> But, in the eternities,
>Doubtless we shall compare together, hear
>A million alien Gospels, in what guise
>He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear.
This idea is suggested much less reverently in Mark Twain's Captain Stormalong's Journey to Heaven (if I recall the title correctly). Stormalong detours a bit from his journey to race a comet and ends up at the wrong pearly gate. Saying he's from where Christ lived and died does not provide significant direction in identifying the correct gate.
Regarding the advisability of answering a communication from extraterrestrials, C. S. Lewis seemed to place greater concern on the possibility of our being the ones doing the damage to the other civilization, given our consistent record for hostile interaction between cultures. Perhaps extraterrestrials demonstrate their intelligence by not trying to communicate with us.
Dr. David Campbell
"Old Seashells"
Biology Department
Saint Mary's College of Maryland
18952 E. Fisher Road
St. Mary's City, MD 20686-3001 USA
dcampbell@osprey.smcm.edu, 301 862-0372 Fax: 301 862-0996
"Mollusks murmured 'Morning!'. And salmon chanted 'Evening!'."-Frank Muir, Oh My Word!
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