Nobodies

There is a sad view in the world today that science and theology do not mix.

Like oil and water, or cats and dogs, science and religion just don’t go together.

That’s ridiculous.

That’s absurd.

I want to encourage our young people to take their science classes in school seriously – because the more you study science, the more you are aware of how magnificent God is.

Because Science is really nothing more than a study of what God has done and how he has done it.

In the Old Testament, David understood this. He knew very little about astronomy, but as a shepherd, he spent a lot of time outside under the starry skies, and he knew just by observing the stars that God was a wonderful creator.

In our Old Testament lesson, David wrote,

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what are people that you are mindful of them?

For centuries, many of the great scientists were men and women of faith – in fact, they were ordained ministers who also worked in science.

But in our age, many people have this bias that suggests that science is in conflict with theology.

I read an article this week in a religious magazine that said, “Scientists like Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo pushed God out of the universe that he created.”

Well, that kind of comment simply reveals the writer’s ignorance. Because the last thing these three would ever have wanted was to push God out of the universe. They were, in fact, three devoutly Christian men.

Galileo was a well-read student of theology and had a high view of Scripture. It is true that he got in trouble with the church’s Inquisition – but that was due not so much for his scientific views as for the fact that he and the Pope were good friends, and they had a falling out and Galileo made the mistake of making fun of the Pope.

Kepler was a devout Lutheran who suffered for his religious faith.

Copernicus is remembered as a great astronomer, but he was never a professional astronomer. He was a priest. His father was a bishop and his sister was a nun – and Copernicus dabbled in astronomy.

These three men had two things in common.

First their faith in God.

Second, their scientific belief that the earth was not the center of the universe.

For centuries there had been debate about whether or not the earth was the center of the universe. These three each helped prove the earth was not the center of the universe.

They thought the sun was the center of all creation – well, they were wrong about that, but they were making progress in understanding that the earth was not the center of all creation.

Now when Copernicus presented his arguments, scientists laughed at him. But the church took him seriously. Because the church of his day understood that science was getting it right about God and humanity and our places in the universe.

Humanity is not the center of the universe.

You see, it is not that these scientists pushed God out of the universe – no. What they did was to push humanity out of the center of the universe, and that drives some people nuts!

Because we want to be at the center of all that is.

We want to be the “big deal” of the universe.

Rick Warren in his book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” says in the very first chapter “You are not the center of the universe.” And when people read that, it is a revelation! It was new and exciting and unheard of – but it has been there all along.

We are not the center of the universe.

We are not the most important thing in all that is.

That is exactly the kind of revelation that David was having in his youth while he was in the fields taking care of sheep. He would be out at night looking at the skies, and without the streetlights of our day, he could see all these wonderful stars. And he was moved. He was inspired.

When you listen to the words of our Old Testament lesson, you can see David as a young shepherd tending sheep at night, looking up at the sky.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what are people that you are mindful of them?

And David – well, he knew nothing compared to what we know of the universe.

We’ve got the Hubble Space Telescope. We get these magnificent views from space.

In fact, three times the Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures of parts of the sky where we can’t see anything. Scientists thought these were absolutely empty parts of space.