A Memorable Landing

After a voyage of nearly 7 months, NASA’s Insight probe landed safely on the red planet. The probe covered the distance of 54 million kilometers at a speed of 10,000 km/h. If anyone is interested, he/she can do the math.

This event thrilled me and saddened me at the same time. It thrilled me when I reflect upon the dizzying technological progress mankind has made in just three generations since the Wright brothers made their first flight. It saddened me because it strengthened the illusion that man can conquer space, an illusion created by science fiction that appeals to man’s vainglory (exemplified by such characters as super hero Flash Gordon, operative of the GBI – Galaxy Bureau of Investigation).

The image that introduces this post is of the surface of mars taken by the Insight camera. Hats off to the entire NASA team!

Elon Musk expressed the wish to die on Mars, probably in some colony established by humans. Ray Bradbury echoed this thought when he said we’ve got to build a civilization on Mars and then after 300 years, move out into the Universe. Then we have a chance of living forever, he said.

Such opinions are common and irresponsible. They reflect an expansionist mentality that is self-destructive because it allows us to believe that the Earth is disposable. We invented the plastic, throw-away civilization. This attitude enables us to think that after we have destroyed the fragile ecosystem here on Earth, we can go elsewhere and behave in the same aggressive, rapacious manner. The sky’s the limit (a prophetic saying).

Who cares if the elephants, tigers, rhinos, and giraffes become extinct? Who cares if the tropical forests are cut down? Who cares if there are no more places left where one can find solitude?

The Mars probe is telling us not to sweat it. The entire Universe lies open before us, as did the New World before Hernan Cortez and the Spanish conquistadors. Unfortunately, perhaps, when we plant our flag on some planet, there won’t be any natives there whom we can subdue and enslave.

Space exploration is a noble endeavor because it gives us knowledge of ourselves and our place in the Universe. Instead of teaching us humility and awareness that we are a transient phenomenon of no cosmic significance, space exploration has puffed us up and made us think that we can become Flash Gordons and Captain Kirks.

The cultural shock of the Copernican revolution (the Earth is not the center of the Universe) has worn off. We have returned to the notion than man is the Lord of Creation, and everything should come under his dominion.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis, 1:26).

The failure to recognize the interrelatedness of all living things is a fatal flaw that will doom mankind. Leibniz was right when he asserted that this is the best of all possible worlds. It is the only one that we will ever have.

To be convinced of this, let us conduct the following mental experiment.

If we reduce the size of the Earth to a scale of 1:100 million, we get an orange with a diameter of 14 centimeters.

Circling the Earth at a distance of 3.5 meters is the Moon with a diameter of 3.5 centimeters.

Lying at a distance of 1.5 kilometers away is the Sun, a huge ball with a diameter of 14 meters, 100-times larger than the orange.

Mars, the next planet after us from the Sun, with a diameter of only 7 centimeters, would be 500 meters away from us.

Now listen to this. In our imaginary model, it would be 40 kilometers to Pluto, the outer edge of our solar system

It would take us 40 years to traverse our solar system.

After we have left our backyard, so to speak, how far would it be in our model to the nearest star – Alpha Centauri –which is only 4.37 light years away?

Alpha Centauri would be so far away that in our model it would be located on the Moon.

Light covers 9.46 trillion/km in one year. Multiply 9.46 trillion by 4.37 equals 41.34 trillion.

At a speed of 10,000 km/h, it would take 50,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri.

These numbers prove that by any stretch of the imagination the conquest of space is a dangerous illusion. because it deprecates the value of the precious treasure that is is at hand and that we are not loath to throw

away. Our Earth is a space ship hurtling on into - who knows where? When the order nis given to abandon ship, there will be no lifeboats.

Is it so outrageous to entertain the thought that we were put in such an out-of-the-way place of exile so as not to be able to contaminate the rest of God’s creation?

The great physicist Max Planck expressed this idea as follows: All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.

What is Planck’s Mind like? Is it God?

away.

Is it so outrageous to entertain the thought that we were put in such an out-of-the-way place of exile so as not to be able to contaminate the rest of God’s creation?

The great physicist Max Planck expressed this idea as follows: All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.

What is Planck’s Mind like? Is it God?