Science helps us glimpse some of  the indescribable beauty of the created world , which has been given to us, placed there for our delight, something that we will never fully understand in its completion.

Science  consists of the  study of the matter in the Universe and its interaction  with humankind. And all that objectively exists is evidenced by recurring facts… It’s not absurd, invented, or a matter of opinion: that’s why science has only developed in the West. We must find  sufficient reasons  to explain it, as Einstein said.

But this scientific knowledge cannot explain everything:  it is complemented by other ways of knowing.  We will see discoveries from the latest Nobel Prize winners, all of which point in one direction…

In the words of the philosopher Gustave Thibon: “Creation offers enough  harmony  so that one can never doubt God, and enough chaos so that one can never fully understand Him.”

The wonder of nature and the cosmos, that order and harmony within its immeasurability,  can only be explained by a Creator of great wisdom and generosity,  by an intelligent Being, as we shall see, by a “Magician,” as G.K. Chesterton called him, because events are astonishing “magic” to which we must not become accustomed. He was amazed by the mystery of life, by its daily miracle.

 Because, as Isaac  Newton pointed out, “what we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean. The admirable arrangement and harmony of the universe could only have come from the plan  of an omniscient and omnipotent Being.” He intuited universal   gravitation  in the 17th century . He stated with great insight and humility that bodies attract each other as if there were a force between them… although that force could not yet be demonstrated. And there would be many discoveries to come that would shed new light… which we now have.  

A great thinker

To begin, a great genius and thinker,  G.K. Chesterton ,  the man of kindness and hearty laughter. After going through dark and agnostic, sad and depressed periods in his life, and “hitting rock bottom,” he realized that  everything is magic,  as he had believed as a child: from the sunrise, to the blossoming of a tree, the trilling of birds, the roar of a waterfall, the joyful flow of a stream… the very act of being alive… And all of this  points to a “Magician”  who brings order and harmony to the universe.

I had felt since childhood that events are actually  miracles  of nature: something almost magical, surprising, and of great beauty.

He says enthusiastically, “There is something that gives splendor to everything that exists, and that is  the illusion of  finding something around the corner.”  “Everything has a divine seal, and whoever discovers it is happy and gives thanks to the Creator.”  Although at that time he was an atheist…

She remembers her childhood as something wonderful and joyful, filled with fairy tales and a profound sense of wonder at reality. She is overwhelmed by the solidity and beauty of everything in Creation. It seems incredibly magnificent to her , and she  is constantly surprised to be alive. It’s as if it were something prodigious. She never escaped this wonder. She believed that the world was full of magic and enchantment… She lives in perpetual awe, like children.

He loved to paint and doodle, and he would do it on any scrap of paper he could find. He finished his schooling there, making many good friends, and then enrolled in a prestigious academic institution: the Slade School of Fine Arts. But those years were somewhat sad and cynical, marked by bouts of depression, reflecting the  agnostic and nihilistic atmosphere that surrounded him. This contrasted sharply with his joyful and remarkable childhood. 

I couldn’t find a purpose in life: everything was gray and lifeless. I needed to find meaning, and  answers  to so many questions I had… Sometimes I only had the strength to lie down and read, specifically Charles Dickens. 

The following year he enrolled at Oxford University, pursuing extensive studies in the humanities and fine arts. He also discovered  Walt Whitman , with his cheerful and encouraging spirit: “Do not abandon the desire to make your life extraordinary.” And his  spirits began to turn positive…

In search of that meaning of life, guided by  reason , and  as if in waves of childhood memories, he dedicates himself to  reflecting on life and reality. Because, for Chesterton and other intellectuals of his time,  the means of understanding reality are  reason , imagination ( both connected),  art , with its light, history,  which teaches through its events… and the  common sense  that so characterizes Gilbert Keith.     

He wants to find an  ideal life that gives it meaning  .  And he  “invents” a basic , provisional theory  to lend credibility to everything, starting from his childhood beliefs, the only ones he’s truly convinced of:  existence as something incredible and wonderful. Something one doesn’t choose, but  is given.  Like in a fairy tale. 

And from this realization arose  immense gratitude, and a redoubled  joy at the astonishing gift of being alive. But she didn’t know whom to thank… 

Then he will realize that all those thoughts had already been “invented”…

With a touch of humor, he says, “The amazing thing about miracles is that they happen.” Much  later he will convert ,  he will discover God, because, “if there were no God, there would be no atheists.” Moved, he remarks, “Life is a novel where the characters can encounter their Author.”

In his book Orthodoxy, in the chapter “The Land of the Goblins,” where he speaks of  imagination and fantasy,  he writes: “God is sought through imagination, or truth is sought through  beauty.  Why shouldn’t it be so?”

“I have always had a feeling that  life is like a story; and if there is a story, it is because there is a storyteller ,” he says in this essay.

In other words, in  that search for something transcendent  that we yearn for,  we use  imagination , that wonderful capacity we have, sometimes not very valued, which guides us towards the  beauty  that the human soul needs to survive.

Later, he will enthusiastically realize that the universe is the space God has created for him to meet with man…

To bid farewell to Chesterton, here is one of his brilliant thoughts, as brilliant as he was: “Man is more himself, man is more human,  when joy is fundamental to  him and  affliction is superficial.”

We’ll continue with the universe and some scientists from recent years: F. Collins, G. Lemaitre, etc. As I was saying, all science points towards light, beauty, harmony, the “cosmos” in its etymological sense…