Once we see, however, that the probability of life originating at random is so utterly minuscule as to make it absurd, it becomes sensible to think that the favorable properties of physics on which life depends are in every respect deliberate...It is therefore almost inevitable that our own measure of intelligence must reflect...higher intelligences...even to the limit of God...

SIR FRED HOYLE
British mathematician, astronomer and cosmologist

Orion Nebula as viewed through the Hubble telescope.

The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books...a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. ALBERT EINSTEIN

Two spiral galaxies as viewed through the Hubble telescope.

It is as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science. And there is certainly no scientific reason why God cannot retain the same relevance in our modern world that He held before we began probing His creation with telescope, cyclotron and space vehicles.WERNHER VON BRAUN - Creation: Nature's Designs and Designer

(Von Braun was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration from the 1930s until his death in 1977. Von Braun is well known as the leader of the "rocket team," which developed the V-2 ballistic missile for the Nazis during World War II. Before the Allied capture of the V-2 rocket complex, von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and test vehicles, to the Americans. For fifteen years after World War II, von Braun worked with the U.S. army in the development of ballistic missiles. He served as the first Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center from 1960 to 1970 and is most noted for directing the development of the giant Saturn V rocket that carried men to the moon for the first time in 1969.)

This image resembling Vincent van Gogh's painting, "Starry Night," is Hubble's view of an expanding halo of light around a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon). This Hubble image was obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on February 8, 2004. The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the middle of the image, which gave off a flashbulb-like pulse of light two years ago. V838 Mon is located about 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros, placing the star at the outer edge of our Milky Way galaxy.

Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team

When the scientist has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. ROBERT JASTROW - God and the Astronomers (astrophysicist and NASA scientist)

I don't think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and see the Earth from this vantage point, to look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God. To me, it's impossible--it just strengthens my faith. I wish there were words to describe what it's like. JOHN GLENN - Broadcast from the Discovery Space Shuttle on November 1, 1998

That which is, is far and off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? ECCLESIASTES 7:24

Science conducts us, step by step, through the whole range of creation, until we arrive, at length, at God. MARGUERITE DE VALOIS - Memoirs

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structures of reality. It is enough if ones tries merely to comprehend a little of the mystery every day. ALBERT EINSTEIN

The Hubble telescope view is called "God's Eye"

After close on two centuries of passionate struggles, neither science nor faith has succeeded in discrediting its adversary. On the contrary, it becomes obvious that neither can develop normally without the other. And the reason is simple: the same life animates both. Neither in its impetus nor its achievements can science go to its limits without becoming tinged with mysticism and charged with faith. PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN - The Phenomenon of Man (theologian-scientist)

The question from agnosticism is, Who turned on the lights? The question from faith is, Whatever for? ANNIE DILLARD - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details. ALBERT EINSTEIN

Through our science we have created magnificent spacecrafts and telescopes to explore the night and the light and the half light. We have made visible things that are invisible to the unaided eye. We have brought the dreamy heavens down to Earth, held them in the mind's eye. Our explorations have produced a vast archive of remarkable astronomical images...The riches are too many for choices, the revelations beautiful and dreadful. Who can look at these images and not be transformed? The heavens declare God's glory. CHET RAYMO - Skeptics and True Believers

He has made everything beautiful in its time, also he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ECCLESIASTES 3:11

Editor's Note: While the images on this page primarily came from the public domain images of the Hubbell Telescope, the wonderful assimilated quotes came from THE HAND OF GOD. Many of the pictures in the book were taken with the Hubble telescope. Each has a descriptive caption - quotations from scientists, poets, theologians, and other writers. It is a treat that is truly awe inspiring. It might be a wonderful evangelism tool to use on the next atheist or agnostic you meet.

The Hand of God: Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe
Edited by Michael Reagan, Introduction by Sharon Begley