God, the universe and all that: Part 1

Thought, Sola Panel

Note: this is the first instalment of a five-part series.

I’m a fan of space. I don’t actually know much about the details of astronomy or cosmology or astrophysics; I just think that the space is really cool.

If there are any real scientists reading this, I want to say thanks. I know that most of your work involves boring and tedious searching, collating and number crunching. Thanks for doing all that stuff so that I can see those fantastic pictures of nebulas on the internet and wonder at it all.

For example, I’m a fan of millisecond pulsars. A gigantic star, millions of light years away, explodes in a huge supernova. It creates a fireball ten million billion billion times bigger than Hiroshima. In its ashes, it leaves behind a neutron star made of dense atomic nuclei, squashed together at a density 10 trillion times greater than steel. A teaspoon full of neutron star weighs about the same as Sydney Harbour. Sometimes this neutron star will steal stuff from a nearby star and start spinning. Some neutron stars spin hundreds of times a second—a whole star rotating as fast as an idling car engine. Many of these super-dense, revving stars send out pulses of electromagnetic radiation, milliseconds apart. And we might be able to use these millisecond pulsars as standard cosmological clocks to help us detect gravitational waves, explore space-time bending, and understand more about the tiniest particles in the universe.

But apart from the wow factor, what’s the point of learning about space?

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Countercultural rebellion

Life, Thought

Carl Trueman is the Academic Dean and Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, as well as a Consulting Editor for Themelios. Paul Grimmond caught up with Carl when he was in Australia in 2009.

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Podcast: Countercultural rebellion: An interview with Carl Trueman

Audio

Paul Grimmond catches up with Carl Trueman, Academic Dean and Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, to chat about the local church, evangelism, ministry training, evangelicalism, the uniqueness of Scripture and Anglicanism (MP3).

Audio MP3

Introverts in the church

Sola Panel, Up front

Is the coffee hour after church your favourite hour of the week? If it fills you with more dread than root canal, then Introverts in the Church: Finding our place in an extroverted culture (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 2009) is the book for you. Adam McHugh, a Presbyterian minister and one-time hospice chaplain, shows how introverts can survive and thrive in the Christian community without succumbing to anonymous isolation or burnout. (more…)

Book review: “Outrageous Mercy: Rediscovering the radical nature of the cross”

Review

If you’re reading this, you probably need no convincing that regular reflection on the cross is a pretty good idea. But maybe you’re not sure that Outrageous Mercy: Rediscovering the radical nature of the cross deserves a place on your ‘Want to read’ list. I certainly wasn’t convinced; I’d never heard of William P Farley before this book came across my desk. What’s more, since I do like to judge a book by its cover, it didn’t immediately strike me as essential reading. With so many great books on the cross available, I confess that, on first glance, Outrageous Mercy looked a little too light and a little too American to really grab me. (more…)