The Black Hole Word on the Week 14th May 2022.
An international team of astronomers on Thursday unveiled the first image of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy, a cosmic body known as Sagittarius A. When news of it reached our Men’s Shed on Friday it caused mild consternation in the group!
Something had appeared in the black hole that had never been seen before. Because it is 27,000 light years from Earth, it appears the same size as a doughnut on the Moon.
It was picked up by a group of scientists at eight different global locations with their telescopes synchronised. This is the first, “direct visual confirmation of the presence of this invisible object”, said the report.
Back at the shed it was thought to be all very well for the scientists to go after invisible objects in space but what about the nature of our own planet earth? Where did we come from? Did the Bible really say that it all belongs to the Lord because he made it and everything in it? ((Psalm 24 verse 1).
And what about nature evolving over time? There was a lot of support for the theory. It may have taken millions of years but little by little we evolved – science says it! Here was belief of a high order. Faith in science appeared to include worshipping the scientist. Something akin to the Samaritans worship (John’s gospel chapter 4 verse 22).
The absence of evidence of one animal evolving into another proved to be a stumbling block. Only some minor mutations could be produced. Those occurred within the species. No known cases of selective breeding have produced a new species. We have the Genesis Chapter 1 account which records in an orderly manner what each creation day created.
The bible also speaks of God making the heavens. He has set the moon and the stars in place (Psalm 8 verses 3 to 4). You can set your smartphone by the rhythms of the sun which are eulogised by the Psalmist in Psalm 19 verses 1 to 6.
Our bodily needs are catered for in the promise to Noah ““As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis Chapter 8 verse 22).
Our spiritual needs are catered for by God’s son becoming that seed which was promised from the beginning and would bear fruit in every heart open to receive it (St John Chapter 12 verse 24).
Science has its place but it can never produce the love of God – a love which does not wane and lasts forever (Jeremiah Chapter 31 verse 3).