Why does an eclipse of the sun by the moon work so completely?    Think of an eclipse of the television by your favorite pesky kid …. you can usually see some of the television still, or, if the pesky kid is big, you cannot see the television but there is part of the kid that you see that is not blocking your view of the television.

Yet when the sun is eclipsed by the moon you (in yesterday’s case Asia) see only the corona of the sun, the heavenly body is completely blocked by that pesky moon.

It fits like a key into a lock.

Why?

According to this website, here is the mathmatical  reason:

The Sun happens to be 400 times the Moon’s diameter, and 400 times as far away. That coincidence means the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size when viewed from Earth. A total solar eclipse, in which the Moon is between the Earth and Sun, blocks the bright light from the Sun’s photosphere, allowing us to see the faint glow from the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

Ah, what a coincidence it is.

What are the odds that happened by mere chance?

Is it easiler to believe that a Creator hung the moon in its place?

And that was not the only coincidence in the heavens this week.

Think about this one and imagine the luck needed to have picked this at random.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112
 
July 20, 1969  USA on the moon
25 years later
July 20, 1994  Comet strikes Jupiter
15 years later
July 20, 2009 A large black cloud appears on Jupiter

Here is what one scientist said (quote from above article) “

“We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn’t have planned it better,” said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL.  “It could be the impact of a comet, but we don’t know for sure yet,” said Orton. “It’s been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing.”

So the scientists are amazed by the orderliness of the seemingly random events.  That is something that scientists should be quite immune to by now, given that order is found everywhere in the allegedly “by chance” universe.

Back to Jupiter, aka Zeus, the symbol in ancient religions for the King of the Gods, the ultimate authority.  (Hmmm, how did the ancients know Jupiter was the largest planet?)   Something supposedly really did ”strike” Jupiter on July 20.  It must have been something really large  –  The scar on Jupiter’s face is the  size of the Pacific Ocean!

And we did not see it on the way there? 

Is someone asleep at the Hubble?

Or could it be that something is happening on the surface of Jupiter, that there was no strike at all, but instead, perhaps, an eruption from inside of Jupiter?  Just wondering – nothing as serious as the 400 times 400 above  – this is just speculation. 

But if it was a strike, as NASA claims (without explaining how they missed it on the way) that made a scar larger than our moon, then imagine if that blow had hit us, or our moon, or even a near neighbor?

Could really ruin one’s day.  Would your life have meaning if ended by such a ”coincidence?”  Now think a moment — If all  is mere coincidence, then does your life have meaning even before such a strike?  If all is mere chance, does your life have meaning in this moment?

Only the meaning found in random paint splatterings, much like a Jackson Pollack painting.   This is in reality the absence of meaning, and is the spiritual plague that calls itself modernity.  A finite point (you), said the postmodern philosopher Sartre, without an infinite reference point (the Creator) is absurd. 

But I have great news, your life is not absurd!!!

The universe is a mystery — and not mere coincidence and heat death, friends.   It has great meaning.  It has an infinite reference point.

It is designed and operated by a Designer.  Click here for more on that idea.

The same Designer who designed your body and who created your soul.

The same Designer that you will one day, probably not too far into the future, meet face to Face.  How is that for ultimate meaning?

 

Ready or not?  Click here for musings if not. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 am and is filed under Gabriel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.