Gifts From Today’s Science that Can Grow the Soul by Awakening Awe

Last week I shared news of the wonderful Celebration of Life in Santa Cruz honoring the life and work of scientist Joel Primack.

Here I would like to share more of Joel’s and his wife’s teachings that contribute heartily to a mature spiritual vision amidst the chaos and disturbances that beset our species today.

In my book, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, I share some of their teachings of the new cosmology that bear directly on our recovering a new sense of “Father Sky,” the first of the ten archetypes I propose for bringing back the sacred masculine. They derive from their book, The View from the Center of the Universe.

Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams share several ways in which the Earth is special among all the planets, underscoring exceptional relationships that exist between Mother Earth and Father Sky.  

First, in 25% of the extra-solar planets in the universe we have discovered, massive gas planets or “hot Jupiters” migrate closer to their suns. If this had happened in our galaxy, small planets like Earth would have been destroyed.

But in our solar system, Jupiter has been an ally assisting its small sister Earth. Jupiter has protected us like a big brother. “Jupiter’s gravity has helped protect Earth from being hit by comets.” One attack that did get through to earth—the landing of a meteorite 65 million years ago—wiped out dinosaurs and countless other species. “If such events were happening much more often, life on Earth might not have had enough time between extinctions to evolve to intelligent creatures.”

Most planets we have discovered in other galaxies follow elliptical orbits, but Jupiter’s circular orbit “stabilizes both earth and our entire solar system.” If Earth orbits were more elliptical, earth seasons would carry unbearable 100-degree swings in temperature.

Furthermore, the distance of Earth from the sun is just right—were it closer to the sun, water would evaporate and be lost; were it further from the sun, water would be permanently frozen. The capacity for liquid water has been part of Earth’s existence for its entire history and is an essential ingredient for the birthing of intelligent life.

Our moon is unusually large compared to other planets with moons. Its largeness has kept the tilt of the Earth’s rotation axis practically constant at around 23.5 degrees, and this tilt gives us our seasons that make plant life possible.

By way of tides that we also owe to our large moon, a certain calmness on the Earth has reigned and has advanced long-term complexity in its evolutionary history.

Where we live in the “galactic suburbs,” the Earth’s atmosphere protects us from weakened radiation from the sun. But we are still close enough to the sun to experience some supernovas, and thanks to them, heavy elements or stardust form Earth’s rocky planet.

All these freshly-found scientific facts point to the marvelous relationship between Father Sky and Mother Earth. Father Sky has never been so meaningful. With these scientific findings, a new sense of wonder and awe emerges. And a new sense of the sacred.

Thus we can feel what Thomas Berry tells us about the sacred. We will recover our sense of wonder and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us.

The universe is the ultimate sacrament. Thank you to scientists who share its revelations with us on a regular basis.

To be continued.

Joel Primak and Nancy Abrams. The View from the Center of the Universe. Riverhead Books, 2007.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.

Banner Image: Diagram showing how the Sun, Earth, and Moon are the perfect distance from each other to support life. Graphic by Jim slater307. Wikimedia Commons. 

Queries for Contemplation

How do these stories from today’s scientific creation story arouse radical amazement and awe and therefore a sense of the sacred in you? And a sense of gratitude too? How do they make you younger?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 10-18. 

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations. 

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. 

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance. 

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action. 

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.