Henry Eyring

Consider now that the universe is so large that the best reflecting telescopes enable us to see stars by light which started journeying toward us so long ago. The subsequent history of these stars is completely unknown. They may long since have ceased to exist. There seems no reasonable alternative to the conclusion that the Creator has methods of communication which travel by other means and at speeds unknown and perhaps unknowable to mortal man. Somehow, the universe is coordinated and regulated by influences which transcend the known laws of physics. Nor should this seem strange if one remembers that such marvels as radar, radio, and the telegraph were unimaginable a century and a half ago. What wonders can we hope to unravel in the endless eternity ahead? . . . Though our knowledge of the universe is always expanding, the fundamentals of the gospel endure unchanged.

Man in his ceaseless search after truth has discovered and partially explored five world. These worlds differ from each other in the size of the units of space and time we need to describe them. In our every day practical world, we get along nicely with such units as feet and seconds. In the chemical world of molecules and atoms, the electrons complete their revolutions in a hundred million millionth of a second, while a hundred million atoms side by side extend only a distance of one inch. Inside the nucleus of the atom, we enter a third world, where events happen a million times faster still, and distances are a thousand times smaller than in the atom. In the fourth world, the astronomers measure revolutions of the planets in years, and the unit of distance, the light year, is about ten thousand million miles. Finally, we come to the spiritual world where time is measured in eternities and space is limitless. Thus, in thought we can travel from the almost infinitesimally small to the infinitely large.

Let us consider the nature of true greatness in men. The people who can catch hold of men's minds and feelings and inspire them to do things bigger than themselves are the people who are remembered in history. . . . those who stir feelings and imagination and make men struggle toward perfection.

. . . true religion was never a narrow thing. True religion concerns man and the entire universe in which he lives. It concerns his relationships with himself and his fellow men, with his environment, and with God his creator. It is therefore limitless, and as boundless as that eternity which it teaches lies ahead of every son of God. . . . Here is the spirit of true religion, an honest seeking after knowledge of all things of heaven and earth.

Perhaps the believer never does more disservice to religion than to support the truth with bad arguments. The impatient listener, perceiving the obvious errors, often "throws out the baby with the bath" and turns away, even from true religion.