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   From: jim@goodwordusa.org   
      
   For Heaven's Sake:   A Jewish Astronomer's Odyssey   
   by Dr. David Block   
      
      
   The year was 1969. The event had been advertised on the radio again   
   and again. I arose at four o'clock in the morning and watched a   
   blazing comet with utter awe, as its tail stretched across the eastern   
   skies. My love affair with astronomy had begun.   
      
   South African astronomer Jack Bennett, who discovered the comet and   
   whose name the heavenly object bore, became my hero. The next day I   
   telephoned him and asked him rather timidly, "May I meet with you?" To   
   my surprise he said, "Yes, do come over." And it was really then that   
   the little hidden flame which had been ignited began burning to   
   understand the cosmos.   
      
   Shortly after that my father bought me a four-and-a-half inch   
   reflector telescope. That was no little thing for a teenager. With   
   that incredible instrument I could start to look at planets like   
   Saturn and at some of the nebulae in which stars are born.   
      
   I wanted to pursue studies in astronomy and my father was my biggest   
   supporter. Leon Block always encouraged me to question things, to look   
   beyond the ordinary and to make up my own mind. After all, we were   
   Jews and that was part of our tradition as well.   
      
   My Jewish Upbringing   
      
   Both of my parents' Orthodox Jewish families have their roots in   
   Lithuania. And we certainly kept to all the traditions as well: My   
   mother would light the Shabbos candles and we would have a traditional   
   Shabbos meal together. I went to shul both on Friday night and   
   Saturday. We kept Pesach. I fasted on Yom Kippur. I was bar mitzvah.   
   We were practicing Jews. And I did all the things expected of a good   
   Jewish boy. Actually, I felt that I was doing the best that I knew how   
   to live out my Jewish faith.   
      
   Now that didn't mean that I was unquestioning when it came to the   
   things of God. On the contrary, I'd listen in shul as the rabbis   
   expounded how God was a personal God and how God would speak to Moses,   
   to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and wonder how I fit into all of   
   it. And by the time I entered university I became concerned over the   
   fact that I had no assurance that God was indeed a personal God. I did   
   know that he was a historical God and that he did deliver our people   
   from the hands of Pharaoh. But that seemed far removed from me in this   
   scientific age.   
      
   Those were "stories," as it were.   
      
   Where was the personality and the vibrancy of a God who could speak to   
   David Block? If God is truly God, I reasoned, then why had he suddenly   
   changed his character? The seeds of doubt were sprouting.   
      
   University Years   
      
   In order to follow my interest in astronomy I entered the   
   Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. I sought a Bachelor of   
   Science degree in applied mathematics and computer science. As a   
   professional astronomer, a background in mathematics and statistics   
   was essential.   
      
   While still a student, I was appointed as a "demonstrator" on the   
   staff—in other words, I would help students with their tutorial   
   problems on a formal basis. And while a student I also became quite   
   friendly with Lewis Hurst, then professor of genetics and of medicine.   
   He had a great interest in astronomy, if only from an amateur point of   
   view, and he asked if I would give him individual lessons.   
      
   Week by week, Lewis and I would sit around the table and I would   
   discuss the complexities of the cosmos with him and also explain   
   fundamental terms in astronomy such as "black holes" and "quasars." It   
   was a full but private course I was giving him.   
      
   The friendship grew and I started sharing my feelings about the cosmos   
   with him—that it is so beautiful, that God is so creative, that he's   
   made this stunning world. I even shared my doubts with him:   
      
   "Are we, as Shakespeare said, just as a ‘fleeting shadow to appear and   
   then disappear'?  What is our purpose for living?  What's the raison   
   d'etre for being here?  Is there a Designer out there?"   
      
   Lewis listened thoughtfully and then spoke, "David, there is an answer   
   to all your questions."   
      
   "You know, Lewis, what does concern me is that the universe is so   
   large, it's so immense. Do we go anywhere when we die?"   
      
   "There's an answer to all the questions you're asking. Would you be   
   willing—I know you come from an Orthodox Jewish family—but would you   
   be willing to meet with a dear friend of mine, the Reverend Mr. John   
   Spyker?"   
      
   My parents had taught me to seek answers where they may be found and   
   so I consented to meet with this Christian minister. Of course, in my   
   heart, when I had put my telescope on Saturn, and saw it in all its   
   majesty and splendor—its rings simply encircling that globe -- I just   
   knew that there was a Great Designer.   
      
   In fact, I knew there must be a personal God.   
      
   The Reverend Mr. Spyker read to me from the New Testament book of   
   Romans where Paul says that Y'shua (Jesus) is a stumbling block to   
   Jewish people, but that those who would believe in Y'shua would never   
   be ashamed.   
      
   Suddenly it all became very clear to me: Y'shua had fulfilled the   
   messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, such as where the   
   Messiah would be born and how he was to die. While my people were   
   still waiting for the Messiah, I suddenly knew that I knew that I knew   
   that I knew that Jesus was the Messiah and is the Messiah. And I   
   surrendered my heart and my soul to him that day. That was in October   
   of 1976.   
      
   I gave Judaism a chance and I accepted him who is fully, fully Jewish.   
   Paul, before he believed in Jesus, was a student of the great rabbi,   
   Gamaliel. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He had studied. He had   
   examined. Yet, when Paul met the Master face to face, the Master   
   mastered him. The Master mastered me as well.   
      
   Faith and Science   
      
   It might seem strange to some that a scientist and a Jew could come to   
   faith in Jesus. But faith is never a leap into the dark. It is always   
   based on evidence. All people believe and all scientists believe. They   
   don't all believe in a personal God, of course, but each one of us   
   uses our own measure of faith. Each one of us has a personal world   
   system, a personal belief system.   
      
   As a scientist, I always think logically and I reason things out. That   
   was how my whole search for God began. I looked through my telescope   
   at Saturn and said to myself, Isn't there a great God out there? And   
   when I studied relativity, relativistic astrophysics, cosmology and   
   all these beautiful areas of mathematics, they pointed me to the fact   
   that this whole universe is masterfully made, finely-tuned and   
   controlled by the Great Designer. The logical next step was to want to   
   meet this Designer face-to-face.   
      
   Among astronomers today there is great theistic sentiment, where even   
   if scientists don't say Jesus has made the universe, they are coming   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)