The new cosmology could be ushering in a profound religious, moral and ethical consciousness similar to the science of Galileo. In that time, the mere transition from a topocentric to a heliocentric viewpoint was considered blasphemy by the established church. And indeed, cosmology does seem to drive beliefs, an answer to “is there anything else out there?”.

Personally, I was struck by the image of the black hole. The idea of such immense destruction on such an unimaginable scale — it brings to my mind the simple question of “Why, what purpose can there be in that?”

And the answer is actually very simple. “I don’t know.”

It looks like a giant eye staring at us from across the universe, or a colossal maelstrom, or simply a vast cosmic toilet bowl flushing stars and planets into a vast spinning vortex to be lost across the event horizon.

And then this week, the cathedral went up in flames.