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and surprised because every day new stars go on bubbling up. As our instruments for measuring distance become more and more subtle and refined, new stars are discovered.
Albert Einstein, perhaps the only man in history who has devoted his whole life to the stars, finally said, "Their number is infinite, and above all they are running away with the same speed as light from some center which we don't know about. They are all spreading farther and farther away."
It seems perhaps the idea in the Middle Ages may have been an old, ancient idea, but stars were closer! In millions of years, they have run far away -- and certainly the earth is not the center; it is so small that it is almost negligible. Even our great star, which is six thousand times bigger than the earth, is a mediocre star; there are stars thousands of times bigger than our sun. And science has not been able to find the center from which they are escaping in all directions.
Bertrand Russell has a beautiful story....
A Christian priest had a dream that he had died, and of course reached heaven. But he was very shocked because the doors of heaven were so big that he could not see where they ended. In all directions, as far as he could see, there was the door. And he himself, compared to the door, looked like an ant. He was very shocked: "This is very disrespectful. I was hoping that God would be here at the gate, and angels would be playing on their harps, `Allelujah!'"
The gate was closed. He knocked, but he himself wondered, "Who is going to hear?" The gate was so vast; his knock was such a small sound, almost inaudible. It took him three days continuously knocking.
Then Saint Peter opened a window and looked down. He had one thousand eyes. The priest immediately fell on his knees, and said, "God."
Saint Peter said, "I'm not God, I'm just the gatekeeper. You must have heard, my name is Saint Peter. As far as God is concerned, I have not yet been able to see him. It is a very vast space. Although I have one thousand eyes, I have not yet been able, in two thousand years, to find him."
The priest said, "This is unbelievable. What about Jesus Christ?"
Saint
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