodily father in his mother’s womb, is conscious also that he has within him a spirit that is free, intelligent, and independent of the body. That eternal spirit proceeding from the infinite, is the origin of all and is what we call God.”

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