Quote:I also cannot imagine trying to suggest that there was once a literal star that was hung in the sky to announce the birth of a man named Jesus. Nor can I imagine that that star could be dragged across the sky, the roof of the earth or the floor of heaven, perhaps by one of the angels that apace so slowly that wise men could actually follow it. I cannot believe that there was a time when this Jesus of Nazareth, having completed his work, decided to return to where God is, and so he simply rose off this earth to go beyond the sky. I know that if Jesus rose off this earth and went far enough, he didn't get to heaven he got into orbit. I live in a very different kind of universe from the universe in which the bible was written, and I cannot pretend that that is not so.
http://www.abc.net.au/compass/intervs/spong2001.htm
He's a great theologian but not a physicist (neither am I). Perhaps this is one reason why scholars who are experts in one area ought to be more cautious when writing about other areas. Simply ascending 100 kilometers (say, on a giant elevator) is not sufficient to put one into orbit; in fact, you'd fall out of the sky if you jumped off!
