CREATION, COSMOLOGY,
Conscience and Challenge
Paul H. Carr
31 January 2016, Manatee UU Fellowship, Bradenton, FL.
Our awareness of the awesome beauty of creation, the moon and the stars, gave birth to the science of cosmology. A new cosmic conscience must give us a new integral ecology to meet the challenge of our destruction of our common home.
I. THE WONDER & BEAUTY OF CREATION
The wonder and beauty of creation is expressed in Psalm 8 of David, written about 3000 years ago:
"When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you have established:
what is humankind that you are mindful of them,
and mortals that you care for them?"
This passage is reminiscent of my Methodist minister father saying:
"We should look to the heavens and steady
ourselves by the stars."
To celebrate the arrival of the three kings, a month ago we sang
Star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide
us to thy perfect Light.
II. COSMOLOGY
Our planet’s light and energy comes from the sun.
Cosmologists In the last century have discovered that the sun is a giant
nuclear fusion reactor. It fusing hydrogen into helium,
generating energy and light.
As stars age, this fusion process continues
from hydrogen to helium, lithium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen until we get
all the elements in the periodic table. At the end of their
life, stars explode into brilliant, beautiful super novae.
The gravitational attraction of this star dust formed the solar system including our earth. Thus, we and everything in
nature are all made from the same stardust. “We are made of stardust.”
as our beloved Kay Jackson used to say.
Thus, modern scientific cosmology thus tells
us how God created Adam from the dust
of the earth.
"Religion is poetry plus,
not science minus," (according to Prof. Krister Stendahl, former dean of the Harvard Divinity School.)
Returning to the poetry of Psalm 8:3-4:
"When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established:
what are humans that you are mindful of them’
and mortals that you care for them.? "
Yet you have made them little less than God.
A little girl was having a
conversation with God.
The girl said: "Is it
true, God, that a thousand years are like a minute to you?"
God said: "Yes, my
daughter."
The girl said: "Is it
true, God, that a million dollars are like a penny?"
God said: "Yes, my
dear."
Then girl had a bright idea
and asked: "God could you please give me a penny?"
God thought and said:
"Yes, my daughter, if you could patiently wait a minute."
Psalm 8 continues (vs 5 -8):
" Yet you have made humans a little less than God, and crown them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; You have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air , and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
III. CONSCIENCE
These last passages refer, of course, to "our
dominion over the works of your hands," namely the responsibility for our
earth. Does this "dominion" lead to conscience and moral responsibility? I should like to present three viewpoints:
(1) YES: We are
"created co-creators" with God and therefore responsible stewards,
(as advocated by Prof. Philip Hefner, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
and}
(2) YES BUT: The
creationists believe that Psalm 8 and Genesis are literally true, but when
they disagree with modern science, science is questionable or in error.
(3) NO: The
biblical "dominion" is anthropocentric, self-centered, and self-serving.
It has led us to such disasters as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Let’s
throw out these ancient stories and replace them with new sacred story based on
the modern Science of Creation. The international scientific community created
this story, which transcends national, cultural, and religious differences.
The anthropocentric biblical account was
appropriate 3000 years ago, when the world population was about 40 million
people. However, with our population of 7 billion, which is exploding rapidly,
our technology is having a major impact on our earthly home.
The history of
our earth can give us an appreciation of hundred millions of years that it took
to form the oil, gas, and coal, that are our present fossil fuels. At our
present rates, we will have depleted, in a few hundred years, a non-renewable
resource that took 100s of millions of years to form. As Dr. James Hansen, formerly Director of at
NASA (Goddard Space Science Institute), said, “We will have to figure out how
to live without fossil fuels someday, why not now before we have ruined the
creation.”
Dr. Hansen and other climate scientists have
observed that the burning of these fossil fuels is increasing the
concentrations of carbon dioxide. This is trapping the earth’s heat and warming
it via the greenhouse effect. 2015 has been the hottest year on record as well
as the 14 years before. Sea levels are rising at the highest rate in thousands
of years from melting ice on Greenland, West Antarctica, and mountain glaciers.
My friend in Miami tells me that Miami Beach
is a flood zone during the King high tides. He has difficulty getting home
during these record high tides. Miami is spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars on barriers and dikes, but sea levels are seeping in, undermining its
limestone foundations. Salt water is now
encroaching on fresh water supplies for drinking. I was discussing this with
John Steinmeyer last Sunday. He said, ”We should be
spending more national funds on desalination research than on expanding our
military prowess, (which some Presidential candidates are advocating.)”
IV. OUR CHALLENGE to save the Creation
Today’s challenge is to develop sustainable
energy from the wind, sun, and the nucleus.
Solar and wind are free energy forever, after the up-front and
maintenance costs are paid-off, Solar energy from heaven is more sustainable
than fossil fuels from hell.
Unfortunately, solar and wind power are
not available all the time, particularly at night. Until utility scale
electricity storage becomes economical, electricity generated by nuclear
fission is the best option for 24/7 electricity. Dr. James Hansen and three
other top climate scientists have recently written an open letter. They stated, “Modern
nuclear technology can reduce proliferation risks and solve the waste disposal
problem by burning current waste and using fuel more efficiently. Innovation
and economies of scale can make new power plants even cheaper than existing
plants.” Engineers at MIT are designing a
nuclear plant that could be moored at sea, like an oil rig.It would cost about one-third less than a
conventional plant and take about half the time to build. Floating reactors
wouldn’t be in anyone’s backyard.
In his introduction to his book, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on
Earth” sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson wrote a
letter to an imaginary Baptist pastor asking for his help. Wilson was brought
up Baptist, but is now a secular humanist who believes
in evolution. The Baptist pastor is a creationist. The sociobiologist
implores the pastor to put aside our differences and work together to save the
Creation, which is in deep trouble.
Why
did biologist Wilson go the trouble of writing such a letter? Southern Baptists
are the largest Protestant Denomination with about 15 million members. There only something like four thousand
secular humanists. The Roman Catholics are the largest in the US, with over a
billion members worldwide.
Pope
Francis in his June 2015 June Encyclical, “Laudato
Si, On Care for our Common Home,” urges us to listen to the cry of our earth
and the cry of the poor, Our moral imperative is to stop plundering our planet
for profit, the poor suffering the most.
Pope
Francis wrote, “Saint Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend
the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is
to be human.”
Pope Francis’ Encyclical contributed to the progress made
at the UN Council of Parties meeting in Paris in December 2015, COP 21, as the meeting was called.
For
the first time more than 180 nations, large and small, submitted plans to
divert from their carbon-based business as usual.
The United States
insisted that the carbon decreases in Paris be voluntary. If they had been a
legally binding treaty, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky would have
made good on his promise to reject it. Our challenge this year is to elect a
new President who will continue a Presidential commitment of caring for our
common home.
Our
Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act is presently reducing
the carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. However, 23 states including
Florida are challenging this in court.
In
contrast to our regulatory approach for reducing carbon emissions, the Chinese
are starting to use the more economically efficient approach of putting a price
on carbon emissions, a capitalistic “cap and trade” approach. In Chinese cities
like Beijing, schools had to be closed recently due to the dense emissions from
coal burning plants. China is now the world’s largest total carbon emitter.
However, on a per capita basis, its carbon emissions are about one third those
of the United States.
To
date, the decrease in coal burning in the US has been due to the “invisible
hand” of economics. The cost of generating electricity with natural gas is less
than that of coal.
President
Reagan’s former Treasury Secretary, George Schultz, wants to harness this
“invisible hand” of economics with a revenue neutral fee on carbon. The money
from this fee would be a dividend that could be returned to everyone to
stimulate our economy. The fee would make fossil fuels
slightly more expensive than green energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro
and nuclear. The dividend would give people more money to spend, stimulating
our economy. This would create over 2 million jobs and reduce carbon dioxide
levels. You can learn more and get involved by visiting http://citizensclimatelobby.org
There is a lot we
can do as individuals. About 7 years ago when I first came to our Fellowship
Tom Stockebrand, showed me his truck that he had
modified to run with an electric motor powered by batteries. He was ahead of
his time. All of us now have the opportunity to buy doubly green electric
automobiles. They emit no carbon dioxide and get the equivalent of 100 miles
per gallon. Tom told me last Sunday,
“I just bought a three-year old electric Nissan Leaf for only $10,000. Its
acceleration is superb. It’s quiet, smooth, and fun to drive.”
The greatest climate challenge in the US is
from the extreme right and the extreme left. The extreme right believes that
global warming is a hoax. The extreme left believes that wind and solar energy
sources alone are about to solve the problem. Top climate scientists are
telling us that next generation nuclear reactors must be part of the solution
for 24/7 electricity.
In conclusion, our awareness of the
awesome beauty of creation, the moon
and the stars, gave birth to the science of cosmology.
A cosmic, planetary conscience must
give us a new integral ecology to meet the challenge
to our destruction of our common home.
Our present climate challenge reminds me
of the Cold War story of a shipwrecked Brit, a Communist, and two Americans.
The four of them managed to swim to a sand bar in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean. Their challenge was to deal with the rising tide that would put them
underwater in six hours. The Brit saw a log floating on the water, climbed onto
it, and proudly said: “Britannia has always ruled the waves,” as he paddled
off. The Communist said: “What drown
with these two capitalists!” and swam off. One American said to the other: “We
have only six hours to learn to live under water, let’s get going.” Paraphrasing according to climate-scientist
Dr. Jim Hansen, “We have only two decades to learn to generate our electricity
without fossil fuels, so let’s get going.”
Thank you.