The Omaha guide., 1948-06-19
A WINDOW TO THE STARS

On top a mountain the other day men dedicated a new
window to the stars. The 0O-inch telescope at Mt. Palomar
will roll back theI limits observable space to eight times its
present volumn.
as in his day, men stand solemnly and a little against before
the staggering vision of the universe around them. Again
they scho the Psalmists wondering words: when l con-
slider thy heavens, the work of thy hands what is man
that thou art mindful of him?'
Yet this time they ask it with a difference. Speaking at
the aedicaton u ne new telescope, III. Raymond 3. Fosd1ck,
president OF the Rockefeller Foundation, pointed out that
when the giant cyclotron was built at the University of
California years ago no one was thinking Of the atomic bomb,
to whose development it would contribute. 1t was an "adven-
ture in pure research an emblem of the unconquerable ex-
ploring urge within the mind of man." Who knows, he ask
ed, but that the new telescope in turn NAV give us knowledge
which, II we choose, we can employ in the insanity of a final
war;?
What is man, indeed, when he can thus turn his amazing
knowledge against himself?
In the centuries since Calico, the earth has shrunk, in
mans sight, to a mere speck Of dust whiring through unima.
IN his own estimation. AS DIR. Fosdick pointed out, the phil
osopher has said, "Astronomically speaking man is completely
negligible" while the psychologist has retorted, "Astronom-
ically speaking man is the astronomer"
Some years ago a British astronomer declared:
49,. We do not now study direct creation so much as the
ndols ct tour own concelving: .- The subject-matter Of
Our investigation is not the work of Gods fingers but the
work of mans imagination.
From Rants dialectcal proof that space and time are
not objective realities but merely the way human sensibilitv
arraages its experience down to the most complex modern
explorations of "the de Sitter world" or the Lemaitre uni
verse; man has been gradually reestablishing himself at the
center OF experience, from which the discoveries of Copern.
icus and Calico had seemed to push him.
Yet what is the man who has thus exalted himself to the
height OF the stars? Is it spiritually endowed man, made in the
image of his creator?
loo often the answer is no. It is a puny but arrogant
little creature who blinks up at the idols Of his own conceiv.
ing, then turns back to fight bind1y over his speck of dust
he must look farther than the stars, deeped than his own
wlutul heart, to find reality. He must be willing if necessary, to
step-as the astronomer and physicist do in a measure be.
You'd the limits OF the conventional common sence" which
Ernsten defines as no more than a deposit of prejudices laid
down in the mind before the age of eighteen.
In his quest for reality he can Still find insniration II
the superb achievement Of men who have dedicated them
selves to the advancement OF human k~noledge. He can thrill
to the words of Dr.. Fosdick on Polomar Mountain:
This telescope is the heightened shadow of man at his
best. 1t is man on tiptoe, reaching for relevancy and meaning
tracing with eager finger the outlines of order and law bv
which his little life is everywhere surrounded.
Then, combining that ~scrupulous dedication to "order
and law with the prlty of heart which accepts the kingdom
OF God as a little child" he will find a new heaven within
and a new earth without and reality will break increasingly
through appearance.