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20 December 2001
Last year: I don't know what the cure for the malaise is, either.
Well, here we are. Matt and I are leaving town in the morning for Chicago, and we won't be back until next Friday, the 28th. I won't be back in the office until the 2nd of January, so I'm not promising any more journal entries this year. I'll let the notify list know if I do post something when we get back.
This month's On Display topic is to write about a picture.
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The universe is a vast and wonderful place. Every day, I look at the Astronomy Picture of the Day. I marvel at pictures of the planets or sunspots; and I read with respect about the astronomers and physicists who are, slowly but surely, beginning to map the enormity. But I like it best when they have pictures like these - pictures from the wide universe.
I once got into a discussion with Mike, my office-mate, about faith and science. I don't know how we got on the topic; like me, Mike isn't very much in touch with his spiritual side.
He said to me, "We can't know everything about the universe. It's too big. It's not possible"
And I answered: Just because we can't do it, doesn't mean it can't be done. That, to me, is what God is: An intelligence vast enough to encompass the universe, to build the equation to which the universe is its graph. And every time we learn a little more about our universe, every time we link together things which had previously been unlinked... We get a little bit closer to God.
Of course it's futile; the human brain isn't vast enough to comprehend the entire universe. Most of us can't even really grasp the numbers involved except in the vaguest of ways.
An example: Take a guess - how long is one billion seconds? A pretty long time... what would you say? A month, maybe? A year? What if I told you that one billion seconds is over thirty years? It would take longer than thirty years to count to one billion. Quite a bit longer, actually, since numbers such as, "one million, two hundred and thirty-six thousand, four hundred and ninety five" take more than a second to say. Now imagine how much longer a year is than a second, and then try to even comprehend a billion years. I don't know about you, but it makes my head hurt.
I won't even get into infinity. I'm a mathematician. Once, in graduate school, I got a glimpse of the infinity that lies between zero and one. My head spun for days afterward. And that's without even trying to explain the two different infinities.
Trying to imagine a being that can hold in its mind all of this, and undertand it... That's just as fantastic. And just as breathtaking, when I can manage to catch a glimpse.
Whatever holiday you celebrate - Christmas, Hanukah, Ramadan, Kwanza, Yule... Have a good one. Celebrate with your loved ones. Eat, drink, and be merry. Exchange gifts and greetings.
But whether you do it in a church, a temple, or in the privacy of your own home, please take a moment and ponder the vastness of the universe. It's like touching the face of God.
Word of the Day:
flippant - lacking proper respect or seriousness
Currently Playing:
- Diablo II
- Burning Monkeys Solitaire