I picked up at a garage sale the television series The Cosmos starring Carl Sagan a few years ago. It was my first viewing of something featuring him. I knew a little about him from his movie Contact and a bit about him from his book Pale Blue Dot. Yet as I viewed that show, and learning about the universe around us, my brain exploded on more than one occasion.
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I will say that as a follower of Christ science is not incompatible with what we know about the observed universe. I for one don’t believe in a literal 6 day creation nor do I believe in a young earth, which is why I winced at times during the so-called “debate” of Ham vs. Nye. I think that there are some followers of Christ who see an incompatibility with science because they want to make the Bible out to be something bigger than what it is, and as I tell my youth ministry students there’s black and white in the Bible but there is a LOT of grey. But back to Carl Sagan and The Cosmos…
It was fascinating to me to find out where we’ve come as far as technology and how to some extent our predecessors were spot on with their understanding of astronomy. Nowadays we have the big guns, the Hubble telescopes that are going further and further out exploring our universe at large. I wept several times when I watched the show; the magnitude of what we already know about the universe, and how much more has yet to be discover is phenomenal and mind-blowing.
I am one to believe that the universe is infinite in size, that we as a human race will never run into a celestial wall and have to go back to whence we came. I also believe in an infinite God, a God who loves ALL of humanity and not just a certain group of individuals who love him back.
As Carl Sagan put it; “if you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe” because even if we’re going out into the expanse of space to see the bigness that is out there, there is the bigness in everyday life. Atoms and how they interact with each other, other items that can be found solely on the cellular level, how they all go about doing their own thing in a uniform and complex way. It’s freaking amazing at how amazing everything is around us when we start exploring and start letting it engulf our senses and our whetted appetites for what’s bigger than ourselves. We as a human race will keep on exploring the universe around us, and to think that someday we will surpass what Carl Sagan talked about in The Cosmos is in and of itself also mind blowing.
Onward and upward,
Nathanael
Nathanael Vitkus 
Love this post, and I agree with much of what you say here. Great wrap up to the challenge.
Thank you 🙂
BRAVO! That is so beautifully written and so well put!
Nicely done, Nathanael. You know there are many arguments respecting creationism, right? I suspect “billions and billions”.
Science rocks. The cosmos is indeed amazing. Great post and wrap-up!
That Carl Sagan is one smart cookie, no doubt! Thanks for playing along again with us this year, Nathanael!
Glad to do it Nicky 🙂 Next time around I’d like to help with the prompts.