Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Zero to infinity


I have coffee one morning each week with a small group of people that includes true believers --- in extraterrestrials. These are intelligent people who are entirely serious about this: That we are not alone; that somehow the "government," or other hostile agencies, are hiding their presence from us. It does no good to point out that there's no evidence for this theory, none whatsoever.

Oddly enough, we meet in a church --- where the focus is on extraterrestrials of another sort: God in three persons, angels, saints and, of course, Satan himself.

The folks who meet here at other times, and in countless other churches, are in most cases true believers, too;  entirely serious about this: That we are not alone; that somehow "liberals" or "conservatives" or other hostile agencies are actively working to conceal the true nature of this presence from us. It does no good to point out that there's no evidence for this theory, none whatsoever, either.

In both instances faith is required, and since I'm partial to human tradition, I generally come down gingerly on the side of the latter, to which I am culturally attuned, rather than the former, but try not to laugh at either.

Although this morning, on this first day of spring and with a Zen Lutheran background, I'm inclined to argue that the answers are just as likely to lie in forsythia blossoms, pointing toward the light.

If that doesn't work for you, try this video (quite long, focused on physics and of the sort that if viewed before breakfast may cause your head to explode). It was produced by TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Curator Chris Anderson.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is the best take I've heard on life in the universe.

1. The enormous age of the universe means that even if many civilizations flourished for a million years each, very few of them would be contemporaries. It's a harsh universe and surviving for a million years would be quite a feat, even if they didn't have humankind's self-destructive tendencies.

2. The vast distances mean civilizations would be usually be incredibly far apart. Electromagnetic signals would be undetectably weak beyond neighboring stars unless they used a significant fraction of their star's power.

3. The universal speed limit (light speed) mean that any one will be traveling only in their back yard, to at most a few stellar systems and not to most of the galaxy.

Bill H.