Ok, since you brought it up, my one complaint about CONTACT (which I think is the most intelligent extraterrestrial movie out there) is that, in the end, Ellie goes back to her big satellite dishes and headphones to continue her search for extraterrestrial life. After all she just experienced? Really??? I'd be back in that floating chair in that fantastic wormhole machine in a heartbeat. "Good to go—again!"
Other thoughts:
Since I believe that the "universe" was created so we can exist, we ARE "alone" with our creator and His heavenly Son and creatures--a good thing. And that the "universe" in its entirety is all that's required to make us possible. (So where do you think HEAVEN is located?)
In the end of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, as Neary (Dreyfuss) is about to board that monstrous spaceship, Lacombe (Truffaut) states: "I envy you." Really? Surrounded by those demon aliens for God knows how long, away from Earth for God knows how long? What a Hellish existence.
Not only do I think MARS is a deathtrap for any human exploration (send the machines), I have my doubts about the Moon colonization as well. Sure, what a fantastic exploration opportunity. But other than that, what benefits?
As for this: "People are just as exasperating in space as they are on Earth." Spot on.
I too have Asperger's, and I too have always felt "outside" somehow. Attempts to live "inside" never went well, so now I live less sociably, because I am retired, live in the country, and no longer have to work in an office! I've always prayed, even when hopelessly lost in the wilderness of society, of life. And He has always come to find me. I am very sceptical of the existence of any life form created by God that is not of this earth, and the glib: "We cannot be the only intelligent life form in the universe" schtick has always irritated me, because it goes no deeper than that. This article really engaged me, and the excellent writing really swings a potentially vapid topic. Do I believe in angels and demons? Yes. Reptilian "superbeings" from other worlds? No. But I do believe that this obsession with "ETs" and IECs is part of a deeper, darker distraction tactic. Me? I will attend daily mass, order my days around the "Ora et Labora" principle, and delight in the beauty of the earth and heavens, planets and stars, for what they are; God's wondrous work.
I throughly enjoyed this read and thank you for making it available for free. I am a bit older than you, but still loved all the sci-fi movies you mentioned. The movie E.T. had my husband (then my fiancé) bawling his eyes out in the parking lot afterward, and all the way back to my apartment. He kept saying “I never cry.” I just smiled and let him rip. Now, after reading your reaction and the context of your family, I realize that when he was about Elliot’s age, he also went through family upheaval which I did not. Spielberg sure tapped into something raw, didn’t he?
I throughly enjoyed this read and thank you for making it available for free. I am a bit older than you, and a believer in Christ since 1973, but still loved all the sci-fi movies you mentioned along with some others. The movie Arrival is a favorite of mine and in it the aliens have come to prevent us from destroying ourselves. I’m still trying to figure out the non-sequential nature of time in that story. Both their benevolence and their relationship with time fit well with my confidence in my Creator’s love for us silly humans and His existence outside of linear time and three dimensions.
The movie E.T. had my husband (then my fiancé) bawling his eyes out in the parking lot afterward, and all the way back to my apartment. He kept saying “I never cry.” I just smiled and let him rip. Now, after reading your reaction and the context of your family, I realize that when he was about Elliot’s age, he also went through deep family upheaval which I did not. Spielberg sure tapped into something raw, didn’t he?
Thanks Sarah, for another wonderful and inspiring read. I miss seeing you at Reasonable Faith (fka Reasons to Believe) meetings. Your talks have always been some of the very best.
Thanks for articulating what many of us have been thinking, but just couldn't express it as genuine and intimate as you have done. Again, thank you. I enjoy your writing.
Sarah, I trust you for the science, I can't speak to that.
I get the longing to know more and be connected intimately to the Creator. Jesus is real and alive.
I wonder about the tech of the last chapters of Revelation, big ideas not only will our physical universe be somehow reordered but tears and death will be gone. God will live with us in those says and "place".
That is tech with a heart. I can't wait. Until then please lead into all the wonderful stuff you have figured out about this universe and how we fit.
Aliens are part of popular Western mythology because they have featured in popular fiction for 50+ years. They are fantasy creatures, no more real than elves, faries, or goblins due to the present absence of material evidence for any of them.
Is "the government" keeping the existence of pscychic human abilities a secret? Is "the government" keeping their ability to control the weather a secret? These "government conspiracy" theories require solid evidence like there was against the Wuhan virology lab, not just the usual, "You can't prove it's not true."
Sure, there's no proof aliens don't exist. So what? The probability of abiogenesis occurring on any planet is 0. If aliens exist, God made them, too. If not, it's no big deal.
Wishful thinking makes some people desperately crave aliens because aliens would make the material universe more exciting in all the ways their favorite childhood fantasies promised.
Thank you for this article. You also answered one of my question with regards to aliens life existing somewhere else in the universe by CS Lewis' comments about this.
A vacuum that Christians have created by pulling away from the culture. The strange thing is that their self-determined distance from the culture made them more like the culture than they ever dreamed possible.
I agree Christians have largely pulled away from the culture. That was a big mistake. Not sure how that made them more like the culture, though. Would you elaborate?
Ok, since you brought it up, my one complaint about CONTACT (which I think is the most intelligent extraterrestrial movie out there) is that, in the end, Ellie goes back to her big satellite dishes and headphones to continue her search for extraterrestrial life. After all she just experienced? Really??? I'd be back in that floating chair in that fantastic wormhole machine in a heartbeat. "Good to go—again!"
Other thoughts:
Since I believe that the "universe" was created so we can exist, we ARE "alone" with our creator and His heavenly Son and creatures--a good thing. And that the "universe" in its entirety is all that's required to make us possible. (So where do you think HEAVEN is located?)
In the end of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, as Neary (Dreyfuss) is about to board that monstrous spaceship, Lacombe (Truffaut) states: "I envy you." Really? Surrounded by those demon aliens for God knows how long, away from Earth for God knows how long? What a Hellish existence.
Not only do I think MARS is a deathtrap for any human exploration (send the machines), I have my doubts about the Moon colonization as well. Sure, what a fantastic exploration opportunity. But other than that, what benefits?
As for this: "People are just as exasperating in space as they are on Earth." Spot on.
Hope all is well.
I had the same complaint about Contact: why didn't they hop back in the transport??
And the same feeling about Close Encounters: no waaaaay am I getting in that spaceship with those guys.
I too have Asperger's, and I too have always felt "outside" somehow. Attempts to live "inside" never went well, so now I live less sociably, because I am retired, live in the country, and no longer have to work in an office! I've always prayed, even when hopelessly lost in the wilderness of society, of life. And He has always come to find me. I am very sceptical of the existence of any life form created by God that is not of this earth, and the glib: "We cannot be the only intelligent life form in the universe" schtick has always irritated me, because it goes no deeper than that. This article really engaged me, and the excellent writing really swings a potentially vapid topic. Do I believe in angels and demons? Yes. Reptilian "superbeings" from other worlds? No. But I do believe that this obsession with "ETs" and IECs is part of a deeper, darker distraction tactic. Me? I will attend daily mass, order my days around the "Ora et Labora" principle, and delight in the beauty of the earth and heavens, planets and stars, for what they are; God's wondrous work.
I throughly enjoyed this read and thank you for making it available for free. I am a bit older than you, but still loved all the sci-fi movies you mentioned. The movie E.T. had my husband (then my fiancé) bawling his eyes out in the parking lot afterward, and all the way back to my apartment. He kept saying “I never cry.” I just smiled and let him rip. Now, after reading your reaction and the context of your family, I realize that when he was about Elliot’s age, he also went through family upheaval which I did not. Spielberg sure tapped into something raw, didn’t he?
I throughly enjoyed this read and thank you for making it available for free. I am a bit older than you, and a believer in Christ since 1973, but still loved all the sci-fi movies you mentioned along with some others. The movie Arrival is a favorite of mine and in it the aliens have come to prevent us from destroying ourselves. I’m still trying to figure out the non-sequential nature of time in that story. Both their benevolence and their relationship with time fit well with my confidence in my Creator’s love for us silly humans and His existence outside of linear time and three dimensions.
The movie E.T. had my husband (then my fiancé) bawling his eyes out in the parking lot afterward, and all the way back to my apartment. He kept saying “I never cry.” I just smiled and let him rip. Now, after reading your reaction and the context of your family, I realize that when he was about Elliot’s age, he also went through deep family upheaval which I did not. Spielberg sure tapped into something raw, didn’t he?
He did. That movie spoke to the first generation to suffer from widespread divorce.
Thanks Sarah, for another wonderful and inspiring read. I miss seeing you at Reasonable Faith (fka Reasons to Believe) meetings. Your talks have always been some of the very best.
Thanks, Chris. I'm hoping my schedule will allow me to return to RF meetings soon.
Thanks for articulating what many of us have been thinking, but just couldn't express it as genuine and intimate as you have done. Again, thank you. I enjoy your writing.
Thanks, Don.
Sarah, I trust you for the science, I can't speak to that.
I get the longing to know more and be connected intimately to the Creator. Jesus is real and alive.
I wonder about the tech of the last chapters of Revelation, big ideas not only will our physical universe be somehow reordered but tears and death will be gone. God will live with us in those says and "place".
That is tech with a heart. I can't wait. Until then please lead into all the wonderful stuff you have figured out about this universe and how we fit.
I'll do my best.
Aliens are part of popular Western mythology because they have featured in popular fiction for 50+ years. They are fantasy creatures, no more real than elves, faries, or goblins due to the present absence of material evidence for any of them.
Is "the government" keeping the existence of pscychic human abilities a secret? Is "the government" keeping their ability to control the weather a secret? These "government conspiracy" theories require solid evidence like there was against the Wuhan virology lab, not just the usual, "You can't prove it's not true."
Sure, there's no proof aliens don't exist. So what? The probability of abiogenesis occurring on any planet is 0. If aliens exist, God made them, too. If not, it's no big deal.
Wishful thinking makes some people desperately crave aliens because aliens would make the material universe more exciting in all the ways their favorite childhood fantasies promised.
Thank you for this article. You also answered one of my question with regards to aliens life existing somewhere else in the universe by CS Lewis' comments about this.
A vacuum that Christians have created by pulling away from the culture. The strange thing is that their self-determined distance from the culture made them more like the culture than they ever dreamed possible.
I agree Christians have largely pulled away from the culture. That was a big mistake. Not sure how that made them more like the culture, though. Would you elaborate?
No Christians didn't pull away from the culture. They were pushed away.
I think we could've pushed back in.