The Hand Of God

Description

If it was once thought that to look into the heavens was to look into the face of God, then the brilliant and striking images we're now seeing from deep in space, many from the Hubble Space Telescope, provide a glimpse of an eternally careful handiwork once invisible to the naked eye. We can now look into the outermost reaches of space, with spiral galaxies cartwheeling against an infinitude of black space, exploding supernovas and stellar nurseries, vast clouds of dark dust slowly parting to reveal the luminous star clusters of a nebula. Until recently, neither astronomers nor the public had ever seen such wondrous phenomena like this before at such close range. The deep space images of embryonic solar systems, black holes, and dying stars are now within our reach--and they're changing the way we look at our universe, ourselves, and God. Hundreds of years ago, science and belief fought a bitter war resulting in a longstanding split between reason and faith. But as the 20th century draws to a close, the Big Bang theory and discoveries in the laws of the constants provide ample evidence of the fine-tuning required to bring about our universe, leading scientists to wonder: Could such a carefully balanced cosmology be merely an accident? The Hand of God sheds new light on the timeless relationship between maker and made, creator and creation. These remarkable images provide an awe-inspiring background for quotes by scientists, poets, artists, astronauts, and others who have struggled eloquently to make sense of the universe and God's hand in it.

First Sentence

The age of naked-eye astronomy has lasted for most of our time on Earth: if the length of humankind's 2.5 million-year tenure is taken as one 24-hour day, then the era of the telescope has lasted a mere 15 seconds.

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