Archive for the ‘Science’ Category.
Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.
~~ Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes ~~
Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview that believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God.
Good for Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes to be a pragmatist; it would be foolhardy to think that in such a vast universe there won’t be other life anywhere else. It may be a different form of life than what we know as life on earth but, from what we know so far, it’s not a stretch to think that some form(s) of life - may be even intelligent life - may exist somewhere else in the universe.
But whether such aliens will be ‘brotherly’ towards us if and when they discover us (or we discover them), is highly debatable. One has only to look at how ‘brotherly’ were the Europeans to native Indians when they discovered them!
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
~~ C.S. Lewis ~~ (1898 - 1963)
I don’t think universe has no meaning. It’s just that we don’t understand it and will probably never understand it. While we consider ourselves to be very important, in the grand scheme of the universe, we are actually quite insignificant.
Sun , Earth and Sun’s other planets have been around for billions and billions of years whereas, as individuals, most of us live less than 100 years - a totally insignificant number compared to billions. Even collectively as a human race we have been around for only a few million years - still a very tiny and insignificant number. The universe, which comprises of not just our Sun and its planets but countless other stars and planets, happily existed long, long before us and will happily exist if, by any chance, we become extinct just like the dinosaurs.
So the question remains: What is the meaning of universe and why does it exist? The simple answer is: We don’t know. What we do know is that the universe is limitless, just take a look at the sky on a clear night and all the stars that you see also make part of this universe. Some of these stars are way larger than our Sun which, by the way, is also a star. We also know that these stars also have planets circling around them just like our Sun has planets. And then we have comets and asteroids and all other stuff floating around in space. All this show - if I can call it a show - of countless stars and their planets can’t be just meaningless; it has to have some meaning. We just don’t know what that meaning might be.
This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.
~~ Thomas Carlyle ~~ (1795 – 1881)
That is definitely true. With our science and technology, we have figured out that there are lots of suns (stars), lots of planets, and lots of asteroids roaming around in space, there are galaxies millions and millions miles away. Yet there may be lots of other things which we probably haven’t even imagined may exist. Even on our own planet earth, there are still a lot of things like other species that we know nothing about.
I often wonder why the world or universe exists and where does the universe end? With all our advanced science, we have no answer for these questions. Most likely we will never know the answers to these questions. May be universe has no end; it’s endless. Now think about it: If the universe is endless then it follows that there are countless suns (stars), planets, moons and probably countless other heavenly bodies which, with our present knowledge, we don’t know and can’t fathom.
And if the universe is endless and filled with countless suns and planets, it will be logical to think that some form of intelligent life will exist somewhere; it may be not exactly the life as we know it but something for sure. So the magical miracle continues. What do you think?
