What does catholicism has to say about the "Sun will burn the earth in billions of years" thing?

[CathoLion]

First of all ,Im sorry If Im not posting this in the right part of the forum.

Now Im sure many people have heard that NASA claims for a fact that in about five billion years the sun will have burned all of it’s hydrogen causing it to expand hundreds of times its current size and thus engulfing Mercury, Venus and quite possibly the Earth. Even if it does not “swallow” the Earth, it will at the very least burn it so much that our planet will become inhospitable for any kind of life.

I don’t know about anyone else but the fact that scientists know that this is an irrefutable and inevitable event makes me very nervous for some reason. Yes, I know I will not be alive when It happens but it is still very disturbing and eriee that that’s how it will all end. A part of me says “But why would God do that to the very earth and humans he created?” But another part of me says…“If science claims it as such an irrefutable fact that cannot be disproved then that must mean this is legit”

Now my questions are:

What does catholicism or the church has to say about this?
Are there any biblical references to this prediction or theory?
Does this scare anybody else?
Is there any contradicting evidence against this?

 

[Porknpie]

First of all ,Im sorry If Im not posting this in the right part of the forum.

Now Im sure many people have heard that NASA claims for a fact that in about five billion years the sun will have burned all of it’s hydrogen causing it to expand hundreds of times its current size and thus engulfing Mercury, Venus and quite possibly the Earth. Even if it does not “swallow” the Earth, it will at the very least burn it so much that our planet will become inhospitable for any kind of life.

I don’t know about anyone else but the fact that scientists know that this is an irrefutable and inevitable event makes me very nervous for some reason. Yes, I know I will not be alive when It happens but it is still very disturbing and eriee that that’s how it will all end. A part of me says “But why would God do that to the very earth and humans he created?” But another part of me says…“If science claims it as such an irrefutable fact that cannot be disproved then that must mean this is legit”

Now my questions are:

What does catholicism or the church has to say about this?
Are there any biblical references to this prediction or theory?
Does this scare anybody else?
Is there any contradicting evidence against this?

Catholion,

If Jesus hasn’t come in 5 billion years I will trust that man-kind will have moved off this planet by then but my Chicago Cubs will still not have won a World Series. Now that is scary!

 

[Aeden]

I don’t think the catechism has anything in particular about how the earth will be destroyed, only that the universe will end at some point.

You could argue that in Revelations, the mention of the bowls of God’s wrath being poured during the end of days is a reference, but some take that to be a metaphorical section of the Bible, myself included.

It has taken us a few thousand years to be able to produce inter planetary travel. In a few billion, we will probably have inter-system travel unlocked just fine. I am not concerned.

I have no idea about disagreeing evidence, but usually there is agreement about things like astrophysics.

 

[Jozefo]

Or maybe that won’t happen. Or maybe it will, or not. Maybe…

 

[Allegra]

I expect our Lord will have returned well before then. It dosn’t bother me.

 

[twf]

No human being can even begin to comprehend how truly long five million years is…now this is a thousand times long than that…five thousand million years (5 billion). It is a length of time so beyond human comprehension that it is basically a meaningless figure. I am sure that long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long before then, one of three things will happen:

1. Jesus will come again at which time the entire universe will be remade in glory as His eternal kingdom (hence this issue will no longer be an issue…)
2. …or…humanity would have long since developed technology to manipulate the sun to our heart’s content
   3)…or…humanity would have long since moved on to other planets…

 

[jimkhong]

What does catholicism or the church has to say about this?
Are there any biblical references to this prediction or theory?

Catholicism does not take the place of science or seek to explain science. It seeks, among many other things, to help up formulate our response to scientific findings.

We leave science to science. As such, we do not use the Bible as a science book. Any science referred to in the Bible is incidental and secondary to the divine message it contains. Neither do we refer to Bible for prophecies. We use it to guide our lives today.

I am not aware of any church pronouncement on this although I am sure the Vatican Observatory is keeping abreast with the latest astronomical findings. I guess the Church thinks it is too remote in time for us to worry about.

Does this scare anybody else?

No, it doesn’t scare me. There are too many elections, wars, famines, deep theological disputes like holding hands at Our Father during mass between now and then before I need to worry about it.

Is there any contradicting evidence against this?

This is a scientific theory. Scientific theories are not absolute truths (neither are they ‘just’ theories). Scientific theories work on the basis that a hypothesis postulated need to be backed up by observable and repeatable evidence. In this case, the evidence is mathematical as well.

Whether the earth will be destroyed or not in 5 million years depends on a number of variables which science today do not have the capability or computer capacity to calculate. Nevertheless, according to the calculations it is clear that life on earth as we know it will be long gone, even if it does not get swallowed up by the Sun. We have evidence of this in many other sun systems observed.

Current scientific theory is that eventually (if I am not to scare you further), the universe is due to end anyway. When and how is being debated - one possibility is that everything will come together in a Big Crunch, which could spark off another Big Bang.
**
So, what does it all mean for me.** The way I think of the Cosmos, it is so large. There is an entire galaxy being born out there every year (at least one). And a star every second. (Give & take) And a star system with its accompanying planets and any life on them being destroyed every second. We are so insignificant in relation to the universe (and some scientists theorise that there could be many universes out there), smaller by a few million times than the smallest cell is to a person.

Do we have time to care about any of the cells in our body? And yet God cares for each one of us individually and personally listens to each of our prayers. Multiply that by the number of humans on earth (or every sentient being in the universe). Cells come & go every second and we give no thought to it (and each cell in relation to us is greater than the sun system destroyed every second in relation to the universe). Yet, God cares enough for each of us to ensure that we have the choice of an after-life and a person plan for each one of us to get there.

So, glory in this personal God of us and submit to his plan for this insignificant me. That is what I pray for and look forward to.

I hope it helps.

 

[triumphguy]

Here’s an interesting episode on the Second Law of Thermo-Dynamics (entropy) narrated by a particle physics professor, Brian Cox.

Wonders of the Universe: Destiny

dailymotion.com/video/xyr1ly_wonders-of-the-universe-destiny_shortfilms

 

[CathoLion]

I just cannot swallow or live relaxed knowing this will all be one day al burned up and/or destroyed…It’s a bit of an obseession

I know the bible somewhat contradicts this saying God will recreate the universe or something among those lines…but I dont’ know… A lot of things in the bible are not literal…

 

[triumphguy]

It’s 1 billion years before the sun becomes a gas giant, and then another 6 billion before it becomes a red dwarf, so…

don’t hold your breath

 

[CathoLion]

I’m very curious why you find it so disturbing that God may end things this way.

Other events that have happened and are currently happening in the world, including tsunamis, starvation, plagues, earthquakes, wars, genocides, murders, child abuse…Noah’s flood that killed almost everyone…Jesus being tortured and crucified…women being burned at the stake…et al…are events that God allows to the very earth and to the humans that He created as his will or free will.

The sun burning up the earth because we get too close to it or it gets too hot seems, to me, much less disturbing than the list above.
Don’t you think?

.

I wish I knew why this hits me so hard, because it’s such a wierd feeling…It almost feels as if it were to happen now… As if they told me that the sun will engulf the earth in a few months.

I don’t know why I can’t deal with this… Maybe it’s that I never thought that the Earth would actually literally end. I kinda always thought of the Earth as a place that would never end and always be there for humans. Yes Im aware humans have done damage to it, but I never belived God would let it be destroyed, much less in that way.

And all those topics you mentioned I usually though saddened, I handle them with serenity. This on the other hand scares me worse than anything because of the uncertain factor. I will never know if it will happen or not unless one invents a time machine.

 

[jimkhong]

I wish I knew why this hits me so hard, because it’s such a wierd feeling…It almost feels as if it were to happen now… As if they told me that the sun will engulf the earth in a few months.

I don’t know why I can’t deal with this… Maybe it’s that I never thought that the Earth would actually literally end. I kinda always thought of the Earth as a place that would never end and always be there for humans. Yes Im aware humans have done damage to it, but I never belived God would let it be destroyed, much less in that way.

And all those topics you mentioned I usually though saddened, I handle them with serenity. This on the other hand scares me worse than anything because of the uncertain factor. I will never know if it will happen or not unless one invents a time machine.

You may want to talk to someone about this as there is a limit to what we can do to help in a remote environment such as this website. Do you have a priest who can explain all this to you. In the meantime, I am sure we will be able to pray that you (and all of us for that matter) will be able to find comfort in God’s promises in the face of impending apocalypse.

 

[Protestor]

No human being can even begin to comprehend how truly long five million years is…now this is a thousand times long than that…five thousand million years (5 billion). It is a length of time so beyond human comprehension that it is basically a meaningless figure. I am sure that long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long before then, one of three things will happen:

1. Jesus will come again at which time the entire universe will be remade in glory as His eternal kingdom (hence this issue will no longer be an issue…)
2. …or…humanity would have long since developed technology to manipulate the sun to our heart’s content
   3)…or…humanity would have long since moved on to other planets…

This may just be the astrophysicist in me talking but 5 billion does not seem that long. I mean that is just when it dies(kinda) it is going to become a red giant (I think you were thinking of brown dwarf) before then. Stars will stop being made is about 10^14 years and in 10^100 years all there will be is darkness (kinda its the start of a darkening period). premise 2) will most likely never happen we can already move to other planets but not in a timely fashion. I think there are 2 candidate planets with similar size and distance and atmosphere but they are lightyears away.

Not that you would be alive but 1) is the most likely thing to happen. Thank you for a sciencey question I love it. Some of these figures may be wrong I don’t check them that often

 

[jmcrae]

Now my questions are:

What does catholicism or the church has to say about this?

Nothing; the Church doesn’t consider herself competent in science.

Are there any biblical references to this prediction or theory?

Not that I’m aware of.

Does this scare anybody else?

Not really, no. If the human race is still here, we will have moved out to other planets by then, and we will have learned either how to find hospitable planets, or we will have figured out how to make them hospitable.

All of this assumes that Jesus hasn’t returned by then.

 

[CathoLion]

You may want to talk to someone about this as there is a limit to what we can do to help in a remote environment such as this website. Do you have a priest who can explain all this to you. In the meantime, I am sure we will be able to pray that you (and all of us for that matter) will be able to find comfort in God’s promises in the face of impending apocalypse.

I did talk to priests, and im sure they all tried to help me with the best intentions, but they all said something along the lines of “Dont worry about it, it will happen in millions of years” and or “The Bible is not a scientifical book for those matters”.

Wich in esence makes me feel equally worse since this is a topic no one can give me assurance that I will be ok.

 

[jimkhong]

I did talk to priests, and im sure they all tried to help me with the best intentions, but they all said something along the lines of “Dont worry about it, it will happen in millions of years” and or “The Bible is not a scientifical book for those matters”.

Wich in esence makes me feel equally worse since this is a topic no one can give me assurance that I will be ok.

No one but Jesus. It is Jesus who gives each and every one of us a personal assurance that our burdens will be lifted. But we have to cooperate with him to get that assurance. Until then we sometimes feel that we are in the doghouse.

The only way I can see are prayers and reflections. Once we found the answer that Jesus has placed within us all along, we can then dedicate it to God. I do that often, sometimes taking a retreat to do so. It takes a few days and you do return recharged and refreshed.

When I suggested speaking to someone I do not mean a casual conversation (sorry if I wasn’t more explicit). When we are feeling lost and wonder whether Jesus actually cares, a casual conversation won’t do. You need someone who will walk with you to search for the pledge of comfort from Jesus.

Your local priest or diocesan office may be able to recommend you a companion or a retreat house nearby who can be that guide. Godbless and will keep you in prayers.

 

[triumphguy]

I did talk to priests, and im sure they all tried to help me with the best intentions, but they all said something along the lines of “Dont worry about it, it will happen in millions of years” and or “The Bible is not a scientifical book for those matters”.

Wich in esence makes me feel equally worse since this is a topic no one can give me assurance that I will be ok.

What do you mean by “OK”? You’ll be long dead.

Hopefully we’ll all be in heaven having a cold beer and watching the darkening embers of a dying universe.

 

[CathoLion]

Nothing; the Church doesn’t consider herself competent in science.

Not that I’m aware of.

Not really, no. If the human race is still here, we will have moved out to other planets by then, and we will have learned either how to find hospitable planets, or we will have figured out how to make them hospitable.

All of this assumes that Jesus hasn’t returned by then.

What If the human race is never able to travel to other galaxies? What if we dont find another hospitable solar sistem? What If Jesus hasn’t returned by then?

 

[Protestor]

Catholion

Not that this is a serious topic at all but I already answered these questions there are at least 2 hospitable planets a few light years away. The problem is traveling to them. This will not happen during your lifetime your childrens lifetime or there children’s lifetime. It is so far away in time that in reality we will probably have used all of the natural resources of the earth by then anyway. If you really want to rack your brain over this kinda stuff why not over when andromeda galaxy collides with ours that is closer in time like 6 billion years away.

I haven’t read revaluation in a while but isn’t there a lake of fire what if the earth is the “lake” . I completely made that up off the top of my head so don’t pick it apart to much. Since the sun will probably engulf the earth it could be possible.

On another note stop being such a worry wort. I’m pretty sure that there are verses in the bible that Speke against such things and when it is it is talking about stuff you can actually control like your clothes and food. God doesn’t want you worrying about something you have absolutely no control over.

 

[Mount_Carmel]

If God is the ultimate scientist and creator/maker of all things apart from ‘Himself’, as I believe, then the ultimate destiny of the world and more importantly of humanity, is in ‘His’ hands. Through ‘free will’ we have an (name removed by moderator)ut into the destiny of our spiritual selves of course.

I have total faith in the love and mercy of God, not always so confident in humanity 'though.