----- Original Message -----
From: "george murphy" <gmurphy@raex.com>
To: "Jonathan Clarke" <jdac@alphalink.com.au>
Cc: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 8:36 AM
Subject: Re: Ethics of human space travel
>
>
> Jonathan Clarke wrote:
>
....Snip -. Many Christian apologists were
> > sceptical of planetary systems other than ours (until recently), and
many
> > are down right hostile to the possibility of life beyond earth (despite
the
> > long theological pedigree of such ideas). So let me be more
provocative.
> >
> > Does the dominion over everything God has made given to humanity in
Psalm 8
> > allow humans to mine the lunar poles or asteroids for volatiles in
support
> > of human (as opposed to robotic) space exploration
To which George replied:
...SNIP - The biblical writers simply didn't contemplate humanity
travelling to
> other planets so there are no direct commands or commissions concerning
such
> activity. That doesn't mean that a biblically based theology can't say
anything
> about the issue but what is said has to be understood as theological
opinion.
SNIP...
> 2) Should human "dominion" in the proper sense be limited by the
> existence of other intelligent lifeforms - if there are any. In one sense
yes -
> exploitations of such ETs on the pattern of what too often happened in the
age
> of European exploration & colonization should be ruled out. But would we
have
> an obligation to proclaim the gospel to them?
A similar question has haunted me since I was in my early teens but no one I
asked ever seemed to want to talk about it. Since this is a group composed
of people who are concerned with both religion and science someone in this
group has some thoughts they would care to share. The question is: If we
discovere intelligent life in or from outer space, and if they have no
concept of God and then of course have never heard of, and perhaps can not
even conceive of a being such as Jesus, what effect might that have on our
own belief systems? While George's question about our obligation to
proclaim the gospel to them is an interesting one it seems to me it skips an
essential point - How do we determine if they have a "soul" which needs
saving? If they have no soul, such as some peole argue for animals on this
planet, are they then either doomed do a temporary physical existance, or if
they have souls are all who could not accept Christ because they had never
heard of him until they ran into us doomed to condemnation? I know it is
trivial but I have asked the same question about native cultures on this
planet prior to their contact with the Christian tradition and have never
gotten much of an answer to it either. I know someone had to have asked it
before I did and I would bet with anyone that someone has written
significantly on the question, I just don't know where; so if anyone knows
any good sources I would appreciate that information also.
As usual Jonathan has asked some good questions. Some of them remind me of
a conversation I had with a fellow geologist some 25 + years ago when we
were first out of college and prospecting and he and another fellow were
doing some part time prospecting on their own. They thought they may have
found a small but economically viable deposit and I had gone to see it. As
Tim and I stood looking over part of the Davis Mountains of southwest Texas
one of us said, "It might be worth money, but is it worth tearing up all
that beauty?" It turned out not to be as good a prospect as he had thought
but I think his answer to the question was NO, because he never did much
more work on it, neither did his partner and the area is just as picture
pretty as it was that day.
Darryl
Darryl
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Dec 09 2000 - 06:42:00 EST