THE STAR

Back in the early fifties Robert Clarke of classic SF fame wrote a short story. The Star. The astrophysicist aboard a long range earth expedition to the Pegasus Nebula has made a discovery that has shaken his faith. The scientist is a Jesuit by the way. Something that causes no end of humor from some of his fellow crew members. A Jesuit astronomer isn't too crazy an idea. The current Vatican astronomer is a Jesuit. And while that is sinking in consider this. The Vatican has had an astronomer for well over a century. And they have their very own telescope. On top of a mountain in Arizona.

Now I don't know what faith, if any, Robert Clarke followed. But my interpretation is one hundred eighty degrees from the finale of the story. And my own faith has taken so many twists and turns that I'm never quite sure where I'm standing half the time. Heck perhaps it's a case of the glass being half full, but here goes.

What if, just if, knowing that the star is going to go nova God didn't destroy a civilization to provide that star over Bethlehem but timed that birth so that some little good would come from tragedy? After all the birth of the messiah was supposedly prophesied for SOME time in the future. It's not like Isaiah and his brethren said OK the kid will be born on such and such a day, at such and such a time in such and such a year after all.

And SF was a lot more fun when we didn't know so much. Now we know that a star likely to nova probably won't have planets with higher forms of life. It takes a long time to cook life resembling ours. Or probably will. About five billion years for earth. The giants stars and the super giants burn fast and hot. Their lives are measured in millions of years, not billions. But they seeded the universe with the building blocks of planets and life.