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| | Alien Footage To Be Released On Friday! | | | | Friday, May 30, 2008 (9:08 AM) | | | Hey guys this is all over the news at the moment - What do you all think about this? Will it be another hoax or something more legit?. All the alien videos on youtube i have seen look like puppets, so lets hope this offers more than this. On the other hand If this guy really does have such a video isn't it unwise to talk about it? - as the government will likely do everything to stop its release: A video that purportedly shows a living space alien will be shown to the news media Friday in Denver. "It shows an extraterrestrial's head popping up outside of a window at night, looking in the window, that's visible through an infrared camera," peckman said. Jeff Peckman, who is pushing a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver to prepare the city for close encounters of the alien kind, said the video is authentic and convinced him that aliens exist. "You could see them blink as they looked in a window and panned a room," Peckman said as he met Thursday with city officials for a required review of his ballot proposal. "As impressive as it is, it's still one tiny portion in the context of a vast amount of peripheral evidence," he said Wednesday. "It's really the final visual confirmation of what you already know to be true having seen all the other evidence." When Peckman went before city officials this month to discuss his proposed ET initiative, he promised to show the video. Peckman said the general public will have to wait to see it because it's being included in a documentary by Stan Romanek. "No one will be allowed to film the segment with the extraterrestrial because there is an agreement in place limiting that kind of exposure during negotiations for the documentary," he said. But people won't have to wait too long to see it for themselves. "There is an open, public meeting in about a month in Colorado Springs," Peckman said. "We'll hope to do one in Denver at some point, and then in a few months, there will be the documentary that anybody can have, and it'll have the footage." David Broadwell, an assistant city attorney, asked Peckman if he was really serious. Peckman needs to gather 4,000 signatures to get the proposal on the ballot. Even if he fails, Peckman said, the effort will educate people about the existence of aliens. | | | 153 Views | 0  Thumbs Up | 0 Comments |  |
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| | 'UFO' spotted over Waterloo Bridge | | | | Wednesday, May 14, 2008 (3:49 AM) | |
14 May 2008 01:57am
Ministry of Defence staff recorded sightings of alien craft over Wallasey Town Hall and a saucer-shaped Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) hovering over Waterloo Bridge, it has been revealed.
Files detailing hundreds of sightings of unexplained objects in the skies above Britain have been opened to the public for the first time.
The information was considered sufficiently important for a form to be produced which is kept by police stations and airbases ready to record details of such reports.
Briefing documents for government ministers facing questions about policy on unidentified flying objects also form part of the release at the National Archives in Kew.
But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was not investigating the possibility of visitors from outer space making a stop at Earth.
Defence intelligence staff were more interested in checking that UFOs were not in fact signs of earthly covert spying missions by other countries.
Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD for 21 years and was responsible for investigating the sightings said: "While there's no evidence of little green men in these files, they should be of immense interest to sceptics and believers.
"Most of the UFO sightings here are probably misidentifications of aircraft lights and meteors, but some are more difficult to explain, and include UFOs seen by police officers and pilots, and cases where UFOs have been tracked on radar."
Eight files have been released after a Freedom of Information request by UFO researchers.
Over the next four years more than 150 files will be thrown open. | | | | 182 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | M.O.D. Releases Further U.F.O. Files | | | | Wednesday, May 14, 2008 (12:01 AM) | | | 14 May 08
The first in a series of Ministry of Defence UFO files, dating back to the 1970s, have been released on The National Archives' website today, Wednesday 14 May 2008.
The files include descriptions of alleged Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon or "UFO" sightings and subsequent MOD evaluations of the reports.
The MOD receives a large number of requests each year for information relating to UFOs, and so has introduced a system to meet this demand by releasing these historic files in a structured way.
The files will be available to download free for the first month, after which The National Archives will charge for them.
The rest of the files are currently under review and will be added to The National Archives over the next three years. ClickHere | | | | 188 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | Important Message From Stephen Bassett | | | | Friday, May 9, 2008 (1:15 AM) | | To All Surpporters of the Disclosure Process:
The open letter to Hilary Clinton remains fully blocked by Google from appearing on the Google search listings after it initially rose to the top of the search listings circa May 1.
A mainsteam media journalist contact of PRG is pressing Google for an explantion and so far is getting nothing but noise back from Google.
There has been no problem whatsoever at Yahoo where this page is fully listed under the appropriate search criteria. PRG applauds Yahoo.
Please post The Open Letter to Senator Hillary Clinton letter on your websites and forums. If you cannot post the letter, then link to the page.
PRG will do its best to find out why this page was blocked, who blocked it and whether there is any connection to someone within the Clinton campaign staff.
PRG will not be censored by Google or any other billion dollar multi-national corporation without a fight.
Regards,
Stephen Bassett
Executive Director
Paradigm Research Group
Open Letter.....ClickHere | | | | 184 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | Disclosure Soon | | | | Thursday, May 8, 2008 (1:41 PM) | | According to a recent press release NASA is to announce the success of Long Galactic Hunt on the 14th of May - will it be Planet X as expected?
Here is a brief description of the press release:
WASHINGTON -- NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations.
Planet X will have life on it, this will be the beginning of the disclosure plan. In mid 2009 partial disclosure will be announced, namely confirming the existence of Extraterrestrial life, and the confirmation it has been here. Any new developments will be posted when i receive them. Thanks Guys, Simon | | | | 176 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | New Website And Forum | | | | Friday, May 2, 2008 (6:06 AM) | | | If you have the time and can drag yourself away from this wannabe porn site then I would recommend paying a visit to our new website and forum. The Forum is "brand new" and everyone is able to post topics or reply to discussions, you do not need to be a member in order to use this forum, you will however need flash installed on your browser to view the website and forum. I have also just noticed that quite a few of our videos have been deleted by the admin, why, I do not know. I can only assume that live video do not want us here, example: everytime we go live, our connection is cut off, so we are only able to show uploaded videos on our live show. Stephen and myself have sent dozens of emails to the admin but have received no reply. That's gratitude for you I guess, our liveshow channel has received over 800.000 views and dozens of our website supporters have joined livevideo as a result of our link to this site. We have decided therefore to create our own video sharing site, this will enable anyone who has an interest in the paranormal and such to upload their own videos and suchlike. Work has already begun on this site, and I will let everyone know when it becomes available, one thing is for sure though, no porn will be allowed. Live video is fast becoming an adult site, soon it will be attracting perverts and paedophiles intent on preying on the more vulnerable among us. Live video has betrayed the very people who have made it popular, the wholesome channels and decent folk who have accounts on here. Sadly they will soon be the minority on here, overrun by the porn channels and nutcases who have nothing better to do with their time than harass others by using fake accounts, stolen pictures and identities, in order to portray a life that does not belong to them. Sites like Live Video,Youtube etc are a breeding ground for people like this, nothing is ever what it seems in Live Video land. When Stephen decided he did not want anymore videos or media uploaded to this site I really was quite angry, and could not understand his reasons for wanting this popular channel deleted, now I understand though, and I am in full agreement with him. Not one word or action by the A.D.G. will change anything on Live Video, we are not that naive, but no one, not even Live Video will prevent the A.D.G. peeling back the veneer, and revealing the truth as we see it. Thanks Guys, Simon ClickHere | | | | 182 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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| | A Detailed Analysis of Two Unusual Skulls of Uncertain Origin (Starchild Article) | | | | Thursday, March 6, 2008 (8:56 AM) | |
Preface:
The Starchild Project formally began in early March of 1999. This website was created shortly thereafter. In the six months since, certain information has stood the test of time as true and accurate, so it forms the core of this updated text. However, much information in it is new. Some enhances what we assumed to be true from the beginning, some challenges those assumptions, and some totally supplants what we thought we knew. For all readers, the text has been made as concise as possible without losing clarity.
Because the Starchild Project is so unprecedented, there has been no blueprint to follow. We have been left to our own devices, doing our best to make sense of the data we have gathered. In addition, our policy from Day One has been to conduct an open, honest, straightforward pursuit of the truth- and nothing but the truth--regarding the Starchild skull's reality and origins. Therefore, to facilitate comparisons between old and new information, the reduced version of the prior text will be kept on the website. Anyone wishing to evaluate the progress we have made, or to explore the blind alleys we have gone down, will be able to contrast what we thought we knew then with what we think we know now. So, as of this moment, here it is; warts and all.
Discovery:
Sixty to seventy years ago an American girl of Mexican heritage in her late teens (15 to 18) was taken by her parents to visit relatives living in a small rural village 100 miles southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico. Upon arrival, the girl was told local taboos forbade entering any of the area's numerous caves and mine tunnels. Like many teenagers might do in such a situation, she soon found an excuse to slip away from the village to explore the forbidden places.
At the back of a mine tunnel she found a complete human skeleton lying supine (face up) on the ground's surface. Beside it, sticking up out of the ground, was a malformed skeletal hand wrapped around one of the human skeleton's upper arm bones. The girl proceeded to scrape the dirt off a shallow grave to reveal a buried skeleton, also malformed, and smaller than the human one. She did not specify the type or degree of any of the "malformations."
The girl recovered both skulls and kept them for the remainder of her life. As her death neared, she passed them to an American man who maintained possession for five years before passing them to the American couple who now own and control them. That couple found both skulls show a staining pattern consistent with the discovery story as told by the now-deceased woman. Only the rear part of the human's (lying on its back) is stained, while all of the malformed skull (the buried one) is stained to varying degrees.
Motivation:
As reported by its discoverer, the Starchild skull is "malformed" in many key ways. In fact, little about it compares to a normal human. It does possess the same number and kind of cranial bones: a frontal, two sphenoids, two temporals, two parietals, and an occipital. However, none are shaped or positioned as in humans. There are also other similarities, including certain bone extrusions and contours, muscle attachments, and openings for veins and arteries that correspond to humans. Despite those and other recognizable conformities, an overwhelming majority of comparisons show deviation from the human norm.
Sometimes those deviations are slight, but most times they are extensive, to a degree that should have produced afetal "monster" incompatible with life as we know it. Instead, they seamlessly combined to form a cranial outline hauntingly similar to the "Gray" alien type exemplified on the cover of Whitley Streiber's book "Communion." Indeed, apart from a marked difference in the eye sockets (more about that later), the Starchild skull looks very much as if it might fit inside that Gray alien's head. If that were not so compelling, we also would have assumed it was a deformity.
Because the Starchild skull shows so much deviation from the human norm, we can confidently expect DNA testing to prove it is one of three things: (1) a pure alien Gray type; (2) a Gray-human hybrid; or (3) the most bizarre human deformity since The Elephant Man. Either of the first two would be historic at a level never seen before, while the last would be merely historic. However, even the last outcome would warrant the effort being put into the determination process. History is history, and it is a rare occurrence in anyone's life to get an opportunity to make it.
Inflicted Deformity:
Upon seeing the Starchild skull, the first question most people ask is whether it could have resulted from some kind of human deformity. Because that is such an obvious consideration, we will address it before beginning a detailed description of the skull. There are two basic kinds of human deformity: natural and inflicted. Inflicted deformities result from a practice of certain primitive societies known as "head binding," in which an infant's head is bracketed
by any of a variety of flattening or shaping devices, usually boards, then tightly swathed in rags to hold those devices in the desired shape. When applied to the back of a human head, no shaping device can go beyond the bump at the lower middle rear of it known as the inion.
The inion is where the neck begins, so the muscles that attach there prevent any shaping device from affecting anything below it. In the Starchild skull the flattening goes well below the inion (which in its case is not even present!), and the bone itself is not actually flat, which is invariably a product of both head binding and cradle boarding (a means of flattening only the back of the head). In both binding and boarding, the affected bones are pressed smooth, but the rear of the Starchild skull is subtly but clearly convoluted, with no true flattening in any part. Therefore, it is virtually impossible that binding could have been the cause of its unusual shape. Lastly, if a skull is truly bound into some other-than-ordinary shape, the cranial bones will never be able to suture at the top of the head, so a person thus afflicted will always have a "soft spot" on the top of their reshaped cranium.
Natural Deformity:
Natural deformities also come in two kinds: genetic and congenital. Genetic deformities occur regularly as a result of cumulative defects in humanity's gene pool. They produce consistent characteristics and have names like Apert's Disease, Crouzon's, Treacher-Collins, Progeria (premature aging) Trisomy 18 (a type of Mongolism), and Hydrocephaly (water on the brain), to name a few. One of their hallmarks is asymmetry (lopsidedness) caused by "synostosis," which is a premature closing of one or more cranial sutures, forcing a skull to grow in unusual ways. The Starchild skull exhibits a very high degree of overall symmetry, which is difficult to reconcile with the marked asymmetries produced by most cranial pathologies. Also, a CAT scan reveals that all of its cranial sutures were healthy and open at its time of death.
In our efforts to determine the truth about the Starchild, we have asked over 50 experts to personally examine the skull and tell us what they thought might have caused it to look as it does. Several others have sent unsolicited opinions after viewing the photographs on the website. With predictable consistency they have pronounced the skull the result of some kind of human "pathology" (a scientific phrase for "something went wrong"), often combined with the cranial binding discussed above. When we ask what kind of pathology, specifically, they suggest one or another of the genetic disorders as the most likely cause. If we offer reasons why their diagnosis cannot be correct (its symmetry, no synostosis, no inion, etc.), they will change to another disorder, or fall back on the safety net provided by congenital deformity.
Unlike genetic deformities, which are consistently repeated generation after generation, congenital deformity is a one-time event caused by a sperm-egg misconnect at conception, or by varying degrees of mutation during gestation. They can be slight or they can be horrific, producing ghastly "monsters" that give neonatologists nightmares. In theory and in practice, congenital deformities are capable of producing virtually anything, which means the Starchild skull can be labeled as congenital and the label will stick. Unless, that is, you know the rules governing congenital deformities at the level the Starchild exhibits.
In the head area one deformity at a time is the general rule because sperm-egg misconnects and mutations tend to strike only one gene or a localized suite of genes. For example, if the face is affected, the rear and side of the head will be unaffected. If the rear is damaged, the face and sides should be okay. Etc. If two severe deformities occur, say the back and side are affected, life will be tenuous at best because the head area controls so much of early life processes (breathing and eating being the two most prominent). Three major deformities, like three strikes, will almost certainly mean you are out, with no chance to live. You are DOA.
How this relates to the Starchild skull is that no expert yet consulted has provided a credible, sustainable link to any of the known genetic disorders. Nor have they explained how the Starchild could legitimately be classified as a congenital deformity because its skull shows massive reconfiguration in EIGHT different areas of cranial morphology. In other words, the Starchild should have been DOA several times over, yet it thrived until its death.
To View the full article please follow the link. Thanks, Stephen
http://www.starchildproject.com/ | | | | 165 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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| | Subscribe To Our LiveShow Channel | | | | Tuesday, February 26, 2008 (8:32 AM) | | | I will not be uploading anymore videos to this channel, i will however be using the LiveShow feature. The new videos i will be showcasing will only be available on this medium. I would ask anyone who is on our friends list, to subscribe to our LiveShow channel. Every subscriber will be notified when a new film or documentary is posted. Don't miss out, subscribe, and get informed. Stephen | | | | 213 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | God and Extraterrestrial Life? Part One | | | | Sunday, February 24, 2008 (5:44 AM) | | Will Christians have to hold a closing-down sale if extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) is found elsewhere in the Universe? Or has there already been the passion of the Christ on different worlds?
It will come as a surprise to some that the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) can in part be traced back to a Christian motivation. Kepler (1571-1630) argued from Galileo’s observation that since Jupiter had moons it too must be inhabited. He reasoned that as God had made the Moon for our benefit, then the moons of Jupiter were made for the benefit of the inhabitants of Jupiter. So then there must be inhabitants! A similar type of argument was used by the astronomers Richard Bentley (1662-1742) in England and Christian Huygens (1629-95) in Holland. Following the discovery of the vast number of other stars apart from our sun in the Universe, they reasoned that if there were stars which were unable to be seen from Earth, then they must have been created for the benefit of those who could see them. There must be other beings elsewhere in the Universe.
Christians have long understood that God’s creation contains other life apart from humans. From worms to wasps, God’s creativity is expressed in a wide diversity and indeed extravagance of non-human life. The relics of primitive life on Mars at one level would not cause any difficulty at all for Christians; it would simply be yet more of the tapestry of creation.
Intelligent life, but not as we know it?
Of course, if we found that the Universe was full of bacteria that would not be very interesting.
Star Trek would not work if the on-going mission was to boldly go to seek out yet more bacteria! The key question for many is whether there is other intelligent, self-conscious life within the Universe. The scientific jury is still out on this question. On the one hand we know that the Universe is a very big place containing more than 100 billion stars in each of 100 billion galaxies. On the other hand biologists clearly point out that the evolution of self-conscious life depends in a very delicate way on many aspects of the laws of physics and the circumstances of the earth. Finding evidence of primitive life on the surface of Mars (and if it could be shown that this was not contamination from the Earth) might tell us that life itself may be emerging in many places in the Universe, but that does not necessarily mean that all amoebas will inevitably turn into accountants! Indeed the lifeless surface of Mars today is a reminder that the building blocks for life may be there in abundance, but things have to
be just right for intelligent life to develop.
While the SETI programme continues looking for signals of other civilisations, the continued silence of the heavens is not encouraging. The physicist, Fermi, in the 1950s suggested that if the Universe was giving birth to many civilisations then ‘if they existed they would be here’. While some will argue for UFOs and alien abductions to be good evidence, the vast majority of the scientific community is unconvinced. The fact that as yet we have not seen or heard ‘ET phoning home’ has been significant.
But just supposing we were to encounter little green men and women, what would that mean for religion and Christian faith in particular?
A watchmaker of alien watches?
Paul Davies has written widely in recent years on the link between God and his work as a cosmologist. He is especially struck by the anthropic balances that make life possible. These are the amazing balances in the law and circumstance of the Universe that allow the development of carbon-based life. These, coupled with the intelligibility of the Universe, lead him towards a cosmic designer.
He believes that there are as yet undiscovered principles of complexity, organisation and information flow consistent with the laws of physics, but not reducible to them, and these principles lead to intelligent life.3 If this turns out to be the case, Davies feels that atheism would seem less compelling and something like design more plausible.
William Paley became famous in the nineteenth century for likening this design in the biological world to finding a watch as you walk across the heath. The intricacy of the design suggests a designer. Would such a watch on the surface of Mars give any proof of the existence of God?
Such an argument may dent atheism, but it does not prove the Christian God. Even if you identify ‘design’ you then have little idea as to what the designer is really like?
Contact problems for religion?
If you cannot prove God then can aliens become a means of disproving God? Jill Cornell Tarter is one of the leading SETI researchers in the world. She argues that if ETI is detected then ‘long-lived extraterrestrials either never had, or have outgrown, organised religion’.4 She thinks that religion causes war and the destabilisation of societies, and therefore a stable, technological civilisation would mean either one universal religion or no god at all. Indeed, if it is one universal religion, then we will all convert to it and junk the divisive religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism on the cosmic scrap-heap.
Of course, this is a long way from finding evidence of life on the surface of Mars. Whilst wildly simplistic in its understanding of religion, technology and society, it is however interesting to see SETI researchers seeing their work in dialogue with the big questions. Cornell Tarter does not recognise the positive contribution of religion to society, not least in the growth of science itself. The situation is far too complex to predict that any ETI will have one God or no religion at all. Her argument is weak, but she is not alone in using alien life to attack God.
Is God an alien?
Famous for his iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick once suggested that ‘all the standard attributes assigned to God in our history could equally well be the characteristics of biological entities who, billions of years ago, were at a stage of development similar to man’s own and developed into something as remote from man as man is remote from the primordial ooze from which he first
emerged.’5 Is ‘God’ in fact a super intelligent alien?
Again, this is not new. A former NASA engineer, J.F. Blumrich in a book The Spaceships of Ezekiel, published in 1974, suggested – quite unconvincingly – that Ezekiel’s vision of God was in fact an encounter with a flying saucer.
Erich Von Daniken and others went further in arguing that many of the accounts of Jesus were simply telling the story of a super- technological alien. Thus, angels in ‘shining garments’ are actually aliens in space suits and the ascension was simply ‘beam me up Scotty’! Such suggestions are highly-entertaining but do little justice to basic questions such as the historicity of the life and teaching of Jesus, and the significance of his death and resurrection.
There are even reputable scientists who have suggested similar things. The cosmologist Edward Harrison was struck by the anthropic balances in the Universe.
He suggested that there could be only three explanations: First, God designed the Universe, but Harrison hastily argues that answer precludes further rational inquiry. Second, the anthropic principle of this Universe as one universe in many universes, but he finds this unsatisfactory. His preferred third option is that this Universe is created by life of superior intelligence existing in another physical universe.
How does he get to this extraordinary conclusion? First, he picks up on the suggestion that black holes could be the birthplaces of new universes. Second, he argues, that due to the rapid evolution of intelligence there is every reason to expect that a time will come in the future when we will be able to design and create our own universes. Thus, the fine-tuning of this Universe is to be explained as an engineering project of superior beings. They have created this Universe out of a black hole. He calls it a ‘natural creation theory’ and claims that it also explains why the Universe is intelligible to us. It is created by minds similar to our own who designed it to be that way.
One wonders whether this is an elaborate wind-up, even though it appeared in a scientific journal. Harrison criticises belief in God for stopping any further rational inquiry, but then falls into the same trap. What can we possibly know about these ‘superior’ beings in another universe? If he is to be drawn to the conclusion that this Universe is designed, is it not simpler to see the ‘superior being’ as God? Indeed, in contrast to the unknown aliens in another universe, Christians claim that this God, far from being in another universe, has revealed himself in this Universe and forms a personal relationship with those who open their lives to him.
The evidence for the existence of God is much stronger than that for superior beings in another universe.
Big Brother on Mars?
Whilst Paul Davies is open to God, he does think that the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would somehow undermine what he sees as Christianity’s claim that men and women have a special and exclusive relationship with the Creator.
If we are not alone then we are not special.
Whilst Davies might be right in seeing this in some expressions of Christianity, it is not true to the traditional Christian position. Russell points out that the popularity of the speculation about other worlds in the seventeenth century was a significant indicator of the ascendancy of biblical values over those of Aristotle. The reason being that in the Aristotelian Universe, position and status were closely associated. The Earth was at the centre of all things, separated from the rest of the Universe by the orbit of Moon. We were special because we were placed at the centre.
In contrast, the Bible does not associate status and place. The dignity and worth of human beings comes from the gift of relationship with God. This is clearly spelt out in the Genesis narratives. The core of being made in the image of God, being given stewardship over the world and having the capacity for intimate communication with God are all held together in the gift of relationship. Such a relationship can be special without being exclusive. I have a special relationship with my daughter, but that is not devalued by the fact that she has a brother with whom I also have a special relationship.
Extraterrestrial intelligence does not pose a problem to Christian belief that men and women are special in the eyes of God. It may even increase the sense of awe at how great this God is who creates with such diversity and extravagance.
God in little green flesh?
Yet how would the existence of ETI affect the central Christian claim that God has become a human being in Jesus to communicate with us and to save us from our sin? This has bothered some theologians. Arthur Peacocke, who has done so much to hold science and religion together, worries, ‘Does not the mere possibility of extraterrestrial life render nonsensical all the superlative claims made by the Christian church about the significance (of Jesus)’6
Here is what theologians call the issue of particularity: Christian faith is based on a particular revelation at a particular time to a particular people, which is, at the same time universal for all. Christians have thought about this in terms of other cultures and faith communities and a few have tried to extend this to ETI. The speculations have followed two separate paths.
Some have said that the revelation of God in Jesus is once for all for the whole Universe. Milne observed:
‘God’s most notable intervention in the actual historical process, according to the Christian outlook, was the Incarnation. Was this a unique event, or has it been re-enacted on each of a countless number of planets? The Christian would recoil in horror from such a conclusion. We cannot imagine the Son of God suffering vicariously on each of a myriad of planets... We are in deep waters here in a sea of great mysteries.’ 7
Milne eventually solves his great mystery and overcomes particularity by suggesting the sending of the good news by radio waves!
Others have taken a different view. Milne’s view was severely criticised by the theologian E.L. Mascall in his Bampton lectures in 1956. He argued that if salvation was what God was all about, then he would make sure his creatures knew about it. Mascall stresses that salvation has to be achieved through incarnation.8 That Jesus became a human being means that it is doubtful that his saving work would be for different types of beings.
Such a view was also represented by the hymn writer Sydney Carter who wondered:
‘Who can tell what other cradle,
High above the Milky Way,
Still may rock the King of Heaven
On another Christmas Day?’ 9
In deciding between these two views we need to proceed carefully. Christian faith understands God in human flesh for two purposes – one is about showing us what God is like, and the other is to save us from our sin which alienates us from God. In thinking about incarnation on another world, we need to ask the question posed by C.S. Lewis – that if aliens do exist, and if they are intelligent, will they have sinned like human beings?
Milne is right that we find ourselves in a sea of great mysteries! However, the physicist and theologian Sir John Polkinghorne, when asked about whether God would become incarnate on different worlds, replied that the God he saw in Jesus ‘will do what is necessary.’ 10 It seems to me that’s not a bad answer!
Why search Mars at all?
If the science from Mars and indeed from other considerations is not clear, and some of the theological questions need more thinking, we can ask the question why is there so much fascination with this question? The search for life on the surface of Mars is part of a wider human quest that is also expressed in the fascination of The X-Files phenomenon of alien visitation and in much of the science fiction industry. We can highlight five themes common to this fascination. | | | | 240 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 1 Comment | |
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| | God and Extraterrestrial Life? Part Two | | | | Sunday, February 24, 2008 (5:53 AM) | |
1. Lost in space
First, a feeling that can only be described as cosmic loneliness.
The astronomer David Hughes writes:
‘The confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial life is billed as the greatest possible scientific discovery of all time. Today, however, we are still experiencing the pangs of cosmic loneliness. Never mind not coming to visit, no extraterrestrial being has even left a calling card or shouted at us from a distance.’
If there is no evidence of life on Mars, and indeed we do find that we seem to be alone in the Universe, what does that mean for how we understand the significance of human beings?
2. Why are we here?
Stephen Hawking might be trying to figure out how the Universe emerges from a quantum fluctuation, but that still does not solve the question ‘why?’ At the same time recent discoveries confirm that the Universe will continue to expand forever, eventually dying in what, for many, seems a pretty pointless heat death. Yet the anthropic balances of this Universe seem to indicate that the development of carbon-based intelligent life seems to be an important part of the structure of the Universe. 12 Would the discovery of other life help us in thinking about ‘cosmic purpose’?
Paul Davies sums it up: ‘For those who hope for a deeper purpose beneath physical existence, the presence of extraterrestrial life forms would provide a spectacular boost, implying that we live in a universe that is in some sense getting better and better rather than worse and worse.
3. Who are we?
The science fiction author Ray Bradbury commented on claimed evidence of life on Mars:
‘This latest fragment of data... is only worth our hyperventilation if we allow it to lead us to the larger metaphor: Mankind sliding across the blind retina of the Cosmos, hoping to be seen, hoping to be counted, hoping to be worth the counting.
The search for ETI also shows an interest in our ‘cosmic identity’,
that is, we want to find out about ourselves. Humans do that fundamentally in relationship. Science fiction has used this device on many occasions. Star Trek reflected the American culture of the 1960s, exploring themes such as racism through encounters with ‘aliens’. We want to find out about aliens because we want to find out about ourselves.
4. The War of the Worlds?
Fourth, we all seem to have some sense of ‘cosmic fear’. H.G. Wells novel of 1898, The War of the Worlds, was a story with a specific purpose.
It was written in response to the outrage he felt at the colonialist eradication of the people of Tasmania. His aim was to show what it was like to be a victim of a war of extermination.
However, in 1938, the radio version of Orson Wells had quite a different effect on the American public.
It produced widespread fear and panic in many Americans who were in the grip of pre-war paranoia. Science fiction works on such fear and paranoia, from the Alien movies to the vast flying saucers of Independence Day. Even the discovery of small Martian ‘bugs’ would remind us of our own vulnerability on this fragile planet Earth.
5. There must be a better world somewhere
Finally, we want ‘cosmic salvation’. Some believe that aliens would help us through new medical techniques, help us to resolve our environmental problems, and allow us to discover deeper truths about the Universe.
As far back as 1949, Sir Fred Hoyle pointed out this motivation for believing in extraterrestrial intelligence: ‘the expectation that we are going to be saved from ourselves by some miraculous interstellar intervention.
The hope for many is that something outside of ourselves will come and save us from the reality of life that we know. We look beyond our present knowledge for hope.
Searching Mars helps you work, rest and play?
This fascination with questions of cosmic loneliness, purpose, identity, fear and salvation is of course not confined to SETI. They are the age-old questions of religion and philosophy. Paul Davies rightly sees that the interest in extraterrestrial intelligence ‘stems in part... from the need to find a wider context for our lives than this earthly existence provides. In an era when conventional religion is in sharp decline, the belief in super-advanced aliens out there somewhere in the universe can provide some measure of comfort and inspiration for people whose lives may otherwise appear to be boring and futile.
The search for life on Mars is part of natural human curiosity that Christians see as a gift from God.
This scientific quest is, in the words of Kepler, ‘thinking God’s thoughts after him’ and is to be welcomed. Christians have nothing to fear from this quest, although as we have seen there will be some challenging questions along the way. In fact, as Christians see some of the deeper motivations for SETI they can find a common ground for exploring the big questions of the Universe. It is interesting that even in so-called post-modern culture we want to invest so much in finding out the answer to the question of life on Mars. However, even the answer to the question will not deliver friendship in the face of loneliness or help in our need of salvation.
The Apollo astronaut James Irwin once said, ‘It is more significant that God walked on earth than that man walked on the moon.’ While I would love to walk on the surface of Mars, my own life is given purpose and perspective through God who walks on this earth in Jesus. In that sense we are a visited planet! Thanks, Stephen | | | | 201 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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