{"id":7753,"date":"2024-11-17T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/?p=7753"},"modified":"2024-11-18T08:42:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T12:42:28","slug":"hello-is-anybody-out-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/17\/hello-is-anybody-out-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello! Is Anybody Out There?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


11-18-24<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lately, every time I log on to the web, I see pop-ups. Well, that\u2019s not lately \u2013 the Internet is always one big commercial, dishing up propaganda, spooky algorithms (\u201cHow did it know<\/em> I was thinking about sandals made in Brazil???\u201d), and invasive seductions, with occasional bits of news and useful information. At least there is a pause in political pop-ups, but they will resume soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, two categories of messages glom up my in-box lately, and not to my regret. Past and future, in a manner of speaking. I am inundated with videos about prehistoric architecture, pyramids around the world, and ancient civilizations. Fascinating discoveries and intriguing questions. And the other category on the web\u2026 I should say Webb, because we are continuously seeing more galaxies, probing deeper into outer space, and learning more about what we don\u2019t know <\/em>as humankind. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We not only \u201csee\u201d farther and more clearly than ever before, but lenses, filters, and spectrometry \u2013 and pinpoint transmissions \u2013 provide indications of where things are, what they are made of, and, ultimately, myriad things we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

look up<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a city boy, I am always awestruck by clear night skies in sparse areas of the world where I have visited and looked up. Not the points of constellations observed by the Ancients and given names because they vaguely resembled objects \u2013 a primitive connect-the-dots exercise. No, the thousands of stars that blanket the night sky. But now we begin to know what the first humans who looked Up only guessed at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than thousands of stars. There are trillions of stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than trillions of stars, because those \u201cstars\u201d often are entire galaxies with trillions of their own suns and stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than suns and stars, because, as in \u201cour\u201d solar system, there are planets and moons too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very tiniest dot of light we now see in Webb\u2019s image-captures might in itself be a distant but gargantuan galaxy with its own trillions of constituent members. \u201cUniverses\u201d by themselves, metaphorically speaking. The \u201cheavens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does the universe stop? Does it have an \u201cend,\u201d a wall? \u2026 and then, what is on the other side of that wall? When will it end? Ever? When did it begin? And How?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your brain is hurting, as mine is, it means not that you have special insight or an enlightened curiosity; it means that you have a pulse. \u201cPrimitive\u201d cultures and squads of PhDs alike, and all of us in between, wonder about those generic conundrums \u2013 where we are, how we got here, what\u2019s out there, and such. It is why myriad superstitions and belief systems and religions have sprouted. The basic but inchoate wonderment has inspired thinkers and poets and, thank God, now even governments and entrepreneurs to employ technology and reach \u201cout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether archaeologists and anthropologists explore the past, or scientists and philosophers speculate on the present and future, mistakes have been made. Well-meaning, often; presumptuous, frequently; foolish, occasionally. The latest explanation of the what-when-where-and-how<\/em> of the universe\u2019s origin is the \u201cBig Bang\u201d theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking personally, my brain doesn\u2019t hurt about the Big Bang theory. My face does, from laughing so much about it. Skeptics and presumptuous atheists challenge Bible-believers on the matter that the Bible has the answers to the questions asked above. \u201cWhere you there when the universe began?\u201d they challenge. Of course not, is the answer. But my God was, and He has told us all about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to that Big Bang, we can ask the same questions \u2013 what was before the Big Bang? Just where in this \u201cempty universe\u201d did the Bang happen? If it is still happening at its extremities, where can it end; whether its expansion is linear or 360-degree, and (the latest speculation) if it is forever growing and contracting\u2026 we are no closer to answering the what-when-where-and-how of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notice that there is no Who<\/em> in that set of questions. Humankind \u2013 or much of it \u2013 in its arrogance and, ultimately, foolishness insists on reaching for and embracing every answer but the God Answer. Oh, it gets close: blathering about the \u201cGod Particle\u201d and Intelligent Design, and such. They are deflections; euphemisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the saints and sages who discussed [Omar the Tentmaker wrote centuries ago] \/of the Two Worlds so learnedly are thrust \/ Like foolish prophets forth; their words to scorn are scattered; \/ Their mouths are stopped with dust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scoffers go further when they use the recent cascading discoveries of this virtually unfathomable universe to challenge our faith: There must be uncountable other planets with life and life-forms and civilizations out there\u2026 if there is a God, why would He place us in a faraway corner of an unimportant universe and galaxy?\u2026 When we realize the <\/em>vastness of space, don\u2019t we realize how <\/em>insignificant we are???<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n