Neil DeGrasse Tyson has written a book Death by Black Hole about the solar system. When astrophysicist’s describe the universe it is a rather other world conversation. Some of the things that have struck me as I listen to this book on tape, while commuting to work, include the fact that we are all star dust. We are star dust because all matter contain the elements of the what makes up the solar system and stars. The cosmic origin of every element in our body contains that of the stars. Ninety percent of all the atoms in our bodies and all known life are hydrogen along with some carbon and oxygen.

The most common elements in the universe are hydrogen, helium, carbon and oxygen. How do scientists know that? They know it because they study light from the bodies of the universe, they study radio waves emitted by the universe and they study movement as well, among other available information. I find it astounding how much can be learned from rather limited facts available. Accurate conclusions were drawn using math and study of the sky with the naked eye. This improved with primitive telescopes and later more powerful instruments, all done before actual space probes.

I am awed by the brilliance of people like Isaac Newton and so many others that found rules that allowed accurate conclusions from so little information. Albert Einstein’s famous E=MC2 is more then just a catchy equation. It is an essential part of our understanding of the universe. Mostly, I am totally overwhelmed by the enormous size and order in this universe from the largest body of the solar system to the smallest atom. With light moving at the speed of 186,282.397 miles per second or roughly one food per nanosecond (299,792,458 meters per second) the time required for light to travel from our small earth to bodies far distant is measured in hundreds of years of our time measurement.

I am with those who see a Creator of this amazing universe and the life forms that exist here. But, I have no problem with accepting the concept of a big bang theory of creation and the evolution of matter into its present status and a God who made it happen. I think Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. had it right when he concluded that scientific facts regarding our universe are not in conflict with the faith that it was God created.