Listen to the interview or read the transcript below.
The Mystery of the Christmas star. We all know the story of the Nativity, and the three kings and the shepherds watching their flock by night. And there were certain apparitions associated with that, such as the Star of Bethlehem and the angels appearing to the shepherds. And the question is, are these just inventions? Or were these real events? Okay, they could have been miracles, in which case, we don’t need to go to science. But they could well have been some form of astrophysical events that were going on at the time, which were worked into the story. And in recent years, we’ve found that some amazing things in astronomy, of what can cause such events, not just supernova, there’s hypernova, which involves black holes, there is lensing effects of gravitational lensing. And it’s quite weird how these now being brought into the story and so we have some very new explanations.
Q: How do you even go about looking at a subject like this, where you have an account of something that’s happened in the Bible – and so you have that sort of religious angle to it, and then you have a very scientific angle? Where do you go when looking for information about this subject?
There’s two sorts, well there’s three sorts of records. The first records would be the Gospels, those records of the events, which were recorded, maybe 50 or 100 years, the records are starting to be written down, and which have since been interpreted in the text, which gives us some idea of what must have happened and place it in history. For example, when Herod died and events like that – we know roughly when this event must have occurred. The second thing is the history of astronomy. So we’ve got Chinese records and Korean records, for example of events, which occurred around that time. And then the third one, of course, is archaeoastronomy. We can look back at supernova remnants now and work backwards in time to when they must have exploded. So we’ve got three sorts of records to try to put together, to piece together this whole jigsaw puzzle.
Q: What are the problems with looking at a subject like this? Have you encountered any sort of major issues or even ethical problems?
Yes, it’s very difficult to, as a scientist, to talk about our beliefs. Because as a scientist, you’re not really meant to believe, you’re meant to be looking at the evidence. And of course, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. As scientists, we often forget that. You’re not walking a tightrope, but you have to take into account everyone’s views and that people are allowed to believe, even without evidence – and what is seen as evidence to one person is not seen as evidence to another. So in other words, you have to keep an open mind about such things.
Q: Okay, final question, and maybe it’s a spoiler for your lecture and you might not want to say. What are your personal beliefs about this subject?
I believe that some events took place and got worked into the story later, to give it some extra weight. That these events, which did take place around that time as astronomical events, got worked into the stories and that is a fascinating bit of the talk that I will go into, which might well be surprising.
Attend Professor Smith’s lecture on Tuesday 12th December at 7pm, in Sibson Lecture Theatre 3 on the Canterbury Campus.
Entrance is free and open to the general public. Registration is not required.