The First Baptist Church of Vero Beach aspires to afford Rev. Dr. LaGuardia a sabbatical in late summer of 2026 that will incorporate a church-wide season of renewal, rest, and refocus. The purpose of the sabbatical renewal project is to provide an intentional time of prayer, reflection, and discovery for the pastor and congregation of First Baptist Church of Vero Beach surrounding the origins of the universe, the heavens that declare the glory of God, and the awe that inspires spiritual revitalization.
Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang (1997)
An introduction to understanding space, time, physics, and astronomy. It provides accessible chapters on deep topics, including the origins of the universe, history of astronomy, and various theories regarding the universe both old and contemporary.
All roads lead back in time to the Big Bang, where the chemical evolution of the cosmos began. Every scrap of matter and energy bears traces of its history, if only we can learn how to read it there” (p. 104).
_______, Coming of Age in the Milky Way (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1988).
TBR*.
Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos (Covina CA: RTB Press, 2018)
This book, very much like The Whole Shebang by Timothy Ferris, is an introductory text on the origins and mysteries of the universe, but from a Christian, apologist worldview.
The strength of the case for God can be judged by the direction of the trend line. Through the years, as we learn more and more about the universe, the fine-tuning appears more exquisite and the list of features that reflect fine-tuning grows longer — not shorter” (p. 56).
Laura Mersini-Loughton, Before the Big Bang (2022)
An expert in theories on the multiverse, Mersini-Loughton brings a critical approach to amateurs regarding the possibilities of the origins of the universe based on the multiverse. There are a variety of statistics and facts that put the power of the origins of the universe in perspective, not in scholarly fashion, but in colorful description.
Oddly, our universe had the perfect amount of dark energy at the beginning — only a tiny bit — which allowed the cosmos to hang around long enough for all the structure and life to occur” (p. 71).
Stephen Hawking, A Briefer History of Time
An accessible introduction to a larger work of Hawking, in which Hawking tackles two “concerns” of science: The laws that govern the universe and the question of the “initial state of the universe.” This reads more like a textbook for an introduction to cosmology rather than an introduction for general readers. Some of its terms and arguments were lost on me.
_______, Brief Answers to Big Questions (2013)
This was a enjoyable read as Hawking takes on some broad questions pertaining to science and the universe, including tackling theological and existential issues. As is his style, Hawking neither confirms nor denies the existence of God, but asks instead whether God is needed or relevant to reconcile the creation of the universe and them mysteries therein. He argues that science, in fact, makes God irrelevant. Yet, his arguments seem to fall flat: For instance, he argues that billions of years are required to produce intelligent life such as humanity. The universe provides that amount of time. What he ignores, however, is the fact that humans are a rather late development in the universe. There is simply no archeological record of humans reaching that far back in time. As long as there is a gap in the evolutionary evidence of humanity, evolution rings hollow, not even worthy of being labeled a theory in the first place.
The probability of life, much less intelligent life, appearing is “so low that earth is the only planet in the galaxy — or in the observable universe — on which it happened. . .” (p. 83).
Arthur Clarke, The Exploration of Space (1951)
In this vintage book, Clarke outlines the most current ideas in physics, rocketry, and astronomy while casting a vision for how space travel might become a reality. Many of his ideas have informed pop culture and media images of what space travel might look like in the future, not to mention movies based on his books, such as 2001 Space Odyssey, as well as Interstellar. The illustrations are worth the price of the book!
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
A quaint and visionary look at humanity’s future colonization of Mars by way of a series of loosely connected and chronological short stories. It is ultimately a creative exploration of the idea that the very mess we’ve made on earth might very well follow us to Mars, even to the point of destroying alien life already indigenous to the mysterious red planet. It seems no one, or no living being, no matter how technological, is a match for the foils and irresponsibility of man, especially in the face of the threats inherent in the (then-burgeoning) nuclear age.
Daniel Vestal, The Doctrine of Creation
I believe this book is based on Dr. Vestal’s dissertation. It is a book that dialogues with science as to the mysteries of the universe and its origins, from an unapologetic evangelical point of view.
Time is a creation of God, just as space and matter are creations of God. Time had a beginning, and time will have an end . . . in His sovereign will He governs time; and He will eventually end time” (p. 62).
Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (1978)
Jastrow wrestles with how scientists and theologians dialogue with one another, the facts, and the theories about the universe. His writing reveals how science is stumped by the facts, however, and cannot escape the realities — or worldview — that religious understandings provide.
It turns out that the scientist behaves the way the rest of us do when our beliefs are in conflict with the evidence. We become irritated, we present the conflict does not exist, or we paper it over with meaningless phrases” (p. 16).
Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel (New York: Pantheon Books, 2002).
A philosophical look on the “art” and aesthetics of travel, in which the author dialogues with writers of the past while traveling throughout the world in the present. His topics are captivating: A chapter on “curiosity”, for instance, proposes a blueprint for utilizing bewilderment and investigation in seeing new things while traveling, even if it is a “journey around one’s bedroom.” He writes, “Curiosity might be pictured as being made up of chains of small questions extending outwards, sometimes over huge distances, from a central hub composed of a few blunt, large questions” (p. 116).
What would it cost those who are out for a walk or crowding out of a theatre to look up for a moment and admire the brilliant constellations that gleam above their heads? The reason people were not looking was that they had never done so before. They had fallen into the habit of considering their universe to be boring — and their universe had duly fallen into line with their expectations” (p. 243).
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, A City on Mars (New York: Penguin Press, 2023).
A frank and humorous look at the politics, economics, and overall challenges of space colonization. The research, which is quite in-depth, looks at everything from the practical challenges of going to space, such as procreation, to settling in long-term communities whether it be space stations or planets.
Elon Musk says we’ll have boots on Mars in 2029 and a million-person city is possible by twenty or thirty years later. We’ll assume he’s got space babies worked out for now so we can deal with a bigger problem: space sucks. Our impression talking to nongeeks is that while they realize space sucks, they have underestimated the scale of suckitude” (p. 11).
*TBR: To Be Read
Baptist Spirituality 