MAN IN THE WORLD OF GOD
THE W. M. Keck Observatory is a two-telescope astronomical observatory set up on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea. Astronomers in California spent more than a decade designing a revolutionary telescope having a 10-metre aperture that enables four times the “seeing power” of any functional telescope on earth. Millions of dollars were needed to make the project a reality. It was named after the W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles that financed the project. Completed in 1993 (Keck 1) and 1996 (Keck 2), they are the 3rd and 4th largest telescopes.
The telescopes were designed by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. While under way, Howard B. Keck, chairman of the foundation said that these would be so powerful that, “It will permit one to see the light of a single candle from the distance of the moon.” The Keck Telescope enables astronomers to see objects 12 billion light years away. Scientists are now able to investigate the nature of quasars and explore how galaxies and stars formed. When the telescopes were being built, Marvin L. Goldberger president of Caltech said:
“It should provide answers to the most challenging and basic questions of the universe.” (Newsweek, January 14, 1985).
God has created an incredibly vast universe. He has also given man the power and technology to behold the vastness of His creation. This is so that man may see the universe in all its greatness, and then wonder at the greatness of the One who created it; so that he may be able to actually see things happening millions of miles away, and thousands of years ago, and be so dazed by the expanse of his vision that he is moved to cry out: “Lord, You have given light to the world. How infinitely more radiant You must be. Lord, You have given man sight. How infinitely more penetrating Your vision must be.”
Man’s vision itself is proof of the all-reaching vision of God. His own existence is proof of the existence of God. The vastness of the universe is proof of the infinite vastness of God. God has created the world, and man, in His own image. He wants man to be able to look at himself, and the world around him, and see there a reflection of the face of his Lord. He wants man, not only to find answers to questions relating to creation; He wants him to get to know his Creator as well.
