The Bible does not speak of the universe in that word, but uses the word "heavens", as at Genesis 1:1. According to the Encarta Dictionary, the word universe is "14th century. Directly or via French from Latin universum “the whole world,” from universus “whole,” literally “turned into one,” from versus , past participle of vertere “to turn”.(Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005)
Space is endless, and even with the Hubble Space Telescope, it has not been possible to see the "end of the universe", may never be able to so, even with more powerful telescopes that are on the designing boards now. The depth of the universe is being seen as impossible to find the edge.
Just a century ago, scientists believed that the entire universe was contained within our galaxy, the Milky Way. During the 20th century, however, major advances in astronomy, physics, and technology revealed the breathtaking scale of the cosmos. Some of the discoveries have also been humbling. For example, in recent decades astronomers have come to the realization that they do not know what makes up over 90 percent of the universe. What is more, the discoveries that led to that conclusion have caused scientists to question their understanding of the fundamentals of physics itself.
For instance, based on the evidence then known, Albert Einstein believed that the universe was static - neither expanding nor contracting. However, American astronomer Edwin Hubble, in 1929, presented evidence indicating that the universe is expanding. Hubble also cleared up a long-standing mystery about certain fuzzy, luminous patches in the night sky, which were named nebulae because they appeared to be clouds of gases. But were these inside our galaxy, or outside our galaxy, as British astronomer Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) suggested over a century earlier ?
When Hubble first estimated the distance to one of these entities, the Great Nebula in the constellation Andromeda, he concluded that the nebula was actually a galaxy a million light years away. As Hubble charted the distances to other nebulae, he began to unveil the enormous scale of the cosmos and triggered a revolution in astronomy and cosmology. It was soon thereafter that Hubble observed that the universe is expanding, for he saw that distant galaxies were receding from us.
He also noticed that the farther away the galaxy, the faster the recession. Those observations imply that the universe of yesterday was smaller than that of today. Since the time of Hubble, astronomers have been trying to measure as accurately as possible the rate of expansion, referred to as the "Hubble constant."
In 1995, scientists noticed the strange behavior of the most distant star (SN 1995K) ever observed as it exploded in its galaxy. Like supernovas in nearby galaxies, this star became very bright and then slowly faded but over a longer period than ever before detected. New Scientist magazine plotted this on a graph and explained: “The shape of the light curve . . . is stretched in time by exactly the amount expected if the galaxy was receding from us at nearly half the speed of light.” The conclusion? This is “the best evidence yet that the Universe really is expanding.”
When an ancient servant of God, David, looked up at the clear, unpolluted night sky, he felt reverential awe, which he put to verse, saying: "When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have prepared, what is mortal man that you keep him in mind, and the son of earthling man that you take care of him ?"(Ps 8:3, 4)
Science is in search of answers, but all too often one set of answers leads to another layer of puzzles. This fact calls to mind a profound statement recorded in the Bible at Ecclesiastes 3:11, whereby it reads: "Everything [God] has made pretty in its time. Even time indefinite he has put in their heart, that mankind may never find out the work that the true God has made from the start to the finish."
At present we can absorb only limited amounts of knowledge because of our short life span, and much of the knowledge is speculative, subject to change. But this situation is temporary, for God has purposed to grant faithful humans endless life in Paradise on earth, where they can examine his handiwork for an eternity and thus gain true knowledge. David, who felt a reverential awe when viewing the heavens, also wrote that "the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace."(Ps 37:11)
