“It’s been an incredible journey,” to quote John Grunsfeld, NASA’s Science Mission Chief, the day the New Horizon came as close to planet Pluto as had been planned or, perhaps a better term, hoped. Grunsfeld’s was a fair enough statement, but I would classify it as an understatement. Of course, he knows better than I do, for he was part of the journey, even if not physically in the New Horizon. To adequately express it, one would need to pile up almost every word denoting extravagance and a myriad of “!!!!’s”. Among the words I would choose is “miracle.” Yes, a scientific miracle.
“Scientific
miracle?” What’s that? Isn’t that an
oxymoron? It may be to some folks who
see the two as opposites. Miracle to them is associated with religion,
something from which science is allegedly far removed. That, of course, is a
myth, a deceitful one at that. Yet, that myth has become the common sense of
our century and thus the politically correct opinion to be contradicted only at
your own peril.
O’o, there’s
that thing called contradiction again that I kind of legitimized in Post 60.
Well, not really. The contradictions posited by the politically correct are
pseudo contradictions, false choices the correctness folk impose on us without
a rational
basis. Those imposed on us are not contradictions at all. Science and miracle
are perfectly comfortable bed partners.
How else explain the fact that modern science in its fetus stage got its
start in the bosom of the Christian community, nay, in its very womb? And, if you know your birds and bees, you
know that most of us enter the womb in bed!
I insist on calling this achievement one
of the greatest miracles in human history and am perfectly comfortable with
that term. Just think of the astounding
numbers associated with it. Taking my data from an Associated Press article in
the VS (“A Hallmark in Human
History,” July 15, 2015, B6), the
project took 50 years of planning! What foresight, imagination and patience
that required!—“the last stop on a planetary tour of the solar system a
half-century in the making”! It was
“epic journey… that spanned more than 4.8 billion km and more than nine years”!
The nearest it reached the planet was “within 12,300 km” at a speed of 50,000
km/h. Now, driving an RV that far, which I have done more than once, is a
distance, but within our planetary environment that’s like next door! It’s like
having arrived and all you need to do is to fumble in your pocket to retrieve
the key to open the door. I confess to never having driven that fast! And get this: “It actually happened 72 seconds
earlier and about 65 km closer than anticipated”! I can’t get my mind around that, absolutely
not even close. What precision over so many years and kms! Even the cost of
this adventure sounds pretty low in a day when we calculate our funds by the
billions—a “mere” $720 million! However,
during the very moment of this miracle, NASA staff and friends were justifiably
celebrating at countdown central in Laurel, Md., hundreds of them, but “the
actual flight control room was empty save for a worker sweeping up”! I regard this last bit of info as humorously
amazing, but, true, somewhat downgraded from miracle.
The above
paragraph is probably the most amazing one I have ever written; certainly the
one with the most exclamation marks! You can’t write about this venture without
inundating your story with those “!!!!’s”! It can’t be done.
Of course,
some people, including many Christians, associate miracles only with God. It is
true that the major miracle for which God is known is that of His love for a
fallen people and His surrendering His Son to reconcile Himself to them. That is an amazing miracle indeed. However,
we don’t need to downplay the miraculous in human life in order to glorify God
for His. There’s room for both in the realm of miracles. They are both
miraculous, though of different nature and import. We may give full credit to
humans when they perform what can only be considered a miracle, without
detracting from God.
I have published stuff on miracles. You can
find those materials on my website at
One of these
days I hope to return to that subject.
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