I think it is probably fairly obvious from my few blog posts that I am a science nerd. The channel I watch the most is the Science channel. I grew up with a family that didn’t have extra money floating around and it wasn’t even a question I pondered if I was going to college to learn how to make money or to learn for the sake of learning. There were bills to pay. Learning to be a scientist just seemed like a luxury I couldn’t afford even if it sounded really fascinating. Looking back now, I would have to be honest and say that the math would have probably held me back if I had tried to go into the natural science track in college. Don’t ask me to explain:

I was just wrapping up a ton of Christmas presents and watching a 3 hour Science channel program on black holes. I am old enough to remember when there was still little consensus on the validity of black holes and the name was only settled on while I was a teenager.

I was mainly listening to the program as my eyes had to be on wrapping the presents (I can be a bit perfectionist about my wrapping). What the scientists were saying seemed to parallel the same words and phrases were being used that I have heard when I listen to people talking about their faith and struggles with their faith.

Towards the end of the program the narrator summarized with:

Black Holes are full of theoretical holes. Scientists say they are out there, but we can’t see them. Math says there is a singularity a black hole’s core, but in nature these don’t exist. The rules we use to understand the universe simply don’t seem to apply to black holes. We can’t see black holes, only find circumstantial evidence of them. They violate the laws of physics that predict them. When some of the scientists participating in the series are asked if they believe black holes are real. The answers are interesting and remind me of some beliefs on religion and god.

Because black holes are at the edge of what we understand about nature, they are a perfect illustration of what we don’t know about the universe. That is a lot.

So I will tell you now in modern physics we have no idea what is going inside the heart of a black hole. Whether black holes in the true sense exist at all. But the wonderful thing is the physics is now taking us down paths that we have never imagined before.

Lack of evidence of how black holes work is not evidence against the existence of black holes. It is evidence of the lack of understanding.

If you ask me what I believe, I would have to tell you I don’t believe in black holes. I believe in something that behaves like black holes.

I think they are the simplest explanation. Yep, they have lot of problems we have to resolve. But yep – I believe in black holes.

Although there is great evidence of black holes, we have to keep questioning rather they are real. As a scientist I would much rather have questions I can’t answer than answers I can’t question.

Do any of these scientists words sound similar to words regarding faith?

Do any of you find yourself in awe when you contemplate looking into the vast night sky?