Saturday, June 10, 2017

Where No Man Has Gone Before?

If you're like me, every time I watch a space alien movie (which isn't all that often, now that I think about it) or some sort of space exploration program, I'm always wondering why aliens are almost always portrayed as hostile. Think of the last such program you saw. With few exceptions, aliens in them are always out to destroy humans and are more than likely monsters who, for some reason, have little in the way of logical thinking abilities, but nevertheless manage to be way more advanced than humans are (think Aliens!). Perhaps those who write and produce such shows are simply mirroring what they know to be true about humanity in general: we are depraved people who would likely do the same thing if we ever encounter a less advanced civilization than our own. And come to think of it, that's exactly what has happened throughout human history!

I recently read an article dealing with the deep space probes that NASA sent out to explore our corner of the universe beginning in the 1970's. According to the article's author, the probes carried in them several items explaining what earthlings are all about and inviting whoever found these probes to come to earth and "say hello." The first batch of these probes, launched during the Nixon presidency, have begun to exit our solar system and will go literally into "no man's land" in the near future. Although most of the probes have continued to send information back to earth (it takes several hours for their transmissions to reach NASA receivers), they will run out of fuel in the next few months and subsequently become deep space trash. Imagine a “V-ger” type scenario like the first Star Trek movie.

What caught my eye in this article, however, was not the scientific issues dealing with the probes or their mission, but the fact that the author was bemoaning the fact that NASA has, in his view, given an open door invitation to aliens who may be hostile to come to earth and create mayhem. The author quotes renown atheistic physicist Steven Hawking as saying that, although most alien life forms are likely to be microbes (how he comes to such a conclusion is beyond me), those who are more advanced are likely to be hostile and looking to colonize other planets--a la European style middle ages colonization. You basically have a Star Trek scenario where most of the aliens you will encounter will be looking to harm you with few, if any, docile and friendly.

I don't know about you, but this all sounds rather strange to my ears. To have individuals discussing extra-terrestrial life in matter of fact terms seems like a case of jumping the gun to me. Although we have no reason to believe that there is life in other planets, scientists continue to discuss it as though it were a foregone conclusion. They don't speak of possibilities or theories, but, just as with evolution, they speak of it as fact and then disdain those who point out that, hey we haven't seen any of this yet!

Why do I even care about such things? Simply because the same people who will tell us that space aliens exist, are those who will turn around and tell us that evolution is a "fact" that cannot be denied. And why do they say such things? For no other reason than that it is what they believe and that settles it. It is akin to the old bumper sticker that declares “God said, I believe it, that settles it” (the problem is, that if God said it, whether I believe it or not, THAT SETTLES IT!) Those who are the most vociferous about "evidence" are the same ones who pontificate about matters that supposedly happened billions of years ago with little more than their say so. They see something happening in our current world, micro evolution or adaptations to our environment, and automatically extrapolate from those events to billions of years back and what must have happened then. If we have small variations and adaptations today, imagine what that means given billions of years, they’ll say! As one theologian put it in ridiculing such nonsense "just give time and chance a chance" and anything is possible. Thus, you see the scientific community constantly increasing the age they claim for the universe, which at last count was somewhere around 13 billion years!!

But not only so, we are told that extra-terrestrial life is pretty much a fact with little more than wishful thinking. Yet, events such as the life and death of Christ and His resurrection are labeled a myth that cannot possibly be believed by those who are enlightened. An event of history for which there is ample evidence is looked upon as some sort of hoax that only those who are ignorant and simple can possibly believe. The New Testament tells us that the events of Jesus' life were not done in a corner. They were done in full view of the world and were attested to by thousands who were eye witnesses to these facts. Paul told his audience in Corinth that he "delivered to you as of first importance what I also received; that Christ died according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and that He rose again according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He then goes on to explain that if Christ did not raise from the dead, if the events that he is describing did not in fact happen, then Christianity is false. This is not some sort of legend whose advocates couldn't care less whether they were historical or not. These were real, fact-based events with real, living people.

How is it possible that people who, by all measures of intelligence and smarts, are extremely bright can have such cognitive dissonance? The Bible, again, provides us with the clear answer. "Look on yourselves brethren how that not many among you are wise or rich" (1 Corinthians 1:26). Thus, God has determined that the things that are looked upon by the world as low and unworthy are the very things that He considers appropriate for his purposes. Those who are the least among us are the ones that God raises up and glorifies. The world looks upon the things of Christ as foolish and worthless. But God has made of such the crowning glory of His work. For that, we can all be thankful!

 

 

 


 

 

 


3 comments:

  1. Our Christian view of deliberate, created uniqueness would be seriously threatened (the alien loving, God hating crowd believes) if life in space was discovered. If man and this earth are not the centerpiece of God's establishment of life, and life is discovered among the stars somewhere (or everywhere), you have what appears to be a pretty good argument against special creation. Spontaneous, willy-nilly life spread throughout the universe as portrayed in Star Trek like shows do very little to reinforce the Biblical worldview. Thus, I think, like any "scientific" notion that challenges Biblical truth, this is bound to be embraced and advanced by the God-denying (or minimizing) masses.

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    1. Absolutely! Man will go to unbelievable lengths to try and squeeze God out of the picture. But, he is unable to do so simply because someone, or something is going to be his god. Thus, it is either nature, the environment or aliens. That all is a perfect example of why the atheistic worldview is so bankrupt.

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