Chesterton once described the popular Atheistic rhetoricians of his day who waxed romantic about the size of the universe like a jailor trying to console a prisoner by saying ‘there, there, it is a rather large prison’. I couldn’t help but notice that so little has changed in the 80 odd years since he wrote it. 
(Last night apparently NASA’s space craft and explorer to Mars landed. I was astonished which of my friends were most excited about it on Facebook. There’s an overwhelming chance that it’s mere coincidence, however I thought it was interesting that three people I know who posted about it, were all ex-Mennonite-Brethren Christians who are now agnostic or atheists. Also all three of them took courses in Philosophy at Brock with Dr. Brown who made us all read “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke. )
The Star (1955) concerns a Jesuit Astronaut of sorts who –to make a long story short- discovers that the star shining over Bethlehem exploded and destroyed a beautiful peaceful civilization. This then shakes or describes the shaken faith of the reader who discovers who arbitrary the deity or nature must be and why there cannot be specifically human meaning for the universe.
If the Star is then read to its ultimate conclusion and not merely as an apologetic against Theism, it begs a greater question. Why care about space travel? Why is the dust of Mars any more useful for humans than the dust of Mexico? Surely if there is nothing beyond us and we all rot in the ground, why not just toast Socrates and down the hemlock?
These problems come forward when people bring Cartesian and Aristotelian assumptions to Theology instead of those of the Bible. As sad as a loss of faith is to me, I often wonder if it was a loss of trust in the true God, or merely the smashing of the idol of reason created by Aquinas, Spinoza, or some other rationalist fashioning the creation into the creator who is forever blessed. The sooner such idols are destroyed, the sooner one can fall on their knees before the God who loved Jacob and hated Esau (Rom 9:13).