Douglas Berry wrote:
What's so funny about peace, love and "Sound of Trumpet"
posting the following on 22 Jun 2006
04:45:49 -0700 iin alt.atheism?


http://www.markshea.blogspot.com/200...80016753859 1




One of my readers writes of my interest in Killjoy SF...


"Methinks you take too much joy in being a killjoy."

Not really. In enjoy SF and fantasy as much as the next person. It's
simply that I have noticed, both in my own life and in the lives of
others, that the imaginative faculty has crowded in upon the reasoning
faculty in ways which, if taken seriously, can't be squared with what
we actually know, both from reason and from revelation.

As oppposed to the reasoning ability of people who accept the Bible at
face value?

The simple fact is, we are never going to go to the stars, because we
are never going to invent the warp coil and break the speed of light.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
- Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), ca. 1895, British mathematician and
physicist

Never is a bad word. And we don't need to go FTL to colonize the
stars. Our ancestors populated the globe on foot, we can build
generation ships and spend a century or two getting to the target
stars.

"Generation ships"??? Nope.

MIT sponsored symposia the first week of 2000, the subject of each was
21st century technologies. One symposium focused on medicine. The
doctor stated to the audience that the children in the audience can
expect a lifespan of 150 years.

If that doctor's prediction is correct, a 150 year lifespan will
include sufficient medical advances that lifespans will in fact be
infinite as far as biological issues are concerned.




And maybe there is a warp coil waiting to be invented.

We will probably colonize near-earth space. I could go for a stay on
one of those cool Ferris Wheel space stations. But only a visit. I have
a lovely home right here. Space colonization is not like the
colonization of the West. You don't scrape together a few hundred
dollars and put your sick wife and kids on a wagon train to the moon or
Mars. Only the elite get to go. But elites generally don't want to go
colonize. In the past, that was for the desperate as a general rule.

I would love to know where this idiot is getting his assumptions from.
One we lower the cost of getting to orbit the commercial enterpises
will start looking for oportunities. And that means workers, and
their families.

Cheaper to develop autonomous robotics....as NASA ia working on.



A friend of mine argues that once we've conquered the problem of
building a space elevator, we'll be able to haul lots of stuff to space
and fling it toward Mars or the Moon. Fair enough. Assuming we can
build the thing--and keep it safe from terrorists and jerks, as well as
keep it from colliding with the 110,000 pieces of space junk that could
act as bullets, cannon balls and artillery shells if they hit it--we
might be able to heave enough tech at the moon to make a Bubble City on
the Sea of Tranquility or a terraform a Blue Mars. Still, we're looking
at an investment of time and energy that could better be spent turning
Antarctica into a temperate zone and founding New Seattle there.

Turning Antarctica into a temperate zone would raise sea levels world
wide 50 meters. You'd need a New Seattle - the old one would be under
water.

A space elevator would lower the cost of getting into orbit from the
current $10,000/lb to something around $10/lb. If the original author
doesn't think that will spur a boost in exploration and colonization,
he's nuts.

As I say, appeals to romance work best with me. Doing it "because it's
there" could bring out the best in us. Doing it, as Hawking urged, in
order to save the species is sheer midsummer madness. But in either
case, granting (which is granting a lot) that we will colonize both
Mars and the Moon, that's it. That's basically as far as we're going.

Hello? The Main Belt should be our primary goal, along with the
jovian sattelites.

The closest star is generations away. Attaining near light speed, much
less returning, means finding elites who are willing to a) go to Alpha
Centauri simply to *find out* if there are habitable worlds, then
return to an earth a couple of million years in the future (due to
relativity) and hope that whatever they find there will support a
second expedition to colonize. I prefer to not visit the Planet of the
Apes myself. I suspect most people find this enticing scenario a
non-starter.

I'd volunteer today. Unlike this author, some of us still have a
burning desire to see what lies ahead.

The main reason I think Killjoy SF performs a service is because it
brings us back to confronting reality. Reality is this: salvation is
not going to be found in ET. The eschaton will not be realized by Man's
Conquest of Space. Aliens, whether benevolent or malicious, now occupy
the imaginative niche once filled by angels and devils. The Eschaton is
now subsumed by various secular myths about the Conquest of Space, the
Next Step in Evolution, the Singularity, and so forth that once was
occupied by the Coming of Christ in glory to judge the living and the
dead.

Christ? Ohm the dead guy who swore that he'd return before the then
current generation passed away nearly 2,000 years ago?

My point is simply that Killjoy SF confronts us with the fact that
the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the
will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will
be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty
of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been
groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but
we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly
as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in
this hope we were saved. (Romans 8:20-24)

In other words, why try because Jesus is coming.

The deathless dream of the human race is that there is a way to make
this creation into heaven. The iron assurance of the Christian faith is
that that dream is folly. Creation has been subjected to futility. But
the point of that subjection is not despair. It is to teach us to put
our hope in the God who is beyond nature. Any Killjoy SF that does not
point to Him is ultimately not doing its job. We await not The
Apotheosis of Man Through the Conquest of Space. We await the Second
Coming of Christ, the Last Judgment, the Resurrection of the Dead and,
ultimately a New Heaven and a New Earth. I suspect we shall be able to
explore that new world to our heart's content.

The Meek shall inherit the Earth. (Matthew 5:5)

The Bold are going to the Stars.
--

Douglas Berry Do the OBVIOUS thing to send e-mail
Atheist #2147, Atheist Vet #5
Jason Gastrich is praying for me on 8 January 2011

"The belief in the Christian god... is an appalling nightmare. I reject
the notion that the whole universe was created by this kind of evil
creature who would create such a thing." - Anthony Flew, March 22, 2005