Whether or not I needed a demonstration of the odd convergence of events life seems to keep thrusting my way, as if to defy any drift toward skepticism, another demonstration of Divine Order happened to me Monday night. Let me back up a few hours... Dr. Young Chun, My instructor at St. Paul School of Theology, where I am taking courses toward a doctorate, regaled the class that we had not yet completed his suggested assignment from the early weeks of the class. Dr. Chun's class is in the theology of prayer and spirituality, yet he has strongly urged us to write to political leaders and urge some course of action, as if to give concrete expression in the world to our spiritual pursuits. OK... Dr. Chun has a point: Jesus prayed alone, then went into the marketplace and upended the tables.
I have already made my mark as the Unity goat in the flock of Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopalian sheep--all of whom have been great grazing partners, despite what I'm sure they consider my sure and steady sink into New Age occultism. So, rather than writing about world peace, hunger, AIDS in Africa, domestic violence, and assorted forms of sin in high places--all of which I take seriously and consider worthy topics for public debate--but instead of those vital concerns, all of which are being addressed, as they should be, I decided to write about something which was NOT being addressed. I decided to shoot the moon.
Actually, shoot the stars would be more accurate. I figure, "What the heck--I'm a Trekkie. It's a matter of public record. So, let's go public."
I wrote an e-mail to most of the major contenders in the 2008 USA Presidential election. The list included Democrats Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson; and Republicans Sam Brownback , Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
I advocated...well, let me share a little of it with you:
"I would like to raise an issue for discussion which no one seems to have considered: Establishing a national priority on development of faster-than-light technologies to allow humans to reach habitable planets in star systems in our immediate neighborhood...
"If this technology were possible, its discovery would be an event equivalent to the domestication of draft animals or the invention of the wheel. FTL capability would forever change our place in the Cosmos by carrying people to new worlds, and not just to second and third earths but potentially thousands of habitable planets, which could be awaiting discovery within a few hundred light years of us. To date, dozens of planets orbiting other stars have been discovered by astronomers. Although the distant globes detectable so far by turn-of-the-millennium science have all been colossal and outside the temperate zones of their respective solar systems, every frozen gas giant or oven-hot super-planet dramatically increases the likelihood of untold numbers of smaller, terrestrial worlds orbiting the right distance from their home suns among the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
"With such vast numbers of potentially habitable worlds--where, like the New World before Columbus, great plains stretch that have never tasted a steel plow and endless forests teem with exotic flora and fauna--problems of overpopulation might evolve into the challenge of under-population. We might find ourselves in a race to reproduce enough humans to settle dozens, hundreds, or thousands of earth-type planets. Given the statistical probabilities, it is highly possible that the solution to the socio-economic problems of Earth lies in the heavens. The potential for human settlement on countless uninhabited, earth-like planets could alleviate poverty and hunger forever, while providing vast resources for anyone bold enough to venture to these new worlds.
"If God has created and sustained such a vast Cosmos and set in motion scientific principles whereby sentient life has evolved, at least on one planet we know about intimately, one could reasonably assume a mechanism must exist to contact other islands of life in this sea of stars. The economic and social advantages of such a discovery could produce a flourishing of human civilization unparalleled in history, opening the future to possibilities beyond our wildest dreams. I urge you consider, amid the enormous terrestrial problems which you will face as President, the incalculable return to be realized for humanity--literally an end to poverty and access to resources unimaginable...
"As a theologian and pastor, I understand and sympathize with those who will argue against such a speculative adventure when resources are needed to alleviate poverty, illiteracy and disease on the only earth-type planet we know exists. However, there are biblical and historical precedents for bold stepping boldly forward when the destination is less than certain. A promised land is not a guaranteed land, and it is safer to stay in the old country than sail off the edge of the earth. I believe the spirit of discovery is a gift of God, a calling to venture forth and reach the heavens and bring humanity to new heights.
"Perhaps one day one, when our children's children's children stand on a new Earth under a starry sky filled with new constellations, the words of the psalmist will come to mind, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork..."(Ps.19:1). And perhaps they will offer silent prayer to God in thanks for the courage of those who made the new human civilization among the stars a possibility."
Signed: Rev Thomas W. Shepherd
I completed the above and e-mailed the last of these to their respective campaign headquarters around 1 AM Central Time on Tuesday, April 24. Then I went to bed, glad this late work wasn't a graded assignment.
The next day I went to work, and during an early afternoon break I discovered the following "breaking news" report:
European Astronomers Discover First Habitable Earth-Like Planet...
I thought: "Naw...that has to be a fluke, some blogging speculator. " Then I found it on CNN, CNBC, and everywhere else. Here's what NASA's official website says:
"Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and possibly having liquid water on its surface...'We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,' explains Stephane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. 'Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky -- like our Earth -- or covered with oceans,' he adds...The host star, Gliese 581, is among the 100 closest stars to us, located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra..." (Source: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=19695 )
Now, maybe that's a coincidence. Maybe the first discovery, in the history of the human race, of an extra-solar planet in a habitable zone with a comparable mass to the Earth just happened to be announced within hours of my sending mass e-mails to all the presidential candidates urging the development of Faster-Than-Light travel to discover planets like this...
Maybe it was sheer coincidence. Or maybe we're really supposed to boldly go there. Maybe it's our destiny to sail the stars, not as conquerors who despoiled the Aztec and Inca like Cortez and Pizarro, but as explorers and settlers, like the Polynesians who discovered the uninhabited Hawaiian islands. And maybe the lessons of European cruelty to the native people of the New World can prevent any repetition of those events among islands of life in the Cosmos. The time to have that discussion is now, before we actually discover FTL travel and hop over to Gliese 581C or any of the thousands of inhabitable worlds which by logical deduction must exist in our stellar neighborhood.
Maybe it was just a coincidence...sending those "what if" emails to candidates for president the night before the big discovery is announced. Who could prove otherwise? And it's unlikely the candidates will ever see my words, anyway.
Or maybe the messsage is strictly personal, Divine Order acting as messenger to let me know that YHWH, the sky-god of Israel, the I AM dwelling within every sentient being and empowering the Cosmos to exist, is a Trekkie, too..
Rev Tom Shepherd
I have already made my mark as the Unity goat in the flock of Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopalian sheep--all of whom have been great grazing partners, despite what I'm sure they consider my sure and steady sink into New Age occultism. So, rather than writing about world peace, hunger, AIDS in Africa, domestic violence, and assorted forms of sin in high places--all of which I take seriously and consider worthy topics for public debate--but instead of those vital concerns, all of which are being addressed, as they should be, I decided to write about something which was NOT being addressed. I decided to shoot the moon.
Actually, shoot the stars would be more accurate. I figure, "What the heck--I'm a Trekkie. It's a matter of public record. So, let's go public."
I wrote an e-mail to most of the major contenders in the 2008 USA Presidential election. The list included Democrats Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson; and Republicans Sam Brownback , Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
I advocated...well, let me share a little of it with you:
"I would like to raise an issue for discussion which no one seems to have considered: Establishing a national priority on development of faster-than-light technologies to allow humans to reach habitable planets in star systems in our immediate neighborhood...
"If this technology were possible, its discovery would be an event equivalent to the domestication of draft animals or the invention of the wheel. FTL capability would forever change our place in the Cosmos by carrying people to new worlds, and not just to second and third earths but potentially thousands of habitable planets, which could be awaiting discovery within a few hundred light years of us. To date, dozens of planets orbiting other stars have been discovered by astronomers. Although the distant globes detectable so far by turn-of-the-millennium science have all been colossal and outside the temperate zones of their respective solar systems, every frozen gas giant or oven-hot super-planet dramatically increases the likelihood of untold numbers of smaller, terrestrial worlds orbiting the right distance from their home suns among the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
"With such vast numbers of potentially habitable worlds--where, like the New World before Columbus, great plains stretch that have never tasted a steel plow and endless forests teem with exotic flora and fauna--problems of overpopulation might evolve into the challenge of under-population. We might find ourselves in a race to reproduce enough humans to settle dozens, hundreds, or thousands of earth-type planets. Given the statistical probabilities, it is highly possible that the solution to the socio-economic problems of Earth lies in the heavens. The potential for human settlement on countless uninhabited, earth-like planets could alleviate poverty and hunger forever, while providing vast resources for anyone bold enough to venture to these new worlds.
"If God has created and sustained such a vast Cosmos and set in motion scientific principles whereby sentient life has evolved, at least on one planet we know about intimately, one could reasonably assume a mechanism must exist to contact other islands of life in this sea of stars. The economic and social advantages of such a discovery could produce a flourishing of human civilization unparalleled in history, opening the future to possibilities beyond our wildest dreams. I urge you consider, amid the enormous terrestrial problems which you will face as President, the incalculable return to be realized for humanity--literally an end to poverty and access to resources unimaginable...
"As a theologian and pastor, I understand and sympathize with those who will argue against such a speculative adventure when resources are needed to alleviate poverty, illiteracy and disease on the only earth-type planet we know exists. However, there are biblical and historical precedents for bold stepping boldly forward when the destination is less than certain. A promised land is not a guaranteed land, and it is safer to stay in the old country than sail off the edge of the earth. I believe the spirit of discovery is a gift of God, a calling to venture forth and reach the heavens and bring humanity to new heights.
"Perhaps one day one, when our children's children's children stand on a new Earth under a starry sky filled with new constellations, the words of the psalmist will come to mind, "The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork..."(Ps.19:1). And perhaps they will offer silent prayer to God in thanks for the courage of those who made the new human civilization among the stars a possibility."
Signed: Rev Thomas W. Shepherd
I completed the above and e-mailed the last of these to their respective campaign headquarters around 1 AM Central Time on Tuesday, April 24. Then I went to bed, glad this late work wasn't a graded assignment.
The next day I went to work, and during an early afternoon break I discovered the following "breaking news" report:
European Astronomers Discover First Habitable Earth-Like Planet...
I thought: "Naw...that has to be a fluke, some blogging speculator. " Then I found it on CNN, CNBC, and everywhere else. Here's what NASA's official website says:
"Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and possibly having liquid water on its surface...'We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,' explains Stephane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. 'Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky -- like our Earth -- or covered with oceans,' he adds...The host star, Gliese 581, is among the 100 closest stars to us, located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra..." (Source: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=19695 )
Now, maybe that's a coincidence. Maybe the first discovery, in the history of the human race, of an extra-solar planet in a habitable zone with a comparable mass to the Earth just happened to be announced within hours of my sending mass e-mails to all the presidential candidates urging the development of Faster-Than-Light travel to discover planets like this...
Maybe it was sheer coincidence. Or maybe we're really supposed to boldly go there. Maybe it's our destiny to sail the stars, not as conquerors who despoiled the Aztec and Inca like Cortez and Pizarro, but as explorers and settlers, like the Polynesians who discovered the uninhabited Hawaiian islands. And maybe the lessons of European cruelty to the native people of the New World can prevent any repetition of those events among islands of life in the Cosmos. The time to have that discussion is now, before we actually discover FTL travel and hop over to Gliese 581C or any of the thousands of inhabitable worlds which by logical deduction must exist in our stellar neighborhood.
Maybe it was just a coincidence...sending those "what if" emails to candidates for president the night before the big discovery is announced. Who could prove otherwise? And it's unlikely the candidates will ever see my words, anyway.
Or maybe the messsage is strictly personal, Divine Order acting as messenger to let me know that YHWH, the sky-god of Israel, the I AM dwelling within every sentient being and empowering the Cosmos to exist, is a Trekkie, too..
Rev Tom Shepherd
