God and Nature Spring 2022
Wonder and Longing: the Scales of Creation |
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By John Dominic Smith
The human mind is, for all our accomplishments, fairly limited. Though we can observe, explore, and interact with the living and non-living universe around us, we are prevented from directly experiencing all but a tiny fraction of that universe.
Science is one means to observe, explore, and interact with our surroundings. We often use the language of mathematics in our scientific explorations, and mathematics often comes to our rescue when we attempt to discuss things that are beyond the limits of our human experiences: scales of space, time, quantities of things, and physical constant values that are enormously large or incredibly tiny. Scientific notation is used as a proxy for quantities beyond our ability to directly deal with, experience, or encompass.
The human mind is, for all our accomplishments, fairly limited. Though we can observe, explore, and interact with the living and non-living universe around us, we are prevented from directly experiencing all but a tiny fraction of that universe.
Science is one means to observe, explore, and interact with our surroundings. We often use the language of mathematics in our scientific explorations, and mathematics often comes to our rescue when we attempt to discuss things that are beyond the limits of our human experiences: scales of space, time, quantities of things, and physical constant values that are enormously large or incredibly tiny. Scientific notation is used as a proxy for quantities beyond our ability to directly deal with, experience, or encompass.
We have limited ability to even contemplate the complexity, scope, scale, and importance of God’s incredible works. |
In a course I co-teach called “Wonder and Beauty: Art, Science, and Faith” (1), one of the big ideas we discuss is the interaction of science and faith. We do this partly through a lens of examining various aspects of the creation around us to help students experience the wonder and beauty in nature and technology. We try to tie that wonder and beauty back to the God who made it all, in an effort to explore our faith. Much as C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory: “The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing... For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited” (2).
In exploring creation and trying to experience its wonders, especially wonders the students may not have seen or known of previously, we emphasize that as wondrous as the phenomenon may be—whether the aurora borealis, Victoria Falls, bizarre prehistoric life, breathtaking celestial bodies, or even technological achievements—the real beauty is to be found in God, the Author of nature, space, time—and, indeed, because we are made in God’s image, in our own creativity.
We recently used a YouTube video entitled VFX Artist Reveals the True Scale of the Universe (3). In this video, the artist points out that other videos attempting to show the relative sizes of astronomical bodies often portray objects one after another in such a way that each successive object gets resized, resulting in the gist of relative scale being lost. To correct this, he uses a fixed scale of 1:190,000,000 throughout the video to better show relative sizes of astronomical objects.
At this scale, Earth is the size of a tennis ball. Our moon and the other planets of our solar system are shown in proper scale relative to one another, and the distance between Earth and Luna is then demonstrated to be seven feet. The Sun is depicted in scale as a 24-foot diameter sphere (shown as a CGI image). The video then goes on to depict larger and larger stars, eventually getting to what may be the currently largest known star, UY Scuti, portrayed as a CGI sphere eight miles in diameter—at that point in the video, the artist/host is comparing the size of enormous stars to the island of Manhattan, and UY Scuti makes Manhattan look small. All this time, he makes it clear that the Earth is still the size of a tennis ball.
But there’s a problem. As I watched that video, it became apparent that comparing the size of a tennis ball to something eight miles tall is beyond the ability of humans to understand (4). The human mind, as brilliant as it is, endowed by its Creator with curiosity and creativity such that we can design machines that can depict realistic images of things we cannot actually build or travel to, simply cannot mentally encompass the relative sizes of the objects depicted by that scale. It’s not our fault—it’s how we’re built. We have limited ability to even contemplate (5) the complexity, scope, scale, and importance of God’s incredible works.
But can we still wonder at such a comparison? Chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, meteorology, and so many other branches of science use mathematics to help us deal with the scales of creation.
And the universe—creation—is so much larger and smaller than what we see. As a chemist, I appreciate the very small very much—miniature technology, microbial life, molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles—but I cannot directly experience the atomic world where atoms bond and form molecules, then break and reform bonds to react to produce new compounds, where quantum physics governs how things behave.
I can easily hold Avogadro’s Number of carbon atoms—one mole, or 6.022 x 10^23 atoms—in the palm of my hand. To me, it’s simply a pile of black powder. As a scientist I can appreciate what these carbon atoms are and what they can do. But I cannot experience them the way my Creator does. I can weigh them, and that mole of carbon atoms will come out to about 12.01 grams. But my God knows exactly how many there are, and everything about them, each and every one. There’s no Uncertainty Principle for the Creator.
Recall a moment when you pondered God’s creation. Try to recall what you might have had in your mind as a child, upon hearing the story from Genesis. How many of us let our minds cast a net that encompassed the entire solar system—or, better yet, the entire galaxy, or a galactic supercluster? It’s important to remember: these are part of God’s creation, too—God is the source of ALL of it, not just the local things we can see when we stop to look around us.
Our Milky Way galaxy is part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The name of the supercluster is Hawaiian and translates as immense or immeasurable heaven. Immense? Yes. Immeasurable? For us, perhaps—for our Creator, it’s just a small part of His works. I marvel and wonder in awe at the fact that despite my inability to directly experience it, it is still part of God’s creation—a part that has been there, out there, from the beginning, so very, very long ago, undiscovered until recently (6) by human beings.
Through the wonder and beauty of creation, I can feel the deep longing for the source of the beauty and complexity and majesty—the Author of it all.
REFERENCES
John Smith is a scientist, lawyer, writer, and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Lipscomb University. He received his PhD (in Inorganic Chemistry) and JD from Vanderbilt University, and his BA from Drew University. He is an ASA member who dreams of being a paleontologist and embraces creativity in science education and communication. He finds his faith strengthened by scientific exploration, and finds joy in sharing with nonscientists the wonder and awe he feels as a scientist for God’s creation as often and as deeply as he can.
In exploring creation and trying to experience its wonders, especially wonders the students may not have seen or known of previously, we emphasize that as wondrous as the phenomenon may be—whether the aurora borealis, Victoria Falls, bizarre prehistoric life, breathtaking celestial bodies, or even technological achievements—the real beauty is to be found in God, the Author of nature, space, time—and, indeed, because we are made in God’s image, in our own creativity.
We recently used a YouTube video entitled VFX Artist Reveals the True Scale of the Universe (3). In this video, the artist points out that other videos attempting to show the relative sizes of astronomical bodies often portray objects one after another in such a way that each successive object gets resized, resulting in the gist of relative scale being lost. To correct this, he uses a fixed scale of 1:190,000,000 throughout the video to better show relative sizes of astronomical objects.
At this scale, Earth is the size of a tennis ball. Our moon and the other planets of our solar system are shown in proper scale relative to one another, and the distance between Earth and Luna is then demonstrated to be seven feet. The Sun is depicted in scale as a 24-foot diameter sphere (shown as a CGI image). The video then goes on to depict larger and larger stars, eventually getting to what may be the currently largest known star, UY Scuti, portrayed as a CGI sphere eight miles in diameter—at that point in the video, the artist/host is comparing the size of enormous stars to the island of Manhattan, and UY Scuti makes Manhattan look small. All this time, he makes it clear that the Earth is still the size of a tennis ball.
But there’s a problem. As I watched that video, it became apparent that comparing the size of a tennis ball to something eight miles tall is beyond the ability of humans to understand (4). The human mind, as brilliant as it is, endowed by its Creator with curiosity and creativity such that we can design machines that can depict realistic images of things we cannot actually build or travel to, simply cannot mentally encompass the relative sizes of the objects depicted by that scale. It’s not our fault—it’s how we’re built. We have limited ability to even contemplate (5) the complexity, scope, scale, and importance of God’s incredible works.
But can we still wonder at such a comparison? Chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology, biology, paleontology, meteorology, and so many other branches of science use mathematics to help us deal with the scales of creation.
And the universe—creation—is so much larger and smaller than what we see. As a chemist, I appreciate the very small very much—miniature technology, microbial life, molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles—but I cannot directly experience the atomic world where atoms bond and form molecules, then break and reform bonds to react to produce new compounds, where quantum physics governs how things behave.
I can easily hold Avogadro’s Number of carbon atoms—one mole, or 6.022 x 10^23 atoms—in the palm of my hand. To me, it’s simply a pile of black powder. As a scientist I can appreciate what these carbon atoms are and what they can do. But I cannot experience them the way my Creator does. I can weigh them, and that mole of carbon atoms will come out to about 12.01 grams. But my God knows exactly how many there are, and everything about them, each and every one. There’s no Uncertainty Principle for the Creator.
Recall a moment when you pondered God’s creation. Try to recall what you might have had in your mind as a child, upon hearing the story from Genesis. How many of us let our minds cast a net that encompassed the entire solar system—or, better yet, the entire galaxy, or a galactic supercluster? It’s important to remember: these are part of God’s creation, too—God is the source of ALL of it, not just the local things we can see when we stop to look around us.
Our Milky Way galaxy is part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The name of the supercluster is Hawaiian and translates as immense or immeasurable heaven. Immense? Yes. Immeasurable? For us, perhaps—for our Creator, it’s just a small part of His works. I marvel and wonder in awe at the fact that despite my inability to directly experience it, it is still part of God’s creation—a part that has been there, out there, from the beginning, so very, very long ago, undiscovered until recently (6) by human beings.
Through the wonder and beauty of creation, I can feel the deep longing for the source of the beauty and complexity and majesty—the Author of it all.
REFERENCES
- My co-teacher is Dr. Larry A. Brown, Professor of Theater. At my university, our course is one of a number of “Engagement” courses, designed to deeply explore our faith through multiple lenses combining viewpoints and experiences from different disciplines. These “Engagement” courses are part of our general education curriculum.
- C.S. Lewis. The Weight of Glory. 1941. Emphasis in the original.
- URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCTuirkcRwo. The same artist has a video on the very small: VFX Artist Reveals the True Scale of Atoms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgSGlbV0kZo.
- The relative size of the diameters of the objects depicted, comparing Earth to UY Scuti, is roughly 1:186,000, based on data from their respective Wikipedia articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UY_Scuti and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth. Retrieved on March 24, 2022.
- Ilyse Resnick, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley. “Dealing with Big Numbers: Representation and Understanding of Magnitudes Outside of Human Experience”. Cognitive Science, 41: 1020-1041 (2017).
- R. Brent Tully, Hélène Courtois, Yehuda Hoffman, Daniel Pomarède. “The Laniakea Supercluster of Galaxies”. Nature, 513 (7516): 71–73 (2014).
John Smith is a scientist, lawyer, writer, and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Lipscomb University. He received his PhD (in Inorganic Chemistry) and JD from Vanderbilt University, and his BA from Drew University. He is an ASA member who dreams of being a paleontologist and embraces creativity in science education and communication. He finds his faith strengthened by scientific exploration, and finds joy in sharing with nonscientists the wonder and awe he feels as a scientist for God’s creation as often and as deeply as he can.