Godspeed, Atlantis

Amidst the smoke still clearing from NASA’s final space shuttle launch, I’m seeing a lot of heartfelt support being rallied for the space program. There remains a large group of people fascinated with space exploration who wish the dream would stay alive and that America would remain dedicated to this wonderful adventure. I am one of them. However, the other side of the debate is not populated by whom I expected it to be. The most outspoken protestors of the space program (that I have seen) are not economists clamoring about the price tag of these missions being a burden on national budget or humanitarians concerned about the risk of such flights (RIP Challenger and Colombia crews), but my own fellow Christians labeling the space program as wasteful, pointless, and even sinful. “If God wanted man in space, He would have put him there.” Is this the best Scriptural reasoning you have to offer? If man was meant to fly, I suppose God would have given him wings as well. I’ll be sure to ask for forgiveness next time I find myself taking off in an airplane. I would also assume by this logic that medicine is worthless also. I mean, if God decides to make me sick, that’s His prerogative. I have no business trying to usurp Him by taking antibiotics when He may be trying to teach me a lesson!

I’m being overly sarcastic here, but I’m also trying to make a point. If you’re going to oppose the space program as a Christian, there are plenty of points to make that don’t include worthless comments like the one I quoted. Argument has been presented that sentient life outside of earth is not reconcilable with Scripture, and therefore to navigate space at the cost of billions of dollars in search of life is futile. Plus, we can see plenty of stars. Why should we try to see more? The view we already have is breathtaking. With the size of our national deficit, why should we be spending money on a space program at all?

I’m not an economist, so I don’t have a solution to present that will solve all of our problems, but I do have thoughts that I believe are legitimate on why we should continue manned missions in space. From a secular viewpoint, space exploration has greatly benefited our nation. Technological breakthroughs that have been made directly as a result of the space program include medical developments like heart pumps and body imaging and safety equipment like smoke detectors and thermal gloves. This is nowhere near an exhaustive list. NASA maintains a web page directed toward children that lists all of the different technologies and modernizations that have come about as a result of the program.[1]

The discoveries that can be made through the space exploration program are overwhelming. Pertinent to our national situation, one of the immediate benefits I can think of would be the discovery of a new energy source. Helium-3 has been found in abundance on the moon. If those deposits were to be harvested, they could provide excellent fuel for fusion reactors on earth.[2] Imagine the possibilities if we were to find an easily retrievable gaseous fuel source in space. If power ever becomes wirelessly transmittable, I can guarantee there will be a race to get solar power plants into orbit. Imagine wind turbines on Jupiter! Granted, if pursued, these goals won’t be met until far into the future. But once they are achieved, the benefits will be fantastic.

I hope I don’t get written off as a heretic for this, but I would not be surprised if some kind of life were found on another planet. I’m not talking conscious, sentient life with moral awareness and therefore spiritual accountability. I’m referring to microbial or even zoological life. Down in the deepest oceanic trenches on earth, underneath thousands of pounds of pressure, creatures thrive around heat vents as they swim around in the darkness. There are places in our oceans that we have not yet explored where scientists expect to find even more varieties of life. Meanwhile, cosmologists are discovering through our rovers on Mars that our red neighbor contains vast ice deposits underground.[3] Valleys and impressions on the planet’s surface indicate that Mars was at one time a widely oceanic planet. Now they are discovering caverns full of methane gas: a product of microbial life.[4] With creatures on our own planet thriving in seemingly impossible conditions, it seems logically possible to find life in similar places, even on other planets. I find nothing contradictory between the existence of extraterrestrial (non-sentient) life and Scripture. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised to get to heaven one day and be told that before the fall of man and the resulting curse, the other planets were being prepared with growing ecosystems to accommodate human life. What else are you going to do with a race of perfect, immortal people who reproduce? The population has to expand into something.

Outside of practical reasons, I find many indications in Scripture of why we should study and explore the heavens. Psalm 8:3-6 says, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:” Granted, this passage goes on to specify that man tame the beasts of the earth and sea. But are not the heavens also the work of His hands? Is not all of creation the dominion of man? I have heard it said that the heavens are the dwelling place of God, and therefore man has no business intruding on it. To travel into space would be like breaking unlawfully into heaven. What a wonderfully disgusting abuse of Scripture.

Almost every other place in Scripture where the stars are mentioned, they are mentioned in relation to glory and honor and light. Times in Scripture when stars go dark or fall on mankind are indicative of a time of judgment. The brightness of the stars proclaims God’s majesty, and their height alludes to His height above the earth. With so much emphasis placed on the glory of the stars, should we not do all we can to see them and witness this majesty? While the two activities are on massively different scales, saying that space exploration is a waste of time and energy is comparable to saying the same thing about a walk through the woods. Even if you don’t make material profit out of it, the sheer experience makes it worthwhile.

When John Glenn, the first American to orbit earth, was interviewed in 1968 by CNN, he said, “To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible. It just strengthens my faith. I wish there were words to describe what its [sic] like.”[5] If every man had the opportunity to travel in space, I believe he would find his faith increased and his appreciation for earth magnified. That kind of perspective change is what I believe makes the space exploration program the most worthwhile.

 

[1] The Space Place. Ed. Diane Fisher. NASA, 8 Sept. 2005. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.

[2] “Lunar Mining of Helium-3.” Fusion Technology Institute. University of Wisconsin-Madison, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2011

[3] “Found It! Ice on Mars.” NASA Science News. NASA, 28 May 2002. Web. 11 July 2011.

[4]Scott, Amanda. “NASA: Discovery of Methane Gas on Mars Could Signal Microbial Life.” VOA News. Voice of America, 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 11 July 2011.

[5] Glenn, John. Interview by CNN. CNN.com. Cable News Network, 1 Nov. 1998. Web. 17 Feb. 2011