the stars of heaven dec 2001

[...]... very aware of the locations and motions of the visible stars Some of these cultures had catalogued and grouped thousands of stars and perhaps thought that the visible stars were all the stars that existed.7 On the other hand, the Old Testament writers theorized there were many more stars than humans could see According to Genesis 22:17, the stars were as great in number as the sands of the seashore... between the intense turbulence of the heavens and the calm order of the village and church below The contrast makes the sky resonate in the mind long after your eyes leave the painting van Gogh's art is just one example of humanity's passion for stars In fact, humans have always looked to the stars as a source of inspiration and transcendence to lift them beyond the boundaries of ordinary intuition The. .. universe Current theories of the early Universe suggest it inflated faster than the speed of light; therefore, we will never see some of the very distant parts of the Universe.17 This means that the observable Universe is only that part that is acces- Introduction xix sible to us, given the age of the Universe and the finite speed of light If the inflationary theory is correct, then even with the most amazing... Islamic theology, the number of stars is also a metaphor for a huge number In pre-Islamic times, Ka'b Al-Ahbar was one of the great Jewish scholars He later became a Muslim and said, "On the 15th of [the month of] Shaban, Allah ordered that Paradise be decorated, and then Allah freed from hellfire as many persons as the number of stars in the universe."12 Today we can get a feel for the actual number of stars. .. and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for... against the background of fainter, more distant Figure 1.6 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel stars Half a year later, when the Earth Germán postage stamp issued on had traveled 186 million miles to the June 19, 1984, on his 200th birthday 12 The Stars of Heaven opposite end of its orbit, he again photographed the same star The shift of the star against the other background stars could be used to compute the star's... have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him And lo, the star, which they saw in the east, XVI The Stars of Heaven went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy (Matthew 2:1-2, 9-10) Over the centuries numerous scholars have sought a scientific explanation for the Star of Bethlehem (figure 1.3)... humidity to make some of the alien artists feel at home The air smells of machine oil and wine Mr Plex looks up The light is dim orange from the overhead receptacles of bioluminescent insects Mostly it's quiet, except for the throbbing of the lifesupport machines, the hum of various air pumps, and the clacking of Mr Flex's five metatarsal nails against the tile floor On one of the walls is a calcite... even answer Aristotle's strongest argument against it: If there is no stellar parallax, the Earth does not orbit the Sun In other words, there should be a shift in the apparent position of a star observed from the Earth when the Earth is on one side of the Sun and then six months 8 The Stars of Heaven Figure 1.3 Galileo Galilei (15641642) Would the Church have reprimanded Galileo if he was able to demonstrate... you loose the cords of Orion?9 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?10 Do you know the laws of the heavens?" In Isaiah 40:26, God similarly reminds us that He knows their number and their names: "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name Because of His great . likely you have the atoms of the great Biblical prophets coursing through your body, and they, like all of us, breathed in the atoms from the stuff of stars. As mathematician Rudy. 1.2. Look at the contrast between the intense turbulence of the heavens and the calm order of the village and church below. The contrast makes the sky resonate in the mind long . Some of these cultures had catalogued and grouped thousands of stars and perhaps thought that the visible stars were all the stars that existed. 7 On the other hand, the Old