Olbers’ paradox is the puzzle of the darkness of the night sky, which should be ablaze at every point if the universe were infinite and filled everywhere with stars. Ever since the German astronomer Wilhelm Olbers reformulated the puzzle in 1823, he and many after him tried to save the presumed infinity of the universe. They did so for pseudo-metaphysical reasons: an infinite universe could readily pass for the ultimate entity and serve thereby as a substitute God. In the process science suffered. This is the paradox of the paradox, or the paradox of the scientific mind in the presence of a more than scientific puzzle.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-1-892548-10-8 •  viii + 325 pages  •  softcover