The Unseen Hand of God seen at last.What you see here is a neutron star in x-ray light. A neutron star is an unbelievably dense object that is the final state of matter an object can achieve before it rips space itself apart and becomes a black hole. This cosmic vision has been waiting for us even before man was civilized. The high energy light traveled 17 thousand years to get here. It remained unseen by all of us for all of this time and only now is it revealed. Consider what had to happen for this amazing hand to be seen. X-rays had to be discovered. That did not happen until 1895 when Roentgen found mysterious rays that could travel through paper. X rays cannot make it all the way to the ground so space travel had to happen. That started with Sputnik in 1957. You had to find a way to focus these notoriously penetrating beams in order to magnify the image. That was the work of the Chandra Telescope launched July 23. 1999. Even then it had to look in the right place. All of this had to happen to see the up until this moment unseen hand of God. It raises an interesting question: what other things in creation reveal the unseen Hand of God ? Let me talk about another “Unseen Hand”. Would you believe, free trade? Way back around the time of the American Revolution there was a Scotsman professor by the name of Adam Smith. It is his term “ Unseen Hand” which I borrow. In Smith's seminal work “The Wealth of Nations” he showed free markets worked best to increase human liberty and prosperity. He found that people , by merely following their own selfish ends in trade with others, acted for the betterment of all , even though that was not necessarily their intention in the first place. It was like an “Unseen Hand” was at work as the markets operated, improving everyones lives for the better. We are constantly told by most religions that we are obligated to serve our fellow man. This arises in no small part by the scams of two legged predators who know if man is going to be MADE to serve man they need the excuse of alturism to implement it . Tyrants need alturism as the excuse to stay at the top of the food chain . God has a different plan. The Unseen Hand of the marketplace means that being reasonable is quite enough to be good. By concentrating on providing an honest value for an honest trade the Unseen Hand insures our lives get better. This is Divine design. Simple yet ingeniously effective . Adam Smiths “Unseen Hand” is an example , in and of itself , of the Unseen Hand of God. The proper role of Man is not sacrifice, it is trade. Something for something. Everybody who trades reasonably wins in free trade or the trade does not happen. All are treated as equals even if some are better at making deals. You no doubt have heard Christians talk about “The Good News” . News which is good only after you are dead. I have some “Good News” for the living: God really does love us, and He has built in a REASON to love him back! He has literally set up the Universe in such a way that our existence happens naturally . Once you do exist you CAN live a good life free of evil by acting reasonably! American history has verified this! You don't have to sacrifice yourself or anybody else! REASON is all you need, and he gave us the tools to do it! Now THAT is a sign of true love! Divine design, simple yet profound. All that pain, all that suffering, all unnecessary if Men simply act reasonably with each other. It's that simple. That DEVINELY simple. Individuals , by pursing their own trade, end up making the world a more prosperous place, even if that was never a part of their intentions. Adam Smith's “Invisible Hand” , is the inherent virtue of the most moral form of government: capitalism . Perhaps you consider it 'unreasonable' to expect everyone to act 'reasonably'. Given the built in diversity life has this is true. A more realistic goal is a rule of law based upon reason itself. One that consistently upholds a common view among men that the purpose of Government among them is not the collectivist slavery of mutual sacrifice of all to all but instead the reasonable and commonly held belief that free trade and free thought themselves are the ideal . A rule of law where the Government is not considered the provider of everyone's needs but is instead considered the protector of honest trade, property and free speech.
Amazing how the “invisible hand” not only works for the individual , it works for the rest of us as well. If the universe was not designed that way it's sure pretty neat how that worked out. Adam Smiths “Invisible Hand” is truly the hand of God. The invisible hand is a concept I've come to see as a larger part of creation than just economics. It's a subtle hand , working behind the curtains . Only a few peeks are ever seen by someone who is trying very hard to see what is behind that curtain. If you are not trying to look you could easily go your whole life not ever getting a peek. As Einstein said “God is subtle, but not malicious”. |
The Church of Socrates Islam: Evil in the name of God Evolution: The next level 
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