The Starry Sky

I most recently encountered the idea in F. C. Happold's Religious Faith and Twentieth-Century Man.  Like a number of other thoughtful Christian writers over the past half-century, Happold (a modern mystic ) has commented upon the contrast between the cosmology of Biblical times and the one provided by our contemporary astronomy.  These writers know that the Bible was not meant to be science.  Nevertheless, they raise the question of whether "modern man's" way of thinking about the world is now so different that we cannot respond spiritually in a way paralleling that of people several centuries ago.  They point out how we now have detailed scientific knowledge of the cosmos, and ask if the kind of religious sentiment felt by people centuries ago is not diminished in contrast.

But I wonder.  I recognize that there has been an immense change in our scientific knowledge of the cosmos... but still I wonder.  I wonder whether it is our increased knowledge of astronomy that poses the problem, or perhaps something else.  I wonder if the challenge doesn't come more from some side effects of our scientific technology.

In Biblical times, people did not know about light-years of distance, or about the millions of galaxies, or about an expanding universe.  Those people could, however, simply look up at the sky at night and see more stars than anyone could count.  The stars were to them as innumerable as the grains of sand upon the shore (Gen. 22:17).  And those people's response could be sacred awe.

Today, most people rarely have the same experience, but I do not think it is because our scientific knowledge is so much greater.  It is instead because our firsthand experience of the night sky is so limited.  When we today look up at the sky at night, we most likely see only a fraction of the number of stars Biblical man saw.  All the ambient city lights prevent us from seeing a black-velvet background of sky studded with stars beyond anyone's counting.

Even if there were not so many electric lights outside to interfere, would that mean there wouldn't still be another problem?  Wouldn't all our technological temptations (TV., computers, and cellphones) distract us?  Even when there are a fair number of stars visible, how often do you see people in U.S. cities pause from their activities to look up and survey the starry night sky?

time exposure of night sky

Even if I cannot see as many stars as I would like to, I still like to look up and see as many as I can -- and I find it so wondrous!  That is why I like to periodically leaf through my book of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poems and read the opening lines of "The Starlight Night."  Those lines read:  

"Look at the stars!  look, look up at the skies!

O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!

The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!"

~~~

Do you have a favorite remembrance of having experienced the starry sky?