An Age-Old Search
We all occasionally look at the night sky and wonder “Is anybody out there?” In the absence of evidence, we use our imagination to populate the universe. In the 19th century some people believed that living beings inhabited the sun and developed experiments to look down sun spots to see them.
In 1965, the first photographs from Mars revealed a lifeless planet. As exploration of the solar system continued, the next contender Venus, turned out to be a torrid furnace.
Our attempts to find a planet like earth which orbits around a star like our sun have led us to recognize how rare it is to find a place that is ‘just right’ for life. If earth were any further from the sun it would have frozen long ago. If it were closer, it would be scorching like Venus. Even the moon which circles a planet must be large enough to stabilize its axis of rotation so that it doesn’t flip chaotically.
To have intelligent life we need the right sized planet with its right sized moon, circling at just the right distance from a right sized sunstar. As far as we can determine, earth is the only planet in the galaxy that meets these conditions.
Although the odds of a positive outcome are small, we continue to look for radio signals sent by other civilizations. Our search for extra terrestrial intelligence goes on.
So next time you look up to the sky, think how fortunate we are to have this warm, wet niche in the Universe on which to enjoy our life.
The greatest question humanity faces is “Why are we here?” The very fact of our existence makes us curious. While the idea that we are “here by chance” may be attractively simple, it does little to satisfy the deep need for significance that psychologists talk about. In fact, it is rather soul-destroying to think that, as an individual, you are simply the culmination of a particular series of biological accidents and random events.
If life arose purely by chance, life is meaningless. More importantly, our lives are meaningless. (We may bring meaning to our own individual lives, but it is self-defined. What is meaningful to one person may be ridiculous to another.) Yet, we are troubled when we see things in our world which would be the natural consequence of meaningless existence. Senseless violence, vicious cruelty, and tyrannical domination are as valid in a meaningless universe as are parental care and affection, self-sacrifice, and willing submission.
Most of us sense that there should be meaning to life - some greater purpose than merely keeping species going. We sense the need for order - that “wrong” should be suppressed and “right” should be encouraged. This is not only for the benefit of the individual but for the sake of the whole human family.
Ironically, underlying the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is the hope that any beings we encounter “out there” might be able to tell us the secrets of how to survive as a species. Is it odd that so many are predisposed to accept and believe messages from other dimensions or outer space? Why do we look for “more advanced life forms” which might help us? How would we assess if those beings were, in fact, “more advanced?” Why would we assume that they would be inclined to help us?
There is One we can look to for the answers we need. He does not reveal everything we would like to know, but He shows us enough. He pledges a benevolent attitude towards us. What’s more, He promises to reveal Himself to those who look for Him. Do you have questions about the meaning and purpose of life? Ask the One behind it all.
David Humphreys and Ron Hughes
© August 2004
