Paradise Lost

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites?”  Job 38:31-32  NASB

Constellation – One of the great tragedies of the world is electricity.  “Wait a minute,” you’ll reply.  “Electricity has provided so many benefits in life.  Why, there’s hardly a single part of the modern world that hasn’t been affected by harnessing electricity.  How can you say it’s a great tragedy?”

Electricity has removed us from the appreciation of the vastness of our universe.  It prevents us from seeing what’s out there.  It suffocates amazement.

I remember the first time I actually saw Orion’s belt through a telescope.  I was in the ninth grade.  The science teacher met many of us about 10 o’clock at night in an open field in Michigan.  We walked into the center and turned off all the flashlights.  It was almost completely dark.  Only a farmhouse light on the horizon.  Then, one by one, we looked through his telescope at the stars.  Amazing!  The Belt isn’t just three familiar stars.  It’s millions upon millions of points of light.  I reflected on that experience years later when I saw the Milky Way on a pitch-black night in the African savannah.  Utterly beautiful.

But turn on just one light, and most of it vanishes.  You don’t even know it’s there.  And for those of us who have never seen the clear night sky without any electrical lights on, we have been robbed of awe by a human invention.  Something terrible has happened because we no longer live in the wastelands.

“As civilization advances, the sense of wonder almost necessarily declines.  Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.  Mankind will not perish from want of information; but only for want of appreciation.  The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.  What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.”[1]

Take a minute to look at this: CLICK

For most of us it’s not even possible to see the local star clusters because we are surrounded by artificial light all the time.  What a shame!  How can we even begin to stand in awe of the Creator when we used something “natural” to blind us to His glory?

Topical Index:  constellation, electricity, stars, awe, appreciation, Job 38:31-32

[1] Abraham Heschel, Man Is Not Alone, p. 37.