Howard Grace reflects on space and spirituality. This article first appeared as a centre spread piece in the UK national Quaker weekly The Friend, in 2011, and has also appeared in the UK Progressive Christianity Network national Newsletter.
Some people, who interpret certain biblical stories literally, believe that creation happened about 6000 years ago. Personally I go with evidence pointing to a ‘Big Bang’, which dates the universe at about 13.7 billion years, with the emergence of human beings some hundreds of thousands of years ago.
What I write above doesn’t negate my belief in God. Far from it. But it certainly gives perspective to my perception of the Divine, and hints at humanity’s very limited ability to comprehend what we are talking about when we use the word ‘God’.
To us the earth is enormous, complex and rich in diversity. But we have also come to know that it is but a minute dot in the vast space of our Solar System. And our Solar System is itself an equally minute dot in a hugely vaster Milky Way galaxy with 200 to 400 billion stars. This is mind-boggling. But it goes further than that – much further. The most current estimates lead us to believe that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the Universe. So, how many stars are there? Even if these figures are wildly inaccurate there are still one heck of a lot.
No wonder that JBS Haldane, the Scottish mathematical biologist wrote: 'Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.'
In a book I was reading recently someone wrote: 'Thinking of my cat eating his tinned tuna, I wonder whether we know as little of what is out there in the world of the spirit as he did of the process, from the Big Bang onwards, that put the food on his plate.' Indeed, just as a cat’s brain is incapable of comprehending the immensity, diversity and complexity of the universe, I suspect that the human brain, in its present state of development, has also only scratched the surface in taking a lot of this on board, especially the dimensions beyond which we presently relate to. From where comes life, love, loyalty and the ability to begin to ask some of the big questions?
Without even our limited perspective on the universe it is not surprising that some of our biblical ancestors perceived a Creator as out there, separate from and beyond the earth, just above the clouds, who created everything. We thought we understood! Naturally, we thought we were the centre of all that is created, - created for us. But in the light of what I allude to above, what is going on is far bigger and more complex than our forefathers could have dreamed about. Are the 10 sextillion or so stars really created for our benefit? Or are we just a component of something much, much bigger? 13.7 billion years of the past is hard to contemplate. But the universe is thought to be going to continue for trillions of years. When our Solar System, and earthly life with it, explodes to extinction - the universe will still be in its infancy!
My faith is in that creative ‘something’ which incorporates, is within, and is vaster than the universe as we know it. We human beings strive to understand our relationship to this ‘something’. It is this mystery that I perceive as God. There are numerous windows through which we may glimpse this mystery, most of which we haven’t yet discovered. For me, as a Christian, I see Jesus as one of them – a decisive one – in terms of how humans should best relate to our perception of that greater ‘something’, and to each other. But I sense that it would be wrong, somewhat idolatrous and very inadequate for me to start perceiving or worshipping any of these windows, including Jesus, as anything more than entry points.
Some say that a well-established religious belief is necessary to be productively, morally and spiritually motivated. But to me the acceptance that there is much about reality that we can’t know, overrides the temptation to take on board beliefs that are, to me, untenable. I feel increasingly at ease with the sense that I emerged from ‘mystery’ into this world, should make my best contribution to my fellow humans and to the greater good, then merge back into the Divine. I do not expect to exist then as an individual but somehow as part of The Eternal. My peace of mind and heart comes from acceptance of this mystery.
Howard Grace is a retired mathematics teacher who has managed the IofC Schools Service for many years.
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