December 14, 2018

Letters to the Editor

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‘Quirky’ Advent reflection appreciated by reader

This letter is in reference to John F. Fink, editor emeritus of The Criterion, and his Advent reflection in the Dec. 7 issue of The Criterion.

“There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe and about 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone, each star perhaps with planets,” Fink wrote.

That is not a “quirky” idea, it is science. Science is “to know,” a “way” of knowing, though I do wonder how long it takes to count to a billion!

I am a great fan of “YouTube” videos on the universe. I can watch about an hour, then get up to relax my brain. It is mind‑expansive to “enter into” that amount of “space.” And just what is on the other side of “black holes”? A whirlpool of infinity.

Are there other folk out there, perhaps without an Adam and Eve “fallenness story”; other planets that have been tested and some not? How can we know? But then the “souls of the just” … just where do they go? There’s got to be room somewhere because a lot of folk, civilizations, people, have come and gone and have “travelled on,” as Native Americans say.

So thank you, Mr. Fink, for your quirks. And for all your stories and ideas and quirky imagination. “Keep thinking on these things.”

“… Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).

- Norb Schott | Roachdale

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