C. S. Lewis on space travel

C. S. Lewis was arguably the most important Christian apologist of the previous century.

I found his writing in an unusual way. I was browsing in the children's section of the University of Wisconsin library while studying for my doctorate in genetics and zoology, and found the Narnia books.

Lewis wasn't God, of course--some of his writing, like mine, is probably pretty far off the mark. He wrote a lot, about a lot of subjects. Here's something he wrote about space travel:

I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can't bear to think of it. But if we on earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. C. S. Lewis (interviewed by Sherwood Wirt) "Cross-Examination," pp. 258-267, in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970. Walter Hooper, ed. Quote is from page 267.

Lewis, himself, wrote about going to two other inhabited planets, in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, and fictionally illustrated transporting our sin and acquisitiveness to Mars and Venus.

Thanks to Bloglines, I have discovered "Off the Top." The blogger who writes it has been writing about the significance of some of Lewis' work off and on for the past few days. (Perhaps longer--I haven't been reading the blog for more than 10 days.)