The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-05
--DietZ on Science
IMMORTALITY
BELIEF VOICED
BY DR.. FROST
Life Spent in Research Has
Inclined Astronomer to
Faith in God.
BY DAVID DIETZ
scripps-Howard Science Editor

oCEippe- howard Science Editor
A life spent in the study of as
tronomy inclines DR.. Edwin B.
Frost to belief in God and i'm
mortality.
DR.. Frost, one of the nations
most famous astronomers and the
director of the great Yerkes OBJ
servatory, says that he sees no SCI
entific inconsistency in the concep-
ton of a dominant spiritual power
behind the universe, touching and
modifying the human spirit.
IF the universe and its energy
are immortal, should not spirit also
be as enduring2" asked DR.. Frost.
He adds:
Spirit is. by definition without
the limitation of mass, space, or
time and thus not subject to space
perception. Supernatural phenom-
ena are not involved; nature itself
is marvellous enough.
Gives Him Serenity
ITO me, this view leads to a Ger
tain serenity of thought, somewhat
like that which Einstein lately has
described in cosmic religious sense.
There has been an enormous ex-
panision of the conception of the
universe because of ooservational
research in the last three decades.
Most astronomers now regard the
cosmos as more than a million
times greater in extent than they
thought it to be in 1900.
THE prevailing view of the as
tronomers is that changes in the
universe are perfectly orderly and
the same cause may be expected to
produce the same effect when the
conditions are IDENTICAL" the Chi
cago scientist said.
DR.. Frost dissents from the view
that the formation of such planets
as our own earth must be a very
rare phenomenon in the universe.
Accidental" View Secuted
Some of the brilliant English
mathematician who now are writ
ing extensively of the new knowl-
edge of astronomy and Of physics
express the opinion that the earth
is an accident and that star sur
rounded by planets, as is our sun,
rarely occurs in nature" he con-
tinued.
st dissent decidedly from this
view and present the alternative
that the explosion of the stars, fire.
ouently observed, shows how matter
is thrown out from the stars OF
the novae type, and might form
planets of such an exploding star.
This view is in contrast to that
of the accidental, but never OBJ
served, close approach of two stars
in their wanderings through space.
THUS we must consider the evo-
luton of star by sudden and
intermittent actions, or even by
catalslysms, to be orderly proceed
ures of nature.
Beginning Hard to Trace
when we consider the different
units of the cosmos, it is difficult to
say which is the end-product and
which the beginning. 1t is again
the old unsolved problem of the
cycle of the hen and the egg.
But there are suggestive implica-
lions in the possibility of cycles in
the progress of the universe with
Developments from the simple to-
ward the complex in one phase and
in the reverse direction, from the
complex toward the simple, in the
other phase"
Other planets in the universe
must be essentially like our earth
and their inhabitants essentially like
ourselves, in the opinion of DR.
Frost.
Observations indicate that the
earth is a good sample of the whole
cosmos in respect to its chemistry,
he says. THE same elements are ir
the stars as we find in our planet.
Little Difference Seen
THAT leads to the inference that
Sentient beings, if any exist on the
possible planets around other stars
can not vary enormously as to theil
chemistry and physics from the oc
cupants of the. earth.
THE new views of mathematical
physicists as to the tremendous evo'
luton of radiant energy, in the I'M
inaginably hot interiors of the star
by the consumption of matter, give
a vastly longer expectation of lift
for our sun and the stars than wa
formerly supposed possible.
1--WE now measure life in terms o
millions of millions of years, in
stead of few paltry millions.
But this continued wastage o
the stars as they send out light ant
heat, supposedly in all directions
does not satisfy the philosophy o
those who regard the universe as
going concern.
There has been a great desire Il
find somewhere the reverse process
by which radiation can be converted
into matter and so complete tn
cycle
The cosr1ic rays which have beer
studied by DR.. Herbert A. Milhkal
and others have been thought t
give some evidence that this actu
ally may occur"
Probe Reveals Dog Is Thief