JULY 15, 2022 – If you’re like me—semi-normal—you’ve beheld in awe, the recently released images captured by the James Webb telescope. Perhaps you’ve explored the science behind those pictures, but again, if you’re like me, you haven’t—beyond a cursory narrative.
Inside my personal universe the images prompt a feeling of déjà vu. Is NASA deploying a stock photos of twinkling stars and glowing nebulae simply to (a) pre-empt Republicans who complain about Big Government competing with poor rich guys like Mutt and Jeff—I mean Musk and Bezos; and (b) pacify progressives who decry NASA’s expenditures before poverty is eradicated? Anyway, what impresses me most about the images is, “13 billion years,” the age of the captured light; light that take us 94.89% of the way back to the Big Shebang.
I haven’t asked any religious leaders, but must be reeling, now that we’re close to seeing the face of God. It’s only a matter of (human) time before we do see the source of creation, and when we do, religion will be . . . exposed. “God” will be plainly visible—not merely glorified in music, imagined in Renaissance art, described in “holy” scripture, or, closer to reality, embedded in impenetrable mathematical formulae. We’ll see “God” as a far bigger concept than the construct manipulated inside our tiny crania.
What then? Based on the recent past, conspiracy theorists will call the Webb photos supreme fakery, and a third of Americans will actively believe the B.S. because they want and need to believe it. Following a well-established business model, right-wing media will feature purveyors of nonsense, who, straight-faced and well-paid, will link “Jim” Webb to a Democratic plot to misappropriate massive government funds; a plot to distract the public with Photo-Shopped images while Nancy Pelosi steals everyone’s American flag and AR-15. Progressives, meanwhile, will indict Webb as yet more political-financial corruption, a cash cow for government contractors. But maybe, just maybe, the closer scientists get to capturing the visage of . . . “God,” the closer humanity will come to realizing we’re the pettiest creatures . . . on earth.
The other day I read some commentator suggest that the Webb’s work should be headliner news every single day until we change our ways. I agree. If we learned more science and devoured less nonsense, we’d vastly improve our prospects. We’d see past our myopia, prejudices, bickering, and egocentricity. Webb compels edifying contemplation of the edge of time and space—and possibilities.
The images remind me of the question our older son asked me (the teacher) innocently a million years ago in fourth grade Sunday school: “Who created God?” I’d never before heard anyone—young, old; educated or ignorant—pose the question from a theological perspective. In the moment, I punted. “Very good question,” I said. “I’m pretty sure they handle that in seventh grade.” I’ve often since pondered the question and the myriad ways in which it might be “handled.” Webb, at least, takes us closer to “seventh grade.”
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© 2022 by Eric Nilsson
