John Van Sloten, author of God Speaks Science, reflects on a conversation with a Mars Rover researcher 

When I first realised that Jesus speaks “supernovae” it felt like a bit of a cosmic epiphany.  

I was talking to a Mars Rover researcher who had just explained to me how all the elements that fill the periodic table came about through the death and resurrection of stars. “At first there were only three elements in the Universe,” she said. “Hydrogen, helium and a little lithium – not nearly enough for life, as we know it.”

“Heavier and more complex elements came about through the life and death of stars. Two kinds: low-mass stars and high-mass stars. When a low-mass star dies, the element carbon is produced. When a high-mass star starts to die, elements like oxygen, neon, magnesium and so on up the periodic table until you reach iron, are produced. Then, when a high-mass star explodes in a supernova, elements heavier than iron are made. The heavier elements that make us up are created in the end stages of a high-mass star’s life. It is only through the death of these stars that the elements for life are created.”

Of course! It makes perfect sense that a Universe made by a dying and resurrecting Jesus would embody this kind of dying and resurrecting wisdom. God’s way of saving the cosmos appears to echo God’s way of making it. And Jesus had everything to… (Register to read the rest of the article)