DISCOVERY OF GOD
Silent Signs of Science
THE sun is 1,300,000 times the size of our earth, and 149,600,000 kilometres distant from it. Despite this enormous distance, light and heat from the sun reach us in considerable quantity. By cosmic standards, the sun is a relatively small star; it appears large to us because of its proximity.
Most stars are both larger and more radiant than the sun. Vast globes of heat and light, they are scattered throughout the universe. They have been shining for billions of years, but their reserves of thermal energy show no signs of exhaustion. How do stars produce such vast quantities of energy? The astrophysicist Hans Bethe spent years exploring this question. Finally he discovered that the secret lies in the CNO cycle (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle). His research in this field won him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1967.
The day that Hans Bethe made this great discovery was one of great joy for him. His wife, Rose, says that she was with her husband in the New Mexico desert when it happened. It was night, and the stars shone with immense lustre on the vast, open desert. She looked up with wonder at the sky. “Gosh,” she exclaimed, “how brightly the stars shine!” Her husband replied: “Do you realise, just now you are standing next to the only human being who knows why they shine at all?”.
Nature may appear silent but it speaks about
its creator, God, for those who wish to hear.
Hans Bethe’s discovery answered a very small part of the real question; it did not reach the crux. His discovery of the CNO cycle leaves a greater question unanswered: how does this CNO cycle operate in stars?
A true believer finds the answer to this question in the form of God, the Maker and Sustainer of the universe. It is God who has invested the stars with this magic property. Another fascinating fact is the enormous synchronisation and harmonious existence of countless moving stars and planets that remain in their orbits without striking one another— doesn’t this awesome fact point to the existence of a rational being behind it?
It is ironical that a small discovery should make a scientist lose himself in a spontaneous outburst of feeling, while the far greater discovery that a believer makes—that of God—should create in him no such feeling. Those who really believe in God feel the joy of their discovery. Their joy is beyond expression, it is so overwhelming. If there are no traces of the joy of discovery, then the discovery itself has yet to be made. Nature may appear silent but it speaks about its creator, God, for those who wish to hear. o
Contact with God
Every observation and learning can serve as a
point of reference to establish contact with God
instantly and seek His blessings.