The Universe Is Really, Really, Really Big

I agree with Vincent Calaman (Review letter, July 29) about the size of the universe. It is really really really big. Mr. Calaman points out that "no man will ever travel" beyond our solar system. This may be true for decades, if not for centuries. The nearest star beyond our Sun is 4.3 light-years away. This is 25 million million miles. If you travel at a million miles per hour (approximately 6 times faster than the fastest man made object) it would take 25 million hours or almost 2900 years to get there. Everything else is a lot farther away.

It took under 70 years to get from the first flight at Kitty Hawk to a man on the Moon. Mankind has approximately 4 billion years before our Sun uses up its hydrogen fuel and expands to engulf and destroy the Earth.  A lot of technology can be developed in that time, assuming we survive and we stop wasting our time looking to the Bible for answers to technical questions and actually do some real science.

For answers to non-technical questions, the Bible does give some dubious direction. For example - you must kill anyone who works on the Sabbath; no trimming of the hair on the sides of your head; shaving is out too; you must kill others who worship a different god; slavery is just fine; but eating fat is out.

So the Bible can be useful, just don't use it to build anything complicated.

JLF

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