We are able to observe planetary motion taking place in our solar system with the use of a standard telescope. We are also able to observe cellular activity taking place within ourselves by using a standard microscope. And whereas both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope give us spectacular images of our universe at the macrocosmic level, our universe at the microcosmic level of quantum physics is a scale far below the limits of our most powerful microscopes.
As a philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn wrote about the crisis of Western humanity’s place within the universe in his book The Copernican Revolution. This is because moving from a geocentric model to a heliocentric model of physics and metaphysics seemingly displaced humanity as the focal point of God’s creation. In his following book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn introduced the now familiar terms paradigm shift and change in world view to further discuss the importance of being a fact lover and a truth seeker.
Moving from geocentricism to heliocentrism was a paradigm shift that brought a change in world view. But how does our very existence on Earth seemingly place humanity back as the focal point of God’s creation? Is it mere hubris to think in such anthropocentric terms? Afterall, we live on the third rock from the sun, in a galaxy with several billion other stars, and our Milky Way galaxy is only one galaxy among a few hundred million galaxies in our universe.
Furthermore, our Milky Way galaxy alone measures about 100,000 light-years across. (One light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is about 9.5 trillion kilometers.) At the other extreme, the largest atoms only have a diameter of about half a nanometer (billionth of a meter) while the diameters of atomic nuclei are usually a few femtometers (million billionths of a meter).
Even though we experience paradigm shifts, we are still created in the image of God (Genesis 1). Even though we experience being displaced, we still have a central place in God’s creation (Psalm 139). And even if we experience a change in world view, God’s love for the world never changes. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).
~ Boethius ~