Olbers’ Paradox: How Can Man Know God?
Olbers’ paradox is the topic of today’s story. As a result of this paradox, I believe humans have a good enough understanding of God. I would like to explain the ‘Olbers’ paradox to you first. Take a listen.
Even if the stars are densely embedded in the dark night sky, there is darkness without light. It’s a question that the average person can easily overlook, but in 1823, German astronomer Olivers made a hypothesis related to this. He said,
If celestial bodies are consistently distributed infinitely far away from space, the night sky must be infinitely bright.”
This hypothesis is called the Olvers’ Paradox in astronomy. When you’re listening to this question, you might ask, “Is this a problem?” but what you see is not made up of what appeared, so it’s important to note that many astronomers have long struggled to find a solution to this seemingly simple problem.
Olibers’ paradox has remained a terrible mystery for hundreds of years. At first glance, this paradox seems simple, but the story behind it is so complex that it’s been bothering philosophers and astronomers for a long time. But unexpectedly, the first person to solve Olibers’ paradox was Edgar Allan Poe, who was well-known to us as a mystery writer.
With a special interest in astronomy, he published a collection of prose poems before his death, in which his collection of astronomical observations are summarized in difficult prose poems. This phrase appears in the book.
If the stars are lined endlessly, the night sky must shine brilliantly. This is because there is no reason to have a “space where stars cannot exist” in a vast space. Therefore, most of the outer space seems to be empty because the light emitted from distant celestial bodies has not yet reached our eyes.
As Edgar Allan Poe says, just because the night sky that is visible to us, or a picture of the galaxy sent to us, looks dark, it is not an empty space with no light at all. Although invisible to our eyes, outer space is filled with microwaves that are not visible to our eyes. Therefore, the night sky looks dark not because there is no light at all, but because it is full of invisible light.
The night sky is full of light, which looks dark to the eyes but is not dark in reality. That invisible light surrounds the Earth. I can’t feel the light, but it surrounds our bodies. So even when we can’t feel it, the invisible light in the world continues to touch our retina and our skin.
An electromagnetic wave with a wavelength of the range visible to the human eye is called a visible ray, and light outside the range of visible light cannot be detected by the human eye. It is not right to deny the existence of light that exists in that range because it is undetectable to our eyes.
The only purpose of our senses is to convey God’s will
In Aristotle’s epistemology, sensory objects and parameters, and sensory abilities are required for a unique sense to be achieved. According to Aristotle, the space between all sensory abilities and sensory objects is full of mediums.
St. Augustine said, “The only purpose of our senses is to convey God’s will.” With visible light, then we can see that the perception of the invisible light contains more depth of God’s existence.
And this “Olbes paradox” provides an amazing insight into human perception of God. As the Bible says, “What you see does not consist of what you appear.” When you look at what you see, thinking about what you can’t see was a common human response.
They have ultimately derived from the collective unconsciousness of God’s glory that man’s thoughts about the invisible light are soon invisible. However, the perception of the invisible light did not reach the glory of God because it did not reach the knowledge of God.
In Psalm 19, the following confession is made by a person who has seen something invisible from what is seen.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
As Psalm 19 says, Christians believe that we do not live in a world of silence. We Christians know, believe, and experience God who speaks, represents himself and reveals himself to us in ways that we cannot. It is God’s nature and belief that he wants to let us know himself. It’s called “General Revelation, and God’s glory in this general revelation is the effect that God himself exists,” said Arnold Rhodes.
The heart of the Bible is the revelation of God’s great deeds. Revelation is that God informs humans of himself and his will. The unit of revelation is the interpretation of the cross and its events, and the core of the revelation is Jesus Christ himself, who is, above all, the greatest of the great acts of God.
The faith of modern faith is going in the wrong direction
In that sense, the faith of modern faith is going in the wrong direction. Just as the weight of metaphysics in modern philosophy has gradually decreased, so has the perception of God in the faith of believers. John Piper of the United States says this.
What is lacking in present evangelism is the knowledge that strengthens the mind, the joy in the great glory of God that changes everything, the holy, the righteous, the master of everything, the knowledge of everything, and the glory of a very good God. The American churches take God lightly. They do not regard God as a major concern.
Human beings can fully know God, atheists who live as if they do not know God, and God wants humans to know and worship God with intelligence and soul, but God is not happy with the form of faith that abandons intelligence and only pursues spiritual emotions.
A truly humble man acknowledges the existence of God. And true Christians serve God with soul and intelligence. I want you to think about what’s missing today. Subscription and yes if the video helped today I’d like to ask you.
There is a possibility that the universe is not infinitely old. The night sky appears dark because the light from many stars hasn’t had enough time to reach us yet. There is still debate about the age of the universe, so this solution depends on an assumption about its age.
The universe is also not homogeneous is another possible solution to the paradox. This is why the night sky appears dark because there are regions of space that are relatively empty of stars. In spite of this, this solution raises questions about what the universe is and why there are so many voids in it.
Assumptions about the universe are required for both of these solutions, as well as others. Faith plays a crucial role here. Any of these solutions requires a leap of faith, a willingness to believe in something we cannot see or prove.
Because Olbers’ paradox reminds us of the limits of our understanding, I believe that man can know God. Observation and analysis alone cannot provide us with all the information we need about the universe. Faith in something beyond ourselves will always be required to solve mysteries and questions.
Conclusion
Therefore, Olbers’ paradox is a fascinating problem that challenges our understanding of the universe. Despite not being fully resolved, it serves as a reminder that scientific inquiry cannot reveal everything. We can understand the mysteries of the universe and our place within it by embracing faith.
