Secularists Have High Hopes for Webb Telescope

It was natural to doubt the James Webb Space Telescope may not blast off on Christmas Day 2021 as promised, since there were numerous delays over the years. Those with the tingly spider sense were right, and Webb went out there, thataway.

Ten billion US dollars was spent on something primarily of interest to astronomers. They hope it works, since unlike the Hubble (which humor columnist Dave Barry called the "Hubble Orbiting Space Paperweight" because it failed at first), there will probably be no second chances.

JWST artist's conception, NASA (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents)

Every once in a while, doomsday people issue hysterical clickbait that an asteroid will come "dangerously close to the earth" or some such. Visions of panicked people screaming in the streets and looting, cats and dogs living together — but the asteroid was ten times the distance between the earth and the moon.

"Yeah, but by cosmic standards, boy, that's close, Cowboy Bob!"

Relativistic thinking in science, I reckon.

I had a kind of dark humorous thought. The JWST will be correctly situated outside the orbit of the moon, making it difficult to replace batteries, scrub off graffiti, change the oil, and do other maintenance. The telescope is a group hug between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. They get the thing working, and then some careless asteroid smacks into it...

A quote falsely attributed to Uncle Albert Einstein is, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." In this case, it is the willing suppression of the truth about God in unrighteousness, seeing how many aspects of our solar system and the universe testify of recent creation, but trying to still cling to the billions of years mythology.

All this tax money is at work to supposedly look back in time billions of Darwin years. Materialists want to solve the mysteries of the origins of life, the universe, and all that good stuff. Once again, they are presupposing the Frankensteined Big Bang, which is infested with assumptions.

Here are two articles, one released December 16 and the second on December 26, 2021. First things first.

Long delayed and way over budget, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may finally make its debut Christmas Eve (see countdown page). Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), whose continuing career has reached legendary status, the JWST will take pictures primarily for astronomers. Its sensors are in the infrared spectrum, lending its imagery to hot spots that do not look realistic to human eyes, nor nearly as pretty. Astronomers, though, feel that the heat maps generated by its 6-meter-wide mirror (HST was 2 meters) will open up new vistas for theorists. Because the instruments must be kept cold, the telescope is expected to only last 5-10 years, compared to the 30 years of the HST so far.

As Yogi Berra allegedly quipped, it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Citizens who remember the near disaster with Hubble when its first images came back out of focus should beware of hyped expectations until JWST actually gets launched and makes it through a deployment period (two weeks). First images will not arrive till the end of the commissioning period (about six months). Nevertheless, some reporters are salivating already about what this instrument will show. They are making predictions not just about the future but about the past: what this new instrument will reveal about the history of the universe, earth and life.

You can read this first article by clicking on "The James Webb Space Telescope Will Not Tell Us Where We Came From." For some same day service, come back for the second article, which was published on the same day I'm writing this.

That launch must have been a real Webb sight, huh?

Those afflicted with Atheism Spectrum Disorder and other evolutionists are undoubtedly expecting Mr. Webb's namesake in the sky to support materialistic beliefs and refute biblical creation. However, nothing in science has ever done that. In fact, science (when stripped of secular presuppositions and naturalistic rescuing lingo) consistently supports creation. It is quite logical to expect JWST to continue the tradition. Deal with it, hippies.

Baby, it's cold out in space. The instruments on the JWST appreciate that. The infrared wavelengths don't give us pictures suitable for framing, but they do pass through gas and dust up yonder so scientists can see hidden details. NASA has given four objectives: Early universe, galaxies over time, star lifecycle, and other worlds. Gotta find them Population III stars and galaxies, which are taken by faith to exist, but don't have actual data! That's science of the gaps, old son.

Then there's that mature galaxies that shouldn't be there problem, and how assumptions about star formation will have even less support that they have now. And other interesting things. It will not go well for secularists and again, science of the gaps.

Whilst a biblical worldview would greatly assist scientists in their exploration (the biblical worldview is actually the basis of modern science4), the money and time will not be wasted. New discoveries will enable us to better understand and appreciate the universe God has made, helping us fulfil the God-given desire for exploration and insight, as well as assisting us in glorifying God!

    The Heavens declare the Glory of God (Psalm 19:1).

We also expect the discoveries to be entirely consistent with God’s account of origins found in Genesis.

. . .

Webb is not designed to be serviced either by humans or robots due to the enormous distance it will be from Earth. Unlike the Hubble telescope, JWST will orbit the sun at a location known as Lagrange Point 2 (it will also orbit Lagrange point 2 itself in a halo orbit), a gravitationally stable spot in space 1.5 million km from our planet.

To read the full article, blast yourself off to "What you need to know about the James Webb Space Telescope."