What have we been seeking for past 50 years?

Friday, February 01, 2008Huntsville Times

Rocket City USA, where I work, is excited this week by the 50th anniversary of Americans blasting off into space.

As all the rocketeers and astronauts and ancillary personnel toast the accomplishments of the past half century, it is interesting to me that the major question preoccupying Huntsville has been "How can we get up there?"

You don't hear many discussions of the bigger question: "What will we find up there?"

That's not so surprising, I suppose, because this is a hardware town and that is a software question. I'm sure that there are other cities as single-mindedly concerned about what's up there as we are about the foot-pounds of thrust required to get there.

Or perhaps we already know more about that question than they let on over at Marshall Space Flight Center. Perhaps it is a Code Red secret. Perhaps there are recovered UFOs and ET corpses on ice and the key to the universe hidden in bunkers and sheds back there behind the pine trees and warning signs south of I-565.

Perhaps the secure phone lines keep up a constant buzz between Huntsville and Nevada's Area 51.

I mean, how would I know?

Not knowing, here's my take on the possibilities.

1. Maybe those pre-Renaissance astronomers were right, and the Earth really is the center of the universe. Maybe there's nothing much of interest out past our solar system, and all of the galaxies and intuited planets are just window dressing, props set there by God to give us something to admire of a dark, clear night.

2. Maybe those scattered orbs really do support life, carbon-based just like ours, so that it appears the same God's stamp is on all of them in a million tiny ways. Maybe there are plants, animals, fishes ?everything except an off-world equivalent of homo sapiens. That is, maybe man is still the center of the universe even if his planet is not. Maybe being made "in the image of God" is an honor that belongs only to us. Maybe we'll one day spread to distant worlds until man fills the universe God has made just for him.

3. Maybe the Mayan hieroglyphics and the crop circles and the UFO sightings and David Bowie are truly hints that, yes, there are inter-galactic visitors who rival us for complexity of thought. And maybe they have souls. And maybe they, too, are made in God's image, although a completely different facet of it than we know anything about. Maybe we have brothers and sisters, away out there, and when we meet them it will be appropriate for us to evangelize among them, spreading our message of good news that the one Master who created all is a loving God. Maybe.

4. Or maybe they will evangelize among us, telling us a thing or two about God that we never suspected. Maybe they're even a step ahead of us on the life cycle that is taking us from Eden to Heaven. Maybe they'll be our hosts or tour guides or mentors or guardian angels as we step closer to God.

5. Maybe the rest of the universe is out of step with our Earth. Maybe it is under the control of evil, and we are the only outpost protected by the Almighty. Maybe we'll be sorry when we see what's really up there. Maybe, but I doubt it.

I don't know anything about what's out there, but I believe that when we stand at the launch pad or huddle around the TV screen and watch the latest rocket blaze into the heavens, we are, at our core, searching for more information about God himself, in the same way that we search our sacred texts and the depths of our minds.

As odd as it sounds, I guess I am claiming that this week's celebration is about 50 years of trying to answer two questions: "Who is God?" and "Where do we fit in his universe?"

So, to the next set of astronauts headed for the heavens, I wish you Godspeed.