Monday Night Musings
The Paradox of Belief
A Personal Reflection on Faith in the Age of Science
Introduction
It’s Monday night. I’m writing at the “Alex” — the main library at Rutgers University in New Jersey. But my ear-eye wanders to the sound-sights of so many young people — young people from all over the world. I hear Korean. Spanish. English with Indian accents. While in the lavatory, I hear universal laughter, but in languages that elude me. Rutgers is diverse, like Earth, if “seen” from Messier 87 (M87) — a giant elliptical galaxy about 53 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster.
It’s worth asking: if life exists in Messier 87, would this be the same “God” on Earth who created our world in seven days as told in Genesis? Did God create Messier 87? And black holes? The nearest known black hole, Gaia BH1, after all, is about 1,500 light-years away. These may seem like loaded questions, and maybe leading questions, but it’s worth asking, right? As thinking grownups.
Why would anyone be afraid of asking such a question?
Watching the college students on this precious, ‘tiny’ blue rock, this “oasis in space,” my mind also wanders to a question that has long fascinated me: How can we reconcile ancient religious beliefs that have shaped our…
