Space’s spiritual pilgrims
By Madhu Thangavelu The space station sports an Italian-made cupola, a large and an exquisite window that looks toward planet Earth The space station sports an Italian-made cupola, a large and exquisite window that Religion and scientific pursuits parted company centuries ago, at least in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows the story of Galileo, who stood by his empirical evidence of the Copernican, sun-centered view of our solar system even under the threat of death by the church’s preferred method for punishing heresy: burning at the stake. The church confined Galileo to house arrest for the rest of his life. And yet for millennia, religion was the primary purveyor of science, especially astronomy. That’s evident in the symbols and images projected in cathedrals and mosques and temples all over the world. Scientists from Newton to Einstein have framed scientific inquiry as a divine investigation. It’s worth noting that the term “big bang,” though coined by astronomer Fred Hoyle, was conceived by a clergyman, Monsignor Georges Lamaitre of Belgium. Today, human space activity offers an important venue for exploring meaningful relationships between science and religion – or at…
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