Last week (early December, 2010) the estimated number of stars in the universe was increased three-fold to 300,000,000,000,000,000,000 (give or take a couple). I'm smiling. I'm guessing that's how I'd say, "Don't really know." I'm guessing we're the only species offering doctorates on such things.
Whatever the case, we're part of a bigger picture. That's actually a scientific trend--wherever one stands, things get incomprehensibly bigger and bigger and smaller and smaller. Infinity lies without and within. So, whatever one believes, there is a greater picture and more details. Perhaps this is a fundamental glimpse of the divine--greater and finer than us. Mysteries great and small.
We're surrounded by divinity.
I have a science experiment: Materials: a common nail and a coke bottle. Is it possible, in a single toss, to throw a nail across a yard and have it drop down the neck of a Coca Cola bottle? Scientifically, yes; it's undeniably possible; there's nothing physically blocking the nail from the bottle. Scientifically, no, it's impossible; the variables that would allow the nail to share the same space as the bottle cannot be controlled to meet such an expectation. A successful attempt would be unexplainable. Sort of.
I have a science experiment: Materials: a common nail and a coke bottle. Is it possible, in a single toss, to throw a nail across a yard and have it drop down the neck of a Coca Cola bottle? Scientifically, yes; it's undeniably possible; there's nothing physically blocking the nail from the bottle. Scientifically, no, it's impossible; the variables that would allow the nail to share the same space as the bottle cannot be controlled to meet such an expectation. A successful attempt would be unexplainable. Sort of.
So, if I throw the nail into the bottle, what's up?
Isn't it odd how something seems impossible until it happens, then it is undeniable to the witnesses and unexplainable to others. Sounds like religion.
If deity is what is beyond our understanding, candidates for divinity are infinite. Denying God is a waste of time. Intellectually, one system is as "god" as another if it explains things. Thus, a deity is where we go with mysteries and imponderables. Atheists profess no hope or expectation in "god," but I'm guessing they have hope and expectations in something else. We run into things that are unexplainable, but undeniable. In the end, the best we can do is speculate on what we think we know, test the waters, and leave the rest to hopes and expectations.
What do people crave? White Castles (see www.whitecastle.com) AND answers, reliability, wisdom, power, joy, truth, transcendence, and more. We want someone to say, "I can explain mysteries." In my scorebook, science qualifies as a religion as much as anything else. Those who turn to science love it's willingness to take on any mystery, impersonally, amorally, and meet needs.
Religion is hope and we frame our religion with expectations. Hope and expectations are our faith statements. These days I grapple with high hopes and low expectations. My hopes are what I believe, my expectations are what I have experienced. This says more about me than I understand. This philosophy is so transparently safe and convenient. Finding older adults with this philosophy is easy. Call it, "learned helplessness" or "idealism meets reality." I'm optimistic, but experience has taught me I'm not in control of outcomes and outcomes can be painful. When I was younger I had high hopes and high expectations. Many young people are this way.
Things haven't turned out like I expected. Up to a point I thought X would happen because I was doing Y. Something unexplainable and undeniable happened. Perhaps the nail went in the bottle or I assumed it would and it didn't. I don't know. Some people have things happen and then have no hope and no expectations. I understand why this happens--sort of a "deeds become creeds" thing. We all examine our experiences with providence and pain, then manufacture a coherent, logical life story. Some abandon hopes or expectations over unexplainable, yet undeniable circumstances. "Nothing works," they say.
When things appear to go wrong, I blame myself for lacking the wisdom or will-power to make good decisions or make correct sense of circumstances. I know life has choices and actions have consequences. When someone says their way skips all that, I smile. Thus, I expect there must be some connection between what's happening today and what I did yesterday. Life is full of infinitely small and large choices and actions. How they all work together is a mystery to me. I hope and expect they all eventually work together for good.
There is an unexplainable rhythm and harmony in the universe that is undeniable. My friends speak in proofs, hypotheses, sermons, commandments, precepts, and theories, but the topic is inevitably the greater without or the more within. My colleagues are all about extending boundaries, but there is always "greater and more." We speak of the unexplainable. What we do not fully know but perceive to be so.
What's the point?
Well, that's the ultimate question. We are everything from atheist to fundamentalist and in every case our hopes and expectations try to cipher the point of existence. We find our faith in our hopes and mysteries. We hope in what we believe. Our hope is as big as our belief. Christians believe the "greater and more" wants to get personal and be the object of our hopes and expectation. Until Christians get more details and the bigger picture we lean into the Bible and affirm the Apostle's Creed.
The Psalmist says, God names all the stars and holds the universe in the span of his hand. I like that. My hope is that this is so and my expectation is that I will someday get to see more of the universe than I do now. What do your hopes and expectations have to offer? Reality is what it is regardless, so hope big. If God is for us, who can stand against us? If God isn't, I still have no regrets. Perfect hope wishes hope for all.
This note borders on being silly because I think I know something. I'm also pretty sure there are 299,999,999,999,999,998 stars in the universe. They counted two stars twice.
