Cosmic Microwave Background
In 2009 a new telescope was sent into space. We’ve all heard about the Hubble telescope that has been circling the earth since it was launched 10 years ago.
The latest instrument, named the Planck Telescope, is designed to peer into the depths of our universe, but not to view visible light. It is designed to measure light of very long wavelength that cannot be detected by the unaided human eye. This is what scientists have long referred to as the Cosmic Microwave Background, or the first light they believe to have been released following the birth of the universe in the “Big Bang”.
An image of the universe that has been compiled by the Planck Telescope has just been released that displays the sheer beauty of the creation that surrounds us. You can view it in high definition at http://www.esa.int/images/PLANCK_FSM_03_Black.jpg
This is truly remarkable technology that simply wasn’t available to our ancestors and yet, even without such equipment, they still had a remarkably sound understanding that the heavens above them consisted of far more than a motley collection of pinholes of light.
The bible was not written, nor was it ever intended to be a scientific treatise. Its purpose and the way it is written is intended more to inform us about the ‘meaning’ of creation rather than how it came into existence. Nevertheless, any suggestion that it is unscientific is demonstrably false. The bible records the remarkable understanding of the ancients over thousands of years:
■ The writers of the bible knew that the creation had a beginning and whatever the mechanism, it was God who started it all off.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
(Genesis 1:1-3)
How interesting that the first thing the bible describes about creation is light.
■ In fact, the concept of light is very prominent in the bible’s description of creation and the universe, for example:
He (the Lord God) wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent
(Psalm 104:2)
■ The whole aim of the Planck project is to further our understanding of just how and why the universe came into being. In fact the ancients had a pretty good explanation for that too
But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
(Jeremiah 10:12)
■ Some think the bible teaches non-science – for example that the earth is flat. Wherever that idea came from it certainly isn’t in the bible.
He (God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
(Isaiah 40:22)
■ There are beliefs and philosophies with very peculiar teachings about the foundations of the earth, but the bible seems to have it just about right.
He (God) spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.
(Job 26:7)
■ Scientists are desperate to understand how creation came into being, whereas the bible sees creation as an incidental. God is more interested in the people He made to inhabit His creation.
This is what God the LORD says— he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it
(Isaiah 42:5)
■ In our preoccupation with understanding the beginnings of the universe, we need to appreciate that whilst it is vast beyond our imagination it is nonetheless finite and will not last forever. Only God is eternal
He also says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”
(Hebrews 1:10-12)
Something else the bible tells us is that you too have the potential for eternal life but it is not automatic or guaranteed. The question is what do you need to do about it? You won’t find the answer in images from the Planck Telescope but you will find the answer in the bible.
