CREATION (4)
Limited cosmology and worldview continued.
Newton’s Clockwork universe theory maintains that our universe is static – not changing but fixed. Students of the Bible and theologians liked the unchanging universe. They reasoned that because the Creator is unchanging, therefore, His creation is also unchanging. Because the Creator remains the same, all his creation must remain the same, they thought. Einstein’s theory of relativity asserted that there is much more to our universe than commonly thought. One hundred years ago, scientists and laypeople alike were unaware that the universe we see today existed.
When astronomers discovered that we reside in a galaxy, they concluded that our galaxy was the actual universe. Astronomers, as they studied the newly discovered galaxy, discovered a dark region in the constellation Orion. Because the more capable instruments were not available yet, astronomers could not determine the nature of what they saw as a dark region. Some astronomers concluded that the apparent dark region might be an opening to the region outside of our universe. Theologians and the students of the Bible became captivated by the possible opening in our universe.
Many students of the Bible and theologians, especially so among the Protestant believers, concluded that the dark region must be an opening, or gate, leading to heaven where God is. Accordingly, they concluded that sinful humankind is quarantined in the solar system. Christians believed that intelligent beings inhabited other planets in our galaxy. The perceived opening in the Orion became much talked about region. Those who believed in the soon return of Jesus concluded that Jesus would return to earth through the opening in the Orion. However, the modern-day advanced instruments showed that an opening in Orion does not exist. Additionally, data collected by advanced instruments indicates that our universe contains billions of galaxies. The probability that any of them has an inhabitable planet is extremely low.
To be continued in the next blog.
