Random Thought #36

So I found a new book online that is exactly what I've been looking for (at least so far). Its a compilation of articles from various religious scholars that pertain to various subjects, the first of which is astronomy. The very first article talked about how we have to think in terms of what is written and the time and context it was written. This was in reference to the sections in the Book of Abraham that have to deal with the cosmos. Back then, the prevailing thought about the cosmos was very geocentric (Earth is the center of the universe), which makes sense because everything astronomers saw was in relation to where they were, on the earth. This obviously differs from today's modern heliocentric model (Sun is the center; at least of this solar system). Many try to reconcile the two and can't, thus saying that science and religion can't be reconciled. I've always believed that the works of God must be explained by concepts we are capable of understanding. After reading this article and re-reading Moses' and Abraham's encounters with God and seeing the entire universe, I better understand that we can understand God's workings, just not all of them right now, but in due time. One example would be that statement that God's creations are not numbered unto men, but they are known unto him. To take that into perspective, we typically top out our number system in the trillions. Its hard to imagine the next step up. Well, in the cosmos, there are roughly 1 billion stars in our solar system. Our solar system is part of a local group of about 8 or so solar systems. (8 billion stars). This is part of an even bigger group called a supercluster which is made up of 1000s of local groups. (minimum 8 trillion stars). Within the range of our deepest searching telescope (15 billion light years), there are approximately 1 billion superclusters. (Anyone know how much 8 trillion x 1 billion is?) and this is not even a start to the number of his creations. By the way, in case anyone is wondering how far our telescopes can see, 1 light year is equal to approximately 6 trillion miles. So we can see approxiately 6 trillion x 15 billion miles away from us.

Another article I read today gave an astronomical account of the earth's creation. Based on our best estimates today, God started working on this solar systems about 4.7 billion years ago. Considering the numbers above, that doesn't seem too long :) God is amazing isn't he?