God's Universe

Does time mean anything to God, since he always was and always will be? Time is a measurement function of motion of the matter in the universe. Time is a measure of distance traveled; time is a measure of age. The earth revolves around the sun once every 365 and 1/4 days. The earth revolves one revolution on its axis every 24 hours. Everybody knows that, we learned it in science class. In this 21st century age of technology, secular teaching in public schools lead our children to believe that life exists somewhere else in the universe besides Earth. It is a secular view based on the laws of statistical probability. This is a scientific belief, not a religious one.

The earth and sky were a mystery to the Ancients. To them, for thousands of years, the earth was the center of the universe; they even thought it to be flat, way up to the 14th century AD. Visible evidence of the curvature of the earth was available to the mariners, ships masts disappeared over the horizon. Magellan sailed around the world without falling off the edge. Film recovered from rocket flights into the atmosphere during the first half of the 20th century and shown to the public in movie newsreels showed the earths curvature. In 1616, the Roman Catholic Church censured the Italian scientist Galileo for embracing the views of Copernicus. They were contrary to scripture.

There was a time on earth when a variety of dinosaurs roamed, as evidenced by findings of their fossilized skeletal remains. The terrible ones are long gone. Time records for human beings have been found that date back at least 5000 years ago. Continuing through today, and with the will of God, tomorrow as well. 20th century man determined the speed of light (300,000,000 meters / sec). It takes light 8 minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun. It has taken millions of years for the light from the so called edge of the universe to reach the Hubble telescope. I read that the telescope collected the light over several days in order to show the deep space images. The question is "are those objects still out there” or are they long gone, like the dinosaurs and only reflect the remnants of the birth of time?

Our sun, the center of our solar system sets within the galaxy of the Milky Way along with millions of other stars that are millions of miles away. If the speed of light is the maximum measurement for speed, man will never actually reach the stars, except in the telescope view. Scientists believe that the Earth is at least 4.5 billion years old. Monuments to Egyptian Kings date back to 3000 BC. A lot of time lapsed between the dinosaurs and the Egyptians. The Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian Kings used the mysteries of the universe as leverage to control their people. They worshiped Idols and some animals and Kings as gods. These Kings were the first real estate barons. They fought wars with each other over land and resources. Some of these Kings had their people believe they were Gods themselves.

About 2000 BC, God chose an extended family from among the many, and selected a good man named Abram (later changed his name to Abraham) to lead these chosen people away from the nations that worshiped Idols to control society.

About 1200 BC, God Spoke directly to Moses and gave him a leadership roll over a nation of people and 10 Commandments that man should follow that included honoring God and getting along with each other.

Then, about 1200 years later, He sent his Son, Jesus to rescue humanity from the fate of Adam and Eve's original sin and to re-direct man on how to worship God and respect one another while on the Earth. (Peace on Earth and good will toward men.)

To follow Jesus is to follow the intentions of God. Jesus is the Gate Keeper to Heaven. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus after his crucifixion, death and resurrection from the dead, and empowered them with an ability to spread Christianity throughout the world.

Since man's time on earth is very small in proportion to mans existence in the universe, and an individuals time on Earth is even less, it seems very sensible to worship God and follow his rules in order to prepare for living with him for eternity. Life on Earth is very short, eternity is forever. Forever is without the time created by the motion of the mechanical universe.

In my opinion, secular thinking about how Life came to be for us on Earth through a series of accidental happenings in the Cosmos is a real gamble for the pure scientist. Do a multitude of accidents happen in the chronological order as they are needed, in order to enable the machinery of our solar system to support life on Earth? Well, my answer is, its no accident, God planned it and executed it according to his will to provide a place for humans to prepare and mature for eternal worship of Him.

The sun is not a god; it is an energy source that supplies all the energy we can ever need through its continuous fusion reaction. Earths distance from the sun is just right for life to exist. The Earth is tilted in its orbit about 23 degrees to provide four seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) and one of the functions of the moon is to stabilize the Earths wobble to maintain even seasons. The moon also cleans the beaches around the world by causing tidal action. The Earth has a protective magnetic field to minimize the harmful effects of the suns radiation bursts of energy. It could be that the other planets in our solar system are there simply as collection bins for the left over solar residue. The excess gaseous material that the sun does not need may have been stored as Jupiter. Jupitors moon, Europa, and the planet Neptune may be storage tanks for the excess water that the Earth did not need. Perhaps the mass of the other planets provide gravitational adjustments that help keep the Earth in correct orbit around the sun. The other planets don't seem to have the requisites to support humans; they are either too hot or too cold with atmospheres of untolerable weight and unbreatheable gas. However, Man's past has shown a strong desire to travel and the universe is here, so The quest to explore continues... it seems to be mans nature.

Mars is getting a lot of attention; NASA is working toward sending a crew of Astronauts there sometime in the next decade or so, according to NASA public information. In the meantime, NASA is preparing to send Astronauts back to the Moon and prepare for the trip to Mars from there. In the case of the sun and planets closer to the sun, well, it’s just too hot to accommodate humans. This layman believes that going to Mars is a waste of government funds that could be used here on Earth to help those in need and to fund programs that would reduce social problems. Man was beheading men in pursuit of social or political gain 3000 years ago and they are still doing it in the Middle East today. The social issues of Nations and humans getting along with each other are far more important to solve here on Earth than attempting to run away to another less habitable planet for a select few to explore.

I believe it is hard for proponents of the scientific method that require proof positive for the existence of God, to alter their secular thinking about how the universe was formed for no particular reason. Don't listen to them, the evidence is there in front of you, not being able to put a theory to the test until you actually die is not very scientific. Besides, when your time comes, it’s too late to make adjustments and try again. Christ only asks that you believe in him and he leaves the decision up to you.

I believe it would be helpful for the future of our country to put prayer back in public schools, tolerating the whining of the atheists and agnostics in our society is a small price to pay for the many benefits that prayer in public schools would have for our children. Giving young people a unified moment to reflect on their relationship with God and on being respectful and helpful to others on a daily basis would be good for society. Those that say, a minute of silence is enough, should pay more attention to the Lords Prayer.

Jesus made it straight and to the point and you can recite it in less than a minute:

Photo credits, NASA.

This page reflects the personal opinion of Mike Riley, a Catholic Layman and concerned citizen.