Today Jews read of the creation of the world in Genesis. While I generally avoid touching musar-y expositions and forced Torah-science rectifications (but see here for the best book I’ve read in that regard), here are a couple thoughts.
Copernicus argued that we are, in fact, not the center of the universe, a stance that landed Galileo under house arrest for advocating by order of the Catholic Church. We are, however, the center of the universe that we can see. Due to the speed of light, we see things not as they are, but as they were, accounting for the time it took the light to reach us. Thus, looking out into space is a look back in time. Look back far enough and all we see all around us—from inside our 14 billion light year bubble—is light. Specifically, the cosmic microwave background, essentially a wall of electromagnetic radiation created by the big bang. In theory, were we able to see past the light of creation, we’d be able to look all the way back to the dawn of time, and all we’d see, in any direction we looked, is a singularity.
Many consider the turning point in man’s growth as a species to be the act of using tools to make tools. Many hold man’s capability to speak as its most notable trait. Both show a capacity for abstract thought in the act of creation and mark the change from man-like ape to ape-like man. The Bible recounts that Man was created “in the image of God.” To this point, the defining characteristics of God are His role as Creator and as a being that speaks: And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. In an interesting confluence of anthropological and religious thought, Man is different from the animals because he has the unique ability for cognition. To take this one step further, Man does not merely have the ability to create and speak, but the predisposition, the propensity, even the desire to create, to make, to build, and to think, to learn, to know, to understand. I feel the urge in myself. I like to think it is the mark of the divine.
Copernicus argued that we are, in fact, not the center of the universe, a stance that landed Galileo under house arrest for advocating by order of the Catholic Church. We are, however, the center of the universe that we can see. Due to the speed of light, we see things not as they are, but as they were, accounting for the time it took the light to reach us. Thus, looking out into space is a look back in time. Look back far enough and all we see all around us—from inside our 14 billion light year bubble—is light. Specifically, the cosmic microwave background, essentially a wall of electromagnetic radiation created by the big bang. In theory, were we able to see past the light of creation, we’d be able to look all the way back to the dawn of time, and all we’d see, in any direction we looked, is a singularity.
Many consider the turning point in man’s growth as a species to be the act of using tools to make tools. Many hold man’s capability to speak as its most notable trait. Both show a capacity for abstract thought in the act of creation and mark the change from man-like ape to ape-like man. The Bible recounts that Man was created “in the image of God.” To this point, the defining characteristics of God are His role as Creator and as a being that speaks: And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. In an interesting confluence of anthropological and religious thought, Man is different from the animals because he has the unique ability for cognition. To take this one step further, Man does not merely have the ability to create and speak, but the predisposition, the propensity, even the desire to create, to make, to build, and to think, to learn, to know, to understand. I feel the urge in myself. I like to think it is the mark of the divine.
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