Bahá’í World/Volume 5/Influence of Astronomy on Religious Thought
INFLUENCE OF ASTRONOMY ON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
BY GIORGIO ABETTI
(Translated from the Italian by H. E. H.)
WHAT the border-lines are between science and faith, and how to trace them, is a problem that has been ably expounded in numerous writings, among the most classic of which is a letter written by Galileo to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Cristina di Lorena, at the time of some of the most important and revolutionary events in the history of human thought. Today we find, from a religious point of view in the Bahá’í Teachings that the relationship existing between “science” and "religion” is considered to be a fundamental one.
Specialized Science is a dominion of the few elect, who make of some branch of science their life-work, adding one by one the stones that go to construct our great temple of knowledge: an edifice that would be in itself mute and useless, had it not direct and immediate contact with humanity. And only because of this close relationship, the development of knowledge along lines of the various sciences has its “raison d’être”; for the material advantage gained for man’s daily life is of secondary importance to the great benefit derived from a wider and better acquaintance with the world in which he lives.
While general literature, history, ethical science, philosophy, music and art serve to elevate the soul of man and carry him to sublime heights in the realm of thought, they tell him nothing concerning his relative position in this world which God has destined for him; neither do they tell him how it was created nor where it is placed, nor what its destiny. For this knowledge the physical, mathematical and natural sciences are necessary; and the continual unravelling of the mysteries of the heavens is always a cause for wonder and admiration. Especially in the field of astronomy the progress made these last fifty years has been indeed phenomenal, and such as can be compared to that made during the lives of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton.
What changes do such discoveries bring to the great human family? Will they contribute in some specific way to its betterment? It is difficult to affirm absolutely, especially in the light of recent world happenings that have brought such devastation and ruin to man both physically and morally. But I believe we can draw certain conclusions from the recent discoveries made and theories developed by astronomers, which prove that incalculable benefits to humanity have resulted from them, and I would also say that these benefits might be considered equal to those which faith and religion might give. One even finds that they are brought into such close relationship, one with the other, as to form a bond between men that surpasses the limits of different regions, bringing people of all races and tongues into a universal fraternity of one language—an international tongue.
As all good Christians acknowledge that in the coming of Christ, and in the teachings given by Him, the salvation and redemption of humanity was effected, so also those who have the gift of reason, and think not only of the pleasures of this mundane life, must acknowledge that from the time that we have come to know something of the form and size and position of the earth in the great infinite construction of the universe, the mind is better prepared now, and more nearly ready to understand and to venerate the greatness of God.
At one time it was believed that the earth,
of which neither the form not the movements
[Page 652]
were then known, was the center and
the most important part of the sidereal
structure. The sun, the stars and the planets were
considered as existing solely for the earth’s
benefit, and man on this earth could easily
find it possible to believe himself to have an
important function in its structure, to be
created by God the only master in this marvelous
world, so wonderfully rich in beauty
and in its infinite variety of plants and
animals. And we believed that beyond this
earth, the stars that illumined it and
revolved around it were mysterious objects that
had an influence over the destiny of man and
could regulate that destiny according to their
caprice.
To have been able to discover the laws concerning the movements of the heavenly orbs, their relative distances one from the other, and their composition—if this is little or nothing compared to the great mystery of creation which man will always venerate but will never be able to unveil, it is a remarkable step ahead that cannot do less than astonish and carry man to sublime conceptions which are beyond the strictly scientific field and which enter at once into the realm of religion.
The sun was regarded by the ancients as a divinity that gave light and heat to the earth, but of its size and construction nothing was known until a comparatively recent date. Today we know that the sun, like the earth, is a globe; but instead of being solid, as is the earth, it is gaseous and of a very high temperature. From the sun were sent off at a very distant time, the planets that surround it, and also our earth. These globes, being so much smaller than Father Sun, cooled more quickly, becoming liquid and then solid, and even now some of the larger planets are still liquid, while the smaller, like the earth, are in a solid state. At a certain period, also very remote, forms of vegetable life became possible; we know this to be so especially of the earth. And this life, which depends upon the sun, exists only in a very restricted range of temperature, as we verify through our observations of the earth, and so it is not difficult to deduce a rather positive hypothesis concerning the possibility of life on other planets. On Mars at least, it would seem that conditions do exist similar to those on the earth, and hence we may conclude that in the entire solar family the earth is not the only member to be populated with forms of life as we know them.1
Thus, then, is presented before our eyes the picture of a well-ordered and organic heavenly family that has had a past and will have a future; that is created with a formidable reserve of energy, well regulated and well distributed. We find ourselves indeed in the presence of a marvelous machine, and, if we compare this with the small machines constructed by man, we must conclude this marvelous machine to have been created by a Being of much superior intelligence Who dominates and governs the universe. But all this is very little compared to that which astronomy has revealed to us beyond that concerning the solar system. Here really the human mind loses itself in the conception of the Infinite that is beyond the possibilities of comprehension, and it is brought, in consequence, to an awe and veneration of God and inspired to follow His commandments.
The great discoveries which followed quickly upon those regarding the composition of the sun were: First, the fact that all the stars are similar to the sun; that they are therefore spheres of gas of a very high temperature, some higher and some lower than the sun itself, while some are much larger than the sun and some smaller. The sun is not among either the largest or the smallest spheres, and it is therefore one of the many stars distributed in the universe without any special position or characteristic that distinguishes it from the others. Second, it has been ascertained that the matter of which all
————————
1When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked regarding the starsHe replied: "As to your question regarding the stars, know that these brilliant stars are numberless and their existence is not devoid of wisdom both useful and important. Rather they are worlds, as is this world of ours. But they differ in their bodies by the difference of elements, from this earthly body. They differ in formation. The beings existent upon these bodies are according to their formation.
“As to the worlds whereunto Christ (unto Whom be glory) referred; they are spiritual, divine, heavenly, single, unlocated—the imperfect mind cannot comprehend them, nor can the shining souls know them. But verily, the sight of the people of the Kingdom of El-‘Abhá perceives them, and the intellect of the people of the Supreme Concourse apprehends them.”
[Page 653]
the stars are formed is one; not only that of
the stars, but that of the planets as well,
which is identical with that of the stars, for
we find there the same substances, that is,
the same elements. In the stars and in the
sun these elements are found to be at a very
high temperature, therefore all are in a
gaseous state. In the planets the temperature is
much lower, yet some are still in a gaseous
stage, others are liquid and still others solid.
The elements that the physicists and chemists
study here on the earth are found to be
scattered in more or less profusion
throughout the Universe. The oneness of
matter of which the bodies are composed
is now a positive and well-established
fact, the fruit of astronomical research.
How many are these stars that we can see in great numbers with the naked eye and the numberless ones that appear with the aid of the telescope? They are infinite in number, gathered together here and there in the heavens. They move, and where do they go? Are they placed accidentally without order, or have we here, as we have seen in the solar system, an organic whole, well-ordered, that reveals the action of a superior mind, the mind of the Creator? To all these questions the recent conclusions of astronomical research answers, if not absolutely, in a measure. If this research work proceeds in the future at the same ratio that it has advanced during the last few years, we shall be able to arrive at much greater facts concerning the wonders of creation. If we reckon, beside those which, with the most powerful telescopes we can count one by one, also those which constitute the nebulae, the stellar clusters and all those we cannot see but which we know must exist there where human possibilities of today cannot yet reach, we can say that the stars are infinite in number. But we must conceive them to be finite in number if we limit ourselves to observe and estimate only those which compose the Milky Way—a system of stars which even with the naked eye is revealed as a marvelous creation, resplendent on a serene night, and stretching completely across the heavens. The astronomers have now concluded that the Milky Way is a finite system which has a construction and life of its own, and is formed of numberless suns which revolve around a common center, as the planets revolve around our sun. They can also certify in a relative way the dimensions of these bodies as being infinitely greater than that of our sun, which is so much larger than our small earth. These dimensions are expressed in mathematical figures, but these figures are so great that the human mind is really not able to grasp the immensity of the calculations. Even more confused is the mind when we try to unravel the mysteries of the space beyond the Milky Way where we find other heavenly systems that are similar to it and seem independent of it, or if connected, are families of stars that remain grouped by themselves and so distant from our solar system that we may conceive others to exist at greater distances still!
Here we come again to a conception of the Infinite! The existence of a universe that has its independent life and a well-determined composition, is immersed in space, that for man is infinite in its dimensions, and this, we may certify has been so proven mathematically by the human intelligence.
The Universe, as we have said, is formed of one primal matter which is found in all the heavenly globes. And not only this, but as far as we can discover, the Universe seems to have been created from an initial agglomeration of this matter, which with great energy and colossal processes has been transformed and sent out from its original center, until we find it, at this instant constituted and proportioned as we observe.
To speak of an instant, that is the swiftly
passing moment represented by human life,
is inexact; because we who live in space, do
not know the present of all we can see in
the heavens. In fact, the further we
penetrate into space, the more we are looking
into the past; therefore the present state of
the Universe, at least that little of which is
given us to observe, is unknown to us, as
its future is unknown. But this we must
remember: as the scale of the size of the
Universe is for us infinite, so also is the time
infinite that regulates its evolution.
According to the life of man this evolution is very
slow although the energy regulating it is
great, the movements rapid, and the change
and transformation of the matter continuous
and tremendously active. Man must therefore,
[Page 654]
when considering these divine mysteries
of creation, abandon the idea he gets of his
own brief life-span conceived in space and
time so as to lift himself into the higher
ideals of life that are completely outside mere
terrestrial existence.
This, then, is the universal language that the Disciples of God, teaching and venerating the Glory of God and of His Son, must diffuse in all the world. This is not a Babel of tongues and therefore incomprehensible to this or that people; it is a universal language that well-presented and explained should be understood, and should prove of such common good as to bring Universal Peace to the entire human family.