A Copernican Revolution

I recently read an older article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Pamela McCorduck which brought up some interesting ideas that I’d like to share with you.  She continually referenced back to the very first Copernican Revolution.  For those of you unfamiliar with that period of history, the astronomer Ptolemy came up with a very accepted model of the universe: the earth was at the center of it, and all the other celestial bodies revolved around it.  Copernicus revolutionized astronomy when he revealed on his death bed a new way of looking at the solar system.  He proposed that the sun was at the center of it, and all the planets, including earth, revolved around it.

In her article “An Introduction to the Humanities with Prof. Ptolemy”, McCorduck makes the case that the world is in a similar predicament today.  She argues that humans are the center of our thinking, our reasoning and our problem solving.  And she suggests that this is not a workable model; that something needs to unseat humans from their seat of power over the earth.  I completely agree with her on this point.  We, as humans, care too much about our selves.  Almost all of our decisions reflect our selfishness, our desire for comfort and our unwillingness to put ourselves in harm’s way for other’s sake.  But McCorduck is unclear what should replace humans as the center of the universe.

I am here to propose an answer to her philosophical quandary: God.  We need a revolution in our personal lives and in our society as a whole.  We need to begin to look to God as the center of our affairs.  He should be taking the seat of honor on this earth, because, after all, he created it and is actively involved in holding everything together today.  Like it or not, humans are not the most powerful beings in our universe.  We often like to puff up our accomplishments – after all, which species finished mapping the human genome?  Or discovered a cure for small pox?  But, we should be asking another question: Who invented the human genome and the disease of small pox?  We are doing nothing more than discovering God’s amazing inventions.  And we should give God the honor by placing Him in the center of our lives.

I am doing nothing more nor nothing less than proposing a revolution.  But here’s the catch: this revolution begins in people’s lives and hearts as they choose to make God the center of their universe.  Have you, as Hebrews 12:2 commands, “fixed your eyes on Jesus, the author or perfecter of our faith”?  Have you embraced this new Copernican Revolution? If not, what are you waiting for?