From ‘Focus on Faith’, Stretton Focus, August 2013
Its a celestial year. A spectacular meteor and so far two asteroid ‘fly-bys’, and now coming up later this year the comet Ison is expected to be so bright that it will be visible to the naked eye in daylight. It will be a spectacle which only happens a few times in any lifetime. Halley’s Comet last visited in the 1980s but was not really visible from the northern hemisphere. The last comet easily visible from Church Stretton in daylight was Hale-Bopp in 1997. I can recall standing in the Cardingmill Valley, my spirit moved as I marvelled at it over the Long Mynd.
Science is very good at explaining these phenomena but even with knowledge the wonder does not diminish. Ancient man knew no science and saw comets as omens, prophetic signals of doom or success – such as Halley’s Comet in 1066 announcing a new king by conquest.
Religious interpretation of something mysterious was once quite normal. Like comets, visions and miraculous cures have been explained as ‘acts of god’, although usually with hindsight. The major difference with stellar mysteries is that science can now explain them and predict their arrival.
This celestial spectacle will remind us that we are surrounded by mystery. Life itself is a mystery, a secret still evading science. Even so science plays an important part in our lives. It helps us to see through earthly mystery to realities in the same way that it gives us an understanding of the true nature of the heavenly object lighting the sky.
Perhaps the greatest mystery is that of the creation. Comet Ison will remind us of that as we marvel at the spectacle. Science has given us the Big Bang and Darwin’s theory of evolution while creationists reject science in favour of a literal reading of Genesis. There is truth in both, the scientific and the biblical, they just need careful unpicking. The allegory and metaphor in the Bible are complemented by the scale and complexity of the science. They both have breadth of vision, both can explain the comet and both touch the spirit reminding us that the essence of our being is yet another miracle.
Enjoy the view, and wonder.
Roger Wilson
