The star : revisited.

today in my english class we discussed some of the deeper themes in The Star. The most interesting of them by far is the conflict between science and faith. In the story, a space pilot discovers the star of bethleham., a star in a distant galaxy which went supernova and guided the three wise men to baby jesus. He found that this supernova had wiped out an entire race. The basic dilemna boils down to this, did god sacrifice those people to send a signal to the wise men? if not, and it was merely coincidence, then does god even exist? This brought up the question of science vs faith, since the narrator happens to be an astrophysicist as well as a jesuit. I beleive that faith and science can coexist without paradox or conflict. Maybe our idea of "faith" must be held loosely for this to happen, but this can and has been done. For example, many biblical events and happenings, such as miracles, cannot be sufficiently explained by science. Many scientific theories and evidence, such as evolutionism or the big bang, can flumux theologists. Science is merely the rules of the game, not the player. Maybe choosing things to happen and allowing them to happen following the rules of our world is what god is really about.

The star

in class today we read short story called "the star"

the story centers on an exploring band of austronaughts that discover a record of a doomed race on a planet whos sun went nova. The people of the planet, knowing of their impending doom, preserved pictures , videos, pamphlets, and records of their language and culture. The acceptance of such a fate tells of a severe maturity and advancement of such a race, whom, instead of panicking, go about to preserve themselves, knowing they woulkdnt be doscovered for millenia. I dont think we of earth could do that. i think murder, rape, and crime in general would drasticly increase and that everyone would just panic. This story says to me that we of earth, while being technilogically advanced, have not advanced culturally as we should.