The first time I watched Cosmos – 28/28

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

Carl Sagan makes me cry

Now look, I don’t know where Carl Sagan is, but God knows and that’s all that matters…

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Carl Sagan wrote a book called Cosmos and from the book a TV series came to be. Now I happen to own Cosmos (book and TV series) and it is absolutely phenomenal for the person interested in space because it is very detailed about various topics that can expand your mind of how big the universe really is!

Now, while not instilled by Carl Sagan, I am one to believe that the has no end, that is there isn’t some “celestial wall” we (if we’re still around) will someday bump into. The universe does have an expiration date but despite of this, the further out we go the further the universe will present itself.

I Carl Sagan, some of my closest friends in real life would say I have a bit of a “man crush” on him but that’s besides the point. The guy knew his stuff very well and he is funny, amusing and it drives me to deep thought with some tears thrown in.
I cry because it is so freaking beautiful, the size of the universe, the detail, the intricate aspects that…point to a Creator, point to a Divine Architect, someone bigger that caused this universe to be made.
For all of this to have come to be by some cosmic fluke/accident is kinda sad, from the perspective that if this didn’t come to be by someone bigger than us humans, what’s the point to it all then? I also cry because even though I don’t know where Carl Sagan is, he comes really close to “getting it”; getting that all this was made by someone and not by chance.

God knows where he is, so I can’t point a finger and say he’s in hell. I do hope he’s in heaven, if we’re given a chance to chill with believers who’ve gone before us I know I want to talk to him (and Mr. Rogers, Johnny Cash, my grandfather and Jeffrey Dahmer and others).

I do think it’s awesome to see where technology is going in regards to exploring the known universe and even (for the wealthy at this time) space travel. That would be fun, exploring space and taking photos (tho they’d probably have to be long exposure ones right? )

So that’s why Carl Sagan makes me cry, for his closeness to getting it and who knows he might have! But also for the fact that every star, every planet, every solar system was made by God!

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