Astronomical Ignorance

Abstract

gens nescia veri … … flammantia moenia mundi Dum stupet … George Buchanan, De Sphaera, 10, 11-12 What if it all were after all an accident, The whole contraption comically coincidental, Not mind and matter caught in constant combat, Nor altogether a purely mental event Whose significance seems surely sentimental, Suggesting that Creator must be mental, Who dreamt up the wooly mammoth and the wombat? When it disappeared who would wonder where it went, While the sun and moon were in eclipse And the smaller stars seemed faint and far away, Beyond the scope of your unholy telescope? If the continents shifted as the whole sphere flips Over, which could happen any day, Destabilized, would you not want to stay Stuck upon that astrophysical slope Among ruined gardens, new horizons and garbage tips? Perhaps. Perhaps intelligent design Has an answer for what cannot be asked Intelligibly, perhaps, not now nor never. Knowledge is mortal. Ignorance is divine As the obscurity in which the heavens basked Before this world so wonderful and multitasked Revealed itself to the faithful and oh-so clever, As what may be yours never will be mine.