The Most Important Image Ever Taken

[Sikh]
The film that had the greatest impact on me was “The most important image ever taken”. Why?

• It re-aligns our perspective in the modern day world, where it’s easy to be caught up in things at the micro-level. This movie literally magnifies our view of the world (and beyond) and reminds us of how significant we really are. It begs the question, “are we really as important as we think we are?”

• It’s simple, evidence-based and incontrovertible. You can’t argue with the logic, as it provides proof and facts.

• Most importantly, I think the world of science and the world of religion have always had a clear dichotomy. The world of religion concentrates on the Creator, while the world of science concentrates on the Creation. Somehow this film transcends that dichotomy and subtly talks of both – it inspires us with wonderment of the Creator by showing us the magnitude of His Creation, without even mentioning any of this overtly.

• The film touches a chord with me because as a Sikh, it reminded me of what Guru Nanak (the founder of Sikhism) uttered five and half centuries ago – that there are countless planets, countless universes and countless galaxies. If you think that someone holds up the earth (as did the ancient Greeks that Atlas held it up and as did the ancient Indians, who thought a bull by the name of “Dhaul” held up the earth and we had an earthquake when he shifted the load from one horn to the other), then who holds up that ‘someone’ and what about the other earths, planets universes and galaxies? This is a pointer to a Higher force.

So, for me, this film was a simple statement which inspires awe about the Creator and His amazing Creation. Really nice!!!

Ever since I was a kid I have loved the night sky, gazing for hours into what seemed like eternal blackness punctuated by points of brilliance. As I grew, my father introduced me to the constellations and other stellar wonders and I still remember the sense of awe that rose in me when I first spied the 'Jewelery Box'.

Since that time I have delved into string theory, quantum mechanics, astrophysics and the like and have thoroughly enjoyed films like 'Contact' that raise the issues of religion and science, place and meaning, existence and alien life, etc, in the form particular to the visual arts.

Carl Sagan has been a pioneer in the field, mostly because of his refusal to reduce astroscience to scientism and a film dedicated to him (as in this case) is certainly warranted. I found the images of The Most Important Image Ever Taken beautiful and the explanations valid; it is certainly helpful to get a visual representation of the vast size of the universe. But I found myself intrigued and annoyed at the title of this short film and the statement within it that the image in question (very important to be sure) is the 'single most important image taken by humankind.' Really? One of perhaps… but the 'single most'?

It is unfortunate that in a film dedicated to Sagan, the overarching statement is one of contraction of thought and feeling rather than expansion. I would have thought by now that we had moved beyond the dualism of art and science and could appreciate that meaning is a human construct that delves into both knowledge (however acquired) and art (however expressed). The Hubble Deep-Field Image is indeed important – it speaks volumes about the vastness of the universe – but so to0 is an image of a loving couple's embrace – it speaks volumes about the vastness of human emotion.

The point is simply that in this grand-tragic condition called life we draw on much more than that which is external to us in order to expand and frame our experience. This image is a beauty but so too is the photo of my kids I carry with me each day. Meaning is created in concert with and within the frameworks that we inhabit; for me the stellar universe has never threatened, even when I moved beyond faith in a god and found myself in a period of incredible darkness before moving through it to embrace the beauty of living life in the moment. It reminds me not of how small I am but of how connected everything is (we are, after all, stardust) and of how much wonder there is if we are willing to open our eyes, our imaginations and our hearts.

The Most Important Image Ever Taken began in a way that reminded me of the Fact and Faith films of the 1950’s. However, I was impressed that there was no attempt to use the film to tell me what I should believe. It presented some astronomical facts and left me with the sense of awe and mystery with which I must deal in my own way. Within a few moments I found myself miles away lost in the wonder of it all and challenging my deepest convictions, concerned at how easily we Christians domesticate the God we speak of, sometimes so glibly.

My first choice is The Most Important Image. This video provides a comprehensible presentation of the mind-boggling dimensions of space. The photograph, which provides the title to the video, shows us that even in apparently empty parts of the sky there are vast numbers of universes. The clear conclusion of the video is that our solar system and our planet are far from unique. Indeed our world appears to be countlessly replicated throughout the universe.

While each faith has relevance and meaning for its followers it is apparent after watching this video how illogical it is that one faith should exclusively explain the universe. The Most Important Image is a clear reminder of how limited a geocentric view of reality is. The goal, which is hinted at by this video, is to expand our minds to be as limitless as the space that we are part of.