By Dennis Edwards
Robert
Jastrow (1925-2008) was a disciple of Edwin Hubble the famous American
astronomer whose interpretation of the red shift in light from distant galaxies
gave rise to the Big Bang Theory. After Hubble died, Jastrow continued with
much of Hubble’s work. A few years ago Jastrow
wrote a book called God and the Astronomers. In an interview about his faith, or
lack of it, he makes an interesting observation. He starts by talking about the
implications of the Hubble’s red-shift. Read for yourself from his own words:
“If you
reverse the motion, the outward motions of the stars and galaxies and go
backwards in time, they come closer and closer together. Finally, they reach a
point where they are nearly infinite in density and temperature and further
than that you cannot go. So, there’s a beginning, a point in time from which it
all started. That’s a remarkable thing. It has a strong theological flavor to
it, which intrigued me, because I am an agnostic. But if there was a beginning,
a moment of creation of the universe, then there was a creator. But a creator
is not compatible with agnosticism. I found that point so interesting, that I
felt a strong compulsion to share it with others.
"That’s why
I wrote the book. Just like I can’t believe there was a creator, I can’t
believe that this all happened by chance, which implies, there was a creator.
So you see, I am in a completely hopeless bind and I have stayed there. Again,
I find it hard to believe that this is all a matter of atoms and molecules. So,
I try to fit into my concept of the world the conclusion that there is a larger
force of some kind which we can call God, or whatever. But I can’t accept that,
because I’m a materialist in philosophy. I believe the world consists entirely
of material substances (and no supernatural causes). When you specify those
substances and the laws of how they interact, you have done it all. Nothing
more needs to be said.
"That’s what science tells me. I have been a scientist all my life. But I find it unsatisfactory, in fact, it makes me uneasy. I feel I am missing something. But I will not find out what I am missing within my lifetime.”[1]
"That’s what science tells me. I have been a scientist all my life. But I find it unsatisfactory, in fact, it makes me uneasy. I feel I am missing something. But I will not find out what I am missing within my lifetime.”[1]
So here we see Robert Jastrow, who worked with Hubble on the
Hubble Telescope, making an incredible confession. He’s been a materialist, an
atheist, an agnostic, which is a type of atheism, all his life. Now he is coming
to the end of his life and he’s having
doubts about the world view he has held all his life. He’s looked at the
idea of the Big Bang, a naturalistic origin theory, and the fact that there was
a beginning point bothers him. He concludes that “If there is a beginning
point, then there must be a cause for why the universe came into existence. If
there is a cause then it seems probable that the cause could be a Creator God." But the idea of a Creator God is contrary to Jastrow’s materialistic world
view. And yet he has found his materialistic world view to be unsatisfying.
However, even though his mind and conscience are leading him to reject the
world view he has held all his life and embrace a world view with a Creator God,
he’s not able to. He’s caught in the atheistic, agnostic mindset which gave him
freedom to forget about God and believe and do whatever he wanted to do.
We don’t know how his world view affected his morality and
his sexual life. The famous intellectual and writer of the 20th century Aldous
Huxley candidly confessed that he chose the atheististic, materialistic,
naturalistic world view because he wanted his sexual and moral freedom. Robert
Jastrow doesn’t talk about that aspect of his life, but he talks about being
captured in a philosophical atheistic world view or mindset, and although he no
longer feels comfortable there, he is unable to make the jump to faith. He's not able to accept the
belief that the universe was created and not just a result of purposelessness. Here he is coming to the end of his life and
he senses that the world view he’s followed all his life has fallen short. But
he’s caught and he’s not able to make the jump to faith, to a world view with a
Creator God.
It’s a really sad
commentary, a really sad statement. Please don’t make the same mistake that he
made. Ask God to break you out of any kind of chains or mindset that are not of
Him. Apostle Peter wrote, “Where they promise them liberty, they themselves are
the servants of corruption.” The evil spirits and demonic doctrines of men
capture us and bind our thoughts so that later on when we come to the end of
our lives and we see the futility of our atheism, or the futility of our naturalism
and we want to break free, we can’t, because we are caught in a web of deceit. We
are caught by false concepts. We are caught by our pride and we’re unable to
make that leap to faith.
I remember the story of the famous WWII war hero British
Field Marshall Montgomery who led the combined Allied forces during the initial
part of the D - Day Campaign. When Montgomery was coming to the end of his
life, he, too, was feeling apprehensive. After the war when he gotten all the
glory and fame his conscience didn’t bother him. It was fine then to get the
praise of man. “Hail, Monty!” It was wonderful and his conscience didn’t
bothered him one bit. But at the end of his life, at 88 years of age, he’s
getting close to the end of his life and he’s not able to sleep at night. His
conscience is bothering him. He calls up his best friend and says, “Hey, you’ve
got to come over and talk to me. I know
I am going to die soon and I’m not able to sleep, because I don’t know what I’m
going to tell God about all those young lads that died under my command. I
don’t have a good argument to give Him.”
What at one point was all GLORY, now he is seeing it in a
different perspective. His conscience is weighing on him and he’s wondering how
is he going to justify all those deaths of those young British soldiers who
died under his command. When we get to the end of our lives, we start
reflecting a little bit more deeply on the decisions we have made and the
events of our lives. We see our mistakes sometimes more clearly than we did
when we were younger. They attack us in the quiet moments or at night when we
can’t sleep and come at us like waves of doubts, almost drowning us in dispair. let's hope that Montgomery's friend was able to bring Monty to real faith in Christ who promises to forgive all our iniquities.
I am reminded of the story in the New Testament where the
Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who
had been taken in adulery, in the very act. The Pharisees had brought the woman
to Jesus to see how he would judge her. According to the Law of Moses she was
to be stoned to death. But Jesus very wisely answered, “He that is without sin
among you, let him cast the first stone.” And the passage very correctly goes
on to say that they, the Pharisees, when out one by one beginning at the eldest
even to the youngest. The younger ones were ready to cast the stone because
they felt they could justifiably kill that woman, since she was a sinner
anyway. Whereas the older men knew that they would be seeing their Maker soon.
The knew they needed God’s forgiveness. The sins of their lives were laying
heavy on them as they reached the end of their lives. They knew they were soon
going to have to face their Maker. But the younger men were not thinking about
death and they were ready to stone the woman and “Get rid of that sinner.”
Please, think about these things and call out to God for
help to get over your lack of faith, or your agnosticismo, or skepticism, or
doubts. Reach out for Him as He’s not far from any one of us, for in Him we do
live and move and have are being. And He will come as He has promised. Please,
call upon Him in Jesus’s name. Just say, “Come, Lord Jesus, I open my heart,
show me the way wherein I should walk. Deliver me! Help me! Rescue me!”
Saint Augustine said, “Seek not to understand that you may
believe, but seek to believe that you may understand.” Seek that God would increase
your faith, strengthen your belief in Him and enlighten your understanding. Jesus
said it was not only necessary to hear the Word of God, which brings faith, but
to understand it. So let us ask God to open our understanding of His Word! King
David prayed, “Open Thou my eyes that I may behold wonderous thing out of Thy
law.” Let us let God’s love come into our hearts. Let us let God’s
understanding come into our minds, by calling upon Him by faith. And let faith
work on our hearts and on our minds so that we can see things a new. Let us continue
reading, studying and meditating on God’s Word, because if we do, we shall know
the truth and the truth shall set us free. Then we will be able to say like C.
S. Lewis “By Him I can see and understand everything else.”
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