Whether you believe the star of Bethlehem that heralds the birth of Jesus Christ in the Book of Matthew was a real heavenly occurrence, or simply an invention of the early church, is ultimately a matter of faith. But not for Frederick Larson.

Larson, though not a religious scholar, historian or astronomer, has traveled around the United States and Canada giving 90-minute presentations aimed at building a persuasive case that the star of Bethlehem really did appear in the ancient night sky — and that it was indeed a divine signal of the Messiah’s birth.

“It turns out that there’s excellent reason to believe that the star of Bethlehem, which is described in the book of Matthew, Chapter 2, was an actual astronomical event,” says Larson.

“And the amazing thing is that it’s possible, through the use of computers and a mathematical model of the universe, to reproduce the skies that the Magi (the three wise men) saw.”

Larson will give presentations on the scriptural, historical and scientific evidence supporting the star of Bethlehem at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the Lied Center.

The presentations, free and open to the public, are sponsored by the Lutheran Student Fellowship, an outreach ministry of Immanuel Lutheran Church and University Student Center, 15th Street and Bob Billings Parkway.

Larson describes his presentation as dramatic and emotionally moving — not at all a dry recitation of scientific facts.

“It does two things. It goes through relevant Scripture and history to set the stage for the star, and then we animate the skies and look; and the audience will see the actual sights that the ancients saw,” he says.

“There’s also a larger mystery that I will reveal. The star of Bethlehem is really part of a larger celestial poem that begins at Christ’s birth and concludes at the cross. It’s that ‘poem’ that brings people to tears.”

Meticulous research

Larson might not qualify as an expert in scientific inquiry or religious scholarship, but if there’s one thing he knows how to do it’s build a case.

Larson, 51, is an intellectual-property lawyer from College Station, Texas, who has both a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a law degree from the University of Southern California.

For 14 years, he taught a course in the legal environment of business at Texas A&M University.

He has plenty of experience in the courtroom and the classroom in how to methodically construct an argument. It’s a process he takes seriously and that extends to his approach to the star of Bethlehem.

“I’m a lawyer, and I taught at the university level for years. You don’t just assert something — you present a case. I have to make it good enough so that people can draw their own conclusions,” Larson says.

“You could look at my presentation and refuse to connect the dots, but it would be a little odd; it’s a pretty persuasive picture.”

Larson, a devout Christian who belongs to a nondenominational church, combed Scripture, read accounts of ancient historians and researched astronomy and mathematics.

“I went out on my deck for hundreds of hours and ran ‘Starry Night’ on my Mac, a general-purpose astronomy program used widely by astronomers around the world. That’s the program that enables you to recreate the night sky of thousands of years ago, with tremendous precision,” he says.

Since first giving his presentation to his church’s Sunday school in 1999, Larson estimates he has repeated it about 100 times in venues in the United States and Europe.

Combining science and faith

Larson is far from alone in trying to account for the star of Bethlehem, what it might have been and what it means.

Many people interested in history, astronomy and religion have attempted to explain the phenomenon described in the Bible.

“This is a cottage industry. There have been many books and theories about it. I haven’t made a study of it, but every 10 years or so my husband and I pick up a book on it,” says Barbara Anthony-Twarog, a professor in Kansas University’s department of physics and astronomy. Her husband, Bruce Twarog, is a professor in the same department.

Could the star of Bethlehem, as cited in the Bible, have been an actual, astronomical event?

Yes, according to Anthony-Twarog.

“Speaking as a scientist, there are many astronomical phenomena that could have produced a visible and stunning appearance like that. The issue is when it occurred, what year did this really happen,” she says.

“Once you have a date or a year (of Jesus’ birth), we can go, ‘All right, what kinds of things that we know about could have happened in that year?’ For some kinds of phenomena, things that regularly occur, we can say the position of the planets, stars — sure.”

Whether such a natural event could have had a supernatural origin and meaning, that requires a leap of faith.

Paul Mirecki, a professor of religious studies at KU, is skeptical of efforts such as Larson’s.

“You have astrology in Matthew 2. It’s plain and obvious astrology, it’s not astronomy. It’s interpreting the movement of the stars and the planets in order to discover something from the gods. It’s star divination,” says Mirecki, who specializes in ancient Mediterranean religions.

“We’re dealing with a couple of sentences in the Gospel of Matthew. That’s a text, a story. And stories are not scientific proof. Combining science and faith is not scientific method. It’s pseudo science.”

But Larson maintains that the star of Bethlehem really appeared and that this has tremendous significance for human beings.

“It means that God is there. It also indicates to me that the Messiah has come,” he says.