GOD AND ASTRONOMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21878, 14 August 1934, Page 12

GOD AND ASTRONOMY

SCIENTISTS' APPRECIATION MIGHTY MIND AT WORK MAN'S QUALITY COUNTS "Ifc v hns been said that the God of the theologian is only a shrimp compared with the God of the modern scientist," said the Rev. D. J. Davies, of Palmerston North, when, dealing, at All Saints' Church, Ponsonby, last night, with "God and the Astronomer in his series of addresses on science and religion. "Modern astronomy is emphasising the immensity of the universe and is bringing home to mankind the sovereignty of God," Mr. Davies said. It is bringing back the note of the 'awefulness' of God. It is telling of the units of the universe as revealed in many ways. The universe is seen to obey one law, and if there is mind behind it there can be only one mind." Mr. Davies quoted Sir James Jeans, the great astronomer and mathematician, as saying that the universe was more like a thought in the mind of God than a soulless universe. There was a mathematical mind with which man had enough in common to be able to understand tho mathematical principles on which tho universe was run.

Modern astronomy, the study of men like Jeans, was emphasising tho "GodCreator." It was insisting that there was a time when tho material universe did not exist. It had had its beginning in time and was the result- of tlic creative act or scries of creative acts of a Divine mind. Thus, modern astronomy was enhancing our conception of God.

Turning to the bearing of modern astronomy on tho idea of man, Mr. I),ivies said tho first impression was that it reduced human life to utter insignificance. It was hard to believe that man could bo of cosmic significance. Man over-stressed the importance of quantity. Science was concerned with quantity, but value depended on quality. The value of a man depended on the quality of the spirit; not the quantity of his body. "It is tho size of a man's head that counts, not the size of his feet," the preacher declared.

Science was based on the one assumption that truth was available to the human mind. Sir Arthur Eddington had said that man was a spiritual being to whom truth mattered. But truth was only one value with which man was concerned. He was equally' concerned with beauty. The supreme minds of tho musicians and the artists had revealed beauty, and wo felt those minds to be of equal calibro to the minds of tho supreme scientists like Darwin and Newton. The musicians and artists had done for beauty what the scientists had done for truth. Man also was concerned with "good," and there were minds whose insight into "good" was as authoritative as that of the artist into beauty' and the scientist into truth. In measuring man account must be taken of his capacity , for these spiritual values.

Mr. Davies will speak to-night on "God and tho Evolutionist."