Heavens smile as science goes out of fashion

By Nury Vittachi

*

To get home from work, I catch three separate buses. (Yeah, I know, weep for me.) One night, a miracle happened and I got a seat, which meant I could sleep sitting down instead of wedged between strangers (though that can be surprisingly comfortable). I was in a deep coma when I felt I was being watched.

I looked out of the window to see a huge multicolored face in the heavens. In a jet black sky were two shining eyes, one yellow, one red, and a big white smile, glowing like a toothpaste commercial.

My first thought was: Oh, no, a huge toothpaste commercial! The Colgate people have purchased the solar system!

But the lack of a red logo made me realize this was no ad. There were only two rational explanations: (a) a planet-sized clown was hovering over Earth; or (b) the Earth had drifted off course into a Universe of Planet-Sized Circus Personnel.

As the bus rattled along the roads, scattering cyclists and pedestrians as normal, the giant face moved with us.

The next morning, I scanned the newspapers to learn that folk in many countries had seen the face, caused by a horizontal moon appearing under Jupiter and Venus in a clear night sky.

At breakfast, I asked two companions, one deeply religious and the other devoutly anti-religious, for their opinions.

Religious friend: "It's a sign from God. He is happy with us."

Anti-religious friend: "Well, I don't believe in God or any of that stuff, but I do think that when we really need something, we visualize it and the universe kind of makes it happen. The universe has affirmed us."

In other words, they both thought the same thing.

At my computer, I looked up the National Geographic website for a scientific interpretation.

"The heavens smiled down on Earth," the website said.

It was interesting that no one dismissed it as a coincidental intersection of lifeless, soulless, bits of gas and rock millions of miles away. Everyone preferred to see it as A Message.

Clearly, rationalism is out of fashion. Even atheists have decided that it is cooler to believe that there's more to heaven and earth than stuff we can touch.

Incidentally, in the "related items" column of that National Geographic web page, there was a headline which said: "Dimmest Stars in the Universe Found." I didn't click on it, because I could guess what it was about. Clearly someone watched the TV show Zoey 101 and saw Britney Spears' sister Jamie Lynn and her colleagues trying to act.

And talking of dim stars, several readers wrote to me about small-time criminal Darnell Frazier. Stopped by police in the US city of St Paul, he gave them a fake name--although his real one was tattooed in large letters on his neck. This definitely wins him a position in our Dumb Criminals Hall of Fame.

We'll put him right next to Broken-Tooth Koi. This gentleman (real name Wan Kuok-koi) was a gangster in Macau who pleaded not guilty to being a gangster. Unfortunately, his trial coincided with the opening of a full-length movie bio-pic he had financed, which recreated, in tedious detail, how he had risen from the streets to become a gangster. Oops.When real life is that wacky, believing in planet-sized clowns, smiling from above, is easy.

Comments

[Rika]

Isn’t it wonderful? I definitely am not believing in God or his companions – whoever that might be - but I do believe that mother Nature is the most beautiful thing.

Again! Isn’t it wonderful? All the mighty Gods are male – at least in the Western world – while Nature is a woman. Yay!

We all know… well, most of us know (believe, trust,…) that men have been up there on the moon, walking on it, leaving debris and messing about and nevertheless: When the moon and his companions are looking down on us everything is good. However many credit crunches, nagging parents and tantrum throwing children …, when this beautiful shiny thing gives a display we know that we are in the exact spot of the universe where we belong.

I think it’s just brilliant that all those pictures of an ugly boot print in the dust on the surface of this rock in the sky didn’t de-mystify the beauty of its appearance when seen from the rock we are on. Something must have got deeply embedded into our genes when we made our way from one celled thingy to human kind – and it shows that civilisation is a rather thin blanket covering homo sapiens’ foundation block of instincts.

To many more wonderful celestial displays and a Happy New Year 2009 to you all. May the stars – and the moon – be with you!

xx

[Santox]

On 1st Dec 2008, a similar starry starry night with moony smile flashed across the south-east-asian sky. Many saw , many wished , and many vanished into celestrial space of eternal bliss. Perhaps it is mother nature's way of holding our attention on things above and lifting our mind off earthly matters, at least temporarily. Let's keep looking up even if 2009 may take away smiles from a lot of people. Happy New Year 2009!

[sky watcher]

There is definitely more to heaven and earth than things we can touch and see.
This thing about visualizing something and the universe makes it happen, I don't know how it works, but it does!

[Adalina Lo]

Right on the money again, Nury!

Lately, I've been frustrated to be a part of human species - apparently, the world of emotion and the unconsious is more powerful than rationalism.

Escapism is the all-time favorite past time for most people. The second favorite past time is engaging in a form of cowardice which is to deny any "elephant in the room." I.e. my spouse no longer loves or cares for me, my friends don't really like me, the reason why people are bad is that my attitude sucks, etc etc.

Human existence is so miserable. Personally, the only way I can survive is to have a bunch of cash and pretend all this pain isn't all there.