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 A blog about music from my unique perspective (also a spot for some poetry I’ve written) |
| Prompt 7: "The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." - Bill Watterson Today's prompt made me chuckle at first… it's sad, though, that humanity has made such a mess of the world that extraterrestrials wouldn't dream of approaching us. Although, there are weighty implications to that statement. For starters, how can we assume that if there is extraterrestrial life, the creatures automatically have a higher moral system than we do? If there's anything pop culture can teach us, it's that aliens can easily be far more monstrous than us. In some cases, we're nothing more than a light snack to them, or bodies to lay eggs in  Of course there's no use, really, in overanalyzing a joke. My opinions on the existence of extraterrestrial life are a bit muddled. When I was a kid, Mom used to enjoy watching episodes of UFO Hunters (starring William J. Birnes et al) on YouTube. So I'm familiar with a lot of the sightings and analysis and whatnot. Logically and secularly speaking, the chances of other forms of life evolving on distant planets in other galaxies are… I don't know  I'm not a scientist. Judging by what the Intelligent Design people say, I doubt that miracles like the precise placement of Earth in relation to the Sun and Moon, and the complexities of cell structure, would happen by random chance more than once. On the other hand, considering the sheer vastness of the universe, and everything we don't know about it, it could be entirely possible that somewhere out there, life exists, even if only in a primitive bacterial form.But what about UFO sightings, close encounters, and other strange phenomena? Now we're getting into what I believe is different territory. As a spiritual person who believes in God and believes there is evil in the world, I have developed the idea of physically unexplainable events being caused by supernatural forces rather than extraterrestrial ones. Ok, now all you thoroughly secular people probably think I'm off my rocker. Bad enough to take UFO sightings seriously – even worse to attribute them to the supernatural! It's something I find difficult to explain rationally on short notice… I've always found Paul's words in Ephesians 6:12 to be peculiarly chilling: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms..." Perhaps our Christian friend LightinMind  would have some useful input on this subject.On further consideration, I think I have this belief because of the general overlap between the types of things reported as UFOs, and the sort of things that happen in haunted houses and such: flashing lights, moving objects, the manipulation of human energies to create alarm and confusion, the disruption of electrical items. This points to something dangerous, something bigger than we can understand, and I believe such things should be avoided as useless distractions from the real world. I've never been much of a fan of space exploration, partly due to a solipsistic perspective that if I can't see it or experience it, it doesn't really exist. The idea of people going to “colonize” Mars (as if we didn't already know what a bad idea colonization is) seems as silly as if someone asked me if I would like to live in Antarctica. Some things are never meant to be done. When God made Adam and Eve, He did not commission them to take over the known universe and litter it with abandoned, outdated space gadgets that are now threatening to collide with each other. He wanted them to grow and tend a garden. My head may be in the clouds, but my feet are squarely on Terra Firma. I don't see that changing anytime soon. Maybe if I meet a friendly E.T. we can take a ride together in the stars. Until then, I'll keep weeding my yard. Words: 660. |
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