Passport to the Universe

In a previous post, I mentioned that we saw a good planetarium show in the Alden Planetarium at the Ecotarium in Worcester, MA. The show was titled Passport to the Universe. It is different from a lot of other planetarium shows we've seen. It's not produced by the usual 'star ball' projector nor is it a movie made by animation and artist's conceptions of the planets, stars, galaxies and nebulae. It was produced by entering the precise positions of all the known objects in our universe into a computer that can change how we see the objects in places other than the Earth. It also includes images from the Hubble Space Telescope so you're seeing the real thing.

We've seen this show before (three years ago when we were here last) but it amazed me as much this time as the first time we saw it. Both of our children are older now, too, and could appreciate it more. It is amazing to think that for every star we see with our eye at night, there are 50 million more that we can't see - in our galaxy alone!

You start the show with a view of the Earth and travel out through our solar system. As you get past Saturn, the point of view shifts to look back toward Earth and they ask if you can find the small blue dot among the stars, the Sun and the other stars. Of course you can't and they have to point it out. Then the narrator, Tom Hanks, says,

"That's home. Everyone you ever knew or ever heard of came from that tiny spot."

Isn't that amazing to think about? In all the vastness of the Universe - among all the stars and planets - for all of time - we've all come from that small, blue dot (more later about an error in that statement, though). It kind of goes two ways. In one sense, it means we all need to pull together to work for our common good. If we screw up this one place, there's nowhere else to live. This is a precious, limited resource.

But in another sense, it makes you realize that, left to our baser instincts, we don't get along sometimes (most of the time?) . We're all "crammed" together in this one tiny place. If you don't believe that our goal is to love one another and look out for our neighbor, then the "every man for himself" mentality can take over. People can try to carve out their minuscule part of a tiny place and defend it against everyone else. Which is it to be?

As I said two paragraphs above, there is an error in the quote from the show. Not everyone we've ever known or heard about came from that spot. God did not come from Earth. He created the Earth (and the Universe) and came to Earth, as Jesus, to save us from our baser instincts. He left his Holy Spirit here to help us do what we should. He came to remind us that he created this magnificent universe and that he loves us. He came so that we would help our neighbors on this blue dot. He wants us to be joined together in him, to love each other and rise above what we would do if left to our own knowledge, abilities and desires.