Yesterday I read with interest (and sadness) the post about the drive by Republicans to kill the John Webb Space Telescope. In discussing their motives for doing so, Charles made a very keen observation:

Can’t help but suspect that one reason why the GOP is anxious to kill this project is because this telescope may discover things about the origin of the universe — things that will seriously undermine the fundamentalist mindset.

When you believe in the literal truth of the Bible, you’re going to be hostile to projects like this because they have the very real potential to wreck your world view.

I have been pondering that statement a lot in the past 24 hours not only because I am a lover of Astronomy, I’m also a Christian. My interest in astronomy dates back well before I became Christian. I remember my grandfather giving me an astronomy book and a telescope around my 11th birthday. The telescope wasn’t super powerful, but it enabled to me get a closer look at the stars than I’d ever had before. I had one reaction: “Wow”.

I’ve been in love with space ever since.

I know it’s fair to say that in the minds of a lot Christians, Charles is speaking the truth. In my case though, I WELCOME things which challenge my faith and my belief system. Now the fact I don’t believe in a literal reading of Genesis doesn’t hurt (I believe each “day” of the account represents a period of time, in most cases many many years) but on top of that I’m big on critical thinking and analysis.

I also believe it’s logical to assume God would want us to learn more about the earth and our Universe. Since He created it and Christian doctrine states that everything he does is meant to bring us closer to Him, it stands to reason that the more we understood the Universe, the more we’d understand the creator.

The idea that people are trying to kill this project because it would tear down long held ideas about the origins of the Universe, Earth and Mankind is perhaps well represented by a line of a dialogue in the film Jurassic Park.

During the park tour, Ian Malcolm lays down the following series of events:

God creates Dinosaurs
God destroys Dinosaurs
God creates Man
Man destroys God
Man creates dinosaurs

It’s that second to last one that’s relevant here. Malcolm is saying man “destroyed” God because through enlightenment and scientific discovery we disproved the existence of God and eliminated the need to rely on ancient mythology to explain the origins of existence.

This is what the right wing fears. They think that as science advances man will indeed “Destroy” God and the church and belief system as they know it will vanish (nevermind it’s managed to survive 2000+ years of scrutiny already).

Speaking both as an Astronomy buff AND as a Christian I support the JWST project. I don’t think that learning more about the origins of the Universe is going to smash the Christian belief system to pieces and I DO think that learning more about the universe (which in turns helps us learn more about the earth and ourselves is a very good thing.