This is the first point of the Symbol of Faith. God is one. Why? Because man has always felt something unified behind the variety of spiritual and physical principles. And science was on the same path. A meteorite falls. Scientists are studying its composition. It turns out that they are the same elements as on Earth. Spectral analysis penetrates into the depths of stars, discovers their composition — there is the same periodic table. Everywhere there are general laws, everything seems to be subordinated to a single plan. It is not for nothing that the famous English astronomer James Jeans said that the universe today is more like a huge thought than a huge machine.

What is behind this perfection of the universe? Where does this pattern come from? When we are told that there are no miracles, I immediately think that the greatest miracle is the existence of the world, and a miracle that a person can know.

Aristotle said that any knowledge, including scientific knowledge, begins with surprise. A person is amazed at what he sees. Echoing him, Albert Einstein wrote that one who has lost the ability to wonder is mentally dead. To know that there is a hidden reality that appears as supreme wisdom and perfect beauty is knowledge, this conviction, is the core of true religiosity.

In the era of classical mechanics, which preceded Einstein's understanding of the world, one of the founders of celestial mechanics, Johannes Kepler, said: "When I study the laws of the universe, it is as if I touch God with my hands."

In the 18th century, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus, who created the classification of animals and plants that we still use today, wrote after finishing his work: "God passed by me, I saw Him in His creations." The founder of experimental science, Francis Bacon, wrote: "Only superficial knowledge leads away from God, deep knowledge, on the contrary, returns to Him again."

A few years ago, the book "Dialogues" was published in Moscow. In particular, there is an article by physicist Charles Townes, one of the creators of masers, our contemporary. This article is called "The Unity of Science and Religion."

As science comprehends the material part of the world, so faith cognizes its spiritual basis. But both are closely connected with each other, because both ultimately come to know the Creator and the Mystery. It is amazing that a person is able to feel the Creator simply intuitively. In fact, our deepest intuitive knowledge is the organ that can comprehend the "Father of all."

When a person does not look at life superficially, when he does not glide over things, when he thinks about the miracle of the atom, the cell, the blossoming flower, the complexity of his own structure, the more he penetrates into it, the stronger is his endless amazement.

The universe is a giant organism. Any thing created by man requires effort, art, talent, and intelligence. But how great and immense must be the intelligence and the genius that stands behind the entire universe! Everything that we know about the universe leads us to it.

Of course, I will not dwell on the primitive arguments that were pulled out of dusty boxes thirty years ago, when I was just beginning to serve. I remember there was a poster with a picture of satellites. And there was an amusing inscription on behalf of the satellites that they had walked around the entire universe — they had not found God anywhere. Of course, the very assertion that they went around the entire universe was doubtful. You need to have some idea of what the universe is to understand how meaningless such a statement is.

In this regard, I recall a parable written by Soloukhin about how one crucian carp decided to find out what was happening "on the other side". Jumping out of the water a few centimeters, he plopped down back and said: "Well, there is no life there, of course, you can't live there at all." So, a person rises above his planet no more than this crucian carp rises above his.

But in space the Divine principle cannot be sought at all. God is neither here nor there. He's here or everywhere, He permeates everything. And when a person comprehends Him, he does not comprehend a thing that can be photographed or measured, but he reveals Him with his inner eye. At one time, it was customary to say that this faith, which we call religious, takes a person away from life. Meanwhile, it is the only thing that fills our life with meaning. It means that we were created for something, it means that the Earth was created for something, all nature was created for something, and the Higher Mind leads both man and life to some goal. And then He gives us inspiration, then we are not just bubbles that burst on the surface of a boiling liquid, but each of us is the image and likeness of the Creator.

The Creed speaks of God as the Father and Creator of heaven and earth. What does that mean? The concept of father emphasizes that it is not an impersonal element like the one depicted by Karel Čapek in the novel "The Factory of the Absolute". There, in this fantasy novel, the heroes isolated a certain supernatural element from matter. No, this is not an element, the Father is a personal principle. That is why man is a person, because he reflects in himself the highest personal principle of God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

What is heaven and earth? This is a very ancient designation for the Universe. Six thousand years before us, the ancient Sumerians called the Universe An-ki, which means "heaven and earth" – the two poles of existence. In the same way, the Bible begins its narrative with the words "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," that is, all the basic parameters of the universe.