{"id":18993,"date":"2020-06-22T09:28:20","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T13:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18993"},"modified":"2020-06-22T10:34:54","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T14:34:54","slug":"the-devine-signature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18993","title":{"rendered":"The Devine Signature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cosmology and Nature<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-divine-signature-2020-06-22\/\"><strong>The Divine Signature<\/strong><\/a><br>\n<strong>Monday, June 22, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9ZX4i3Z_ZyM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>It seems that for many people accepting the truth of science means rejecting the truth of God. Of course, it\u2019s not an either\/or proposition, but the two have been set in opposition for so long we could expect little else. There have been many religious scientists throughout the ages, but their work has often only been appreciated in hindsight. Thankfully, Pope Francis is working to correct that. A growing number of people like author and podcaster Mike McHargue are beginning to articulate how science and faith can be reconciled in our modern age. Here he explains in layperson\u2019s terms how the evolutionary phenomenon we call the \u201cBig Bang\u201d is a reflection of what I would call the Paschal Mystery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the beginning, there was a rapid expansion of a Singularity. Around 380,000 years later, there was light. There was also hydrogen and helium and four stable, fundamental forces of physics. Atoms and those forces worked together to birth the first stars from massive clouds of gas, and those stars lived for hundreds of millions of years before they died in explosions that spread their matter across the sky in clouds of gas and dust\u2014now with heavier elements than what existed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The forces of physics worked together once again to craft new stars now tightly packed into the first galaxies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the cycle repeated, heavier elements formed planets orbiting those stars, emerging from disks of gas and dust like dust bunnies under your bed. In our universe, planets can exist only because a few generations of stars died and were reborn. The rebirth of stellar matter into planets is how our Earth came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This planet, our home, is covered with a film of life unlike any we\u2019ve yet seen anywhere else in the universe. As far as we know today, it is unique. A blue marble floating in the dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earth\u2019s life is fed by a process in which carbon from the air and minerals in the soil are attached together by the energy of photons via photosynthesis in plants. In this process, everything on this planet lives by the constant sacrifice of the nearest star. Every blade of grass, every tree, every bush, every microscopic algae on this planet is a resurrected form of the Sun\u2019s energy. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One day, I will die, and in time my atoms will go back to giving life to something else. Much farther along the arrow of time, our own Sun will explode and spread its essence across the sky. Our Sun\u2019s dust will meet with other stars\u2019 remnants and form new stars and planets of their own. The universe itself exists in an eternal pattern of life, death, and resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems poetically appropriate that the Source of all would have left this divine signature on the fabric of reality. In Jesus, I hope for more than just a God with a face or a uniquely gifted moral teacher. I hope for a resurrection that will one day reach every corner of our universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cosmology and Nature<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/a-christian-cosmology-2020-06-21\/\"><strong>A Christian Cosmology<\/strong><\/a><br>\n<strong>Sunday, June 21, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The word <em>cosmology<\/em> has been used more frequently in recent years, even in religious circles. If cosmology is the study of the origin, processes, and shape of the universe, then it also involves the study of God, the universe\u2019s Creator. I find it utterly enticing, but I also know how threatening it has been to Christian thought as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Up until Copernicus and Galileo, western cosmology was very linear and largely informed by faith, with little attention to science. With a kind of extended egocentricity, Christians thought the earth was the center of the universe. God dwelled on his throne (and God was considered male), Jesus somehow dwelled beneath God, with heaven, the earth, and hell set below in their fixed places. But after the Copernican revolution, scientists have discovered ever more galaxies, and demonstrated that we humans are not the center of anything. We are just a small part of a much bigger ecosystem and universe. It is a very humbling lesson that we are still adjusting to five hundred years later! From that revolutionary moment, religion and science largely stopped talking to one another and started going in two different directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a minimum, we need a God as big as the still-expanding universe. Otherwise, many earnest people will continue to think of God as a mere add-on to a world that is already awesome. However, I believe our traditional faith has a key to open the door to a new cosmology. That key is the proper understanding of the word <em>Christ<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christ, as I like to say, is more than Jesus\u2019 last name. Christ is God, and Jesus is the Christ\u2019s historical manifestation in time. Jesus is a Third Someone, not just God and not just human, but God and human together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we cannot put these two seeming opposites of the divine and human together in Jesus Christ, we usually cannot put these two together in ourselves, or in the rest of the physical universe. A merely personal God becomes clannish and sentimental, and a merely universal God never leaves the realm of abstract theory and philosophical principles. But when we learn to put them together, Jesus and Christ give us a God who is both <em>personal<\/em> and <em>universal<\/em>. Jesus is a map for the time-bound and personal level of life, and Christ is the blueprint for all time and space and life itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When cosmology became largely a secular science, a large number of Christians felt free to reject evolution and history. Today, however, we are living in a wonderful time of convergence. We have a chance to bring them together again. As author Beatrice Bruteau (1930\u20132014) wrote: \u201cWe need a new theology of the cosmos, one that is grounded in the best science of our day . . . so that all the world turns sacred again . . .\u201d [1] I hope this week\u2019s meditations offer you a vision of a cosmology that is scientifically accurate and still entirely suffused with the presence of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"338\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.00.38-AM-500x338.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18995\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.00.38-AM-500x338.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.00.38-AM-300x203.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.00.38-AM-768x519.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.00.38-AM.png 1958w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cosmology and Nature The Divine Signature Monday, June 22, 2020 It seems that for many people accepting the truth of science means rejecting the truth of God. Of course, it\u2019s not an either\/or proposition, but the two have been set in opposition for so long we could expect little else. There have been many religious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18997,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993\/revisions\/18997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}