Sunspots 1003

Things I have spotted that may be of interest to you:

Gizmodo reports that sugar molecules have been detected in deep space. Note: These are not the kinds of sugar we use in cooking.

Gizmodo reports on occasions where President Trump claimed some event was actually staged using artificial intelligence, but the event really happened. 

Gizmodo also reports that ancient humans, living in Norway, caught fish and placed them in high bodies of water. Amazing! 

We get frequent (about 2 per week) calls suggesting that our Social Security benefits are not as great as they could be. I checked on-line, and these calls are scams. Hang up.

Sunspots 811

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: A Christianity Today article indicates that, although many people are cautious about altering our genes, evangelical Christians are more skeptical than the general public.

A Relevant article considers the question of whether God may have created (or allowed) intelligent beings on other worlds. (There are about 2 trillion galaxies, and it is supposed that there are many possibly habitable planets in most or all of these.

Relevant also reports that Beth Moore, an evangelical leader, has spoken out against "Trumpism." (And "Bidenism.")

(And politics) Relevant also has an article discussing Christian Nationalism.

Environment: According to a USA Today article, the total mass of all human-produced objects on earth is now greater than the total mass of living things.

(and politics) Gizmodo reports that Ryan Zinke, formerly Secretary of Interior, who facilitated removing over a million acres from Bears Ears national monument, has had an official portrait, featuring him on a horse in that monument.

(and politics) NPR reports that contractors are pushing to get as much of the border wall erected as possible, before Donald Trump leaves office. Environmental groups, and others, are against this.

(and politics) President Trump has done less to protect endangered species than any President since Johnson, according to Gizmodo.

Health: A tool to let you see how full your local hospitals are, and how many COVID patients there are.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight provides a thorough discussion of Presidential pardons.

Science: Some bees have been found to add to their colony defenses by spreading animal feces near the opening. Scientists aren't sure why this works, or if it would repel so-called murder hornets.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Some thoughts on Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, by C. S. Lewis

I have gladly re-read, for the I don't know how manyth time, Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, the first two parts of what is referred to as the Space Trilogy, by C. S. Lewis. I will not attempt to summarize these fine books -- see the links above for the Wikipedia articles on them.

I wish to point out two relatively minor points about these books.

First, Lewis was a fine nature writer, or could have been, judging from his made up Mars and Venus. We now know that Mars doesn't have canals, nor much water, and we have no evidence that there is any kind of intelligent life there. But Lewis took what some early astronomers called as "canals," and made them into great valleys, with scenery, water, vegetation, intelligent life, and animals. He described the effect of lower gravity on the shape of waves and ridges. If Mars was more accessible, and was really like that, it would be a fabulous place to visit, indeed, rivaling the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and any other natural scenic spot you care to mention. Lewis's Venus was mostly a water world, (some astronomers used to believe that) and, again, he clearly loved making up descriptions of animals, floating islands, undersea and cave-dwelling life, and vegetation, including fruit. Again, were Venus really at a temperature compatible with a giant world-wide ocean, and if we could get to it, this would be a fabulous place, for sight-seeing, eating the fruit, surfing, swimming, and spelunking. He knew how to make his made-up nature attractive.

Second, Lewis apparently believed that Venus (and, therefore, Mars and the Earth) were very old. This is a quotation from Perelandra: "Some day, no doubt, it would be peopled by the descendants of the King and Queen. But all its millions of years in the unpeopled past, all its uncounted miles of laughing water in the lonely present . . ." 

Thanks for reading! Read Lewis.

Sunspots 684

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Benjamin L. Corey compares "Trumpianity" with Christianity.

Relevant reports that Billy Graham had no problem with evolution.


Health: New Scientist reports on a study that says that people who see the same doctor over and over live longer.

Politics: Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt, who has been accused of numerous ethics violations, and seems bent on turning the agency into something that does not protect the environment, asked fuel company executives, and lobbyist, to recommend people for positions in the EPA, according to Gizmodo.

(Sort of) Gizmodo also reports on continuing "sonic attacks," or some kind of attack, on US embassies in other countries.

FiveThirtyEight discusses the small number of elected Republican women.

Science: New Scientist reports that men are more likely to be referred to by their surnames (Trump, for example) and women by their first names (Hillary, for example) and that this gives men advantages in many ways.

Scientific American reports that Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has some complex organic molecules, and may have living things.

Gizmodo reports on the intelligence of crows.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 662

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: (And politics) A Christianity Today writer takes Jerry Falwell, Jr., to task for defending President Trump's sexual indiscretions on dubious scriptural ground.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware recommends a program that checks your Windows computer for vulnerability to the Spectre and Meltdown malware, recently discovered to be dangerous, with vulnerability built in to many information appliances. (The computer I'm using now is not vulnerable, probably due to some recent updates.)

Wired doesn't think Facebook is going to do much better than it has on feeding users reliable news. [Personal note: I glance at the Facebook news feed about once every two weeks, and never click on something. After such a glance, I search for the topic, maybe once every couple of months. Facebook is not a good way to get news.]

National Public Radio discusses best "screen time" practices for parents, including a quiz. Oh, oh.

Health: (or something. A YouGov survey reveals that a lot of us don't make our beds every day.

History: Listverse describes some recent archeological discoveries related to the ancient Greek civilization.

Politics:  National Public Radio reports that several top positions in the Trump administration (such as an ambassador to South Korea) have not been filled, and that morale among federal employees is low.

NPR also reports that the Trump administration is continuing protection for some lands in Alaska. Good for them!

Science: Listverse on ideas about whether life exists elsewhere in the universe.


Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Can Klingons be saved?

I was amazed to stumble upon an interview in Scientific American, entitled "Did Jesus Save the Klingons?"

The person interviewed clearly is not a friend of Christianity. But so what? Is he right, and, could Jesus save the Klingons, or do Klingons need salvation through Christ?

I have previously posted on the question of religion among extraterrestrials (or not). My conclusions haven't changed. Here they are, re-stated:

First, we do not know, from science or the Bible, whether there are any intelligent races other than humans in the universe. The Bible is silent on the subject, unless Jesus was referring to such when he spoke about other sheep, not of this fold. (John 10:14) I'm not sure what He meant, but perhaps He was referring to the Gentiles. He might have been referring to extraterrestrials. Probably not. There are a lot of planets out there, orbiting other stars, and it is close to certain that there are a lot more that we haven't been able to detect. That doesn't prove that there is intelligent life out there. For that matter, it doesn't prove that there is life of any kind outside the Solar System. It is, however, impossible to disprove the existence of other intelligent beings.

Second, if there were intelligent aliens, would they need salvation? My guess is that they might not. Humans, according Christian doctrine, need salvation because of The Fall, a decision to disobey by our first ancestors, which resulted in sin becoming part of our very natures. Extraterrestrials might never have made such a terrible choice, or, possibly, may never had the opportunity to make such a choice. C. S. Lewis, no less, wrote about not one, but three races of intelligent, unfallen beings in his Out of the Silent Planet. It was fictional, of course. (See here.)

Would unfallen beings would need any sort of redemption? Maybe, maybe not. Fallen beings do.

Third, if there are fallen intelligent beings on other worlds, is it necessary that Christ died for their salvation? Maybe not. His death, once, on earth, might have been adequate for the redemption of the entire creation. Or, on some other planet, it might be that the equivalent of The Fall might require some other sort of atonement -- don't ask me what kind.

If the Bible is true, humans living on this planet need redemption through Christ. See here and here. We did sin, and we do need redemption, and can't provide this for ourselves. It is interesting to speculate about intelligent beings on other planets, but probably not very wise to speculate about it very much, unless and until we know that such beings exist.

It is possible that dolphins, whales, and great apes, and possibly some other animals, might be substituted for the extraterrestrials in the above discussion. But, again, we have no certainty that they can make important moral choices, and communicate about them effectively. Maybe, maybe not.

If there are Klingons, and they need salvation, God must have provided it, somehow.

Thanks for reading!

*  *  *  *  *

February 6, 2015 and July 27, 2015: Shannon McDermott has posted on this subject, at Speculative Faith. There are links to other posts about this subject, including views contrary to McDermott's, here.

Life on Mars? So what?

Congratulations to NASA on landing the Curiosity on Mars.

Suppose life is discovered on Mars? I see nothing in the Bible that would rule out that possibility, or that predicts it, and no threat to my faith, whether life is discovered on Mars (or anywhere else but Earth) or not.

Some additional musings:

It is impossible to absolutely prove that there has never been (or, for that matter is not now) life on Mars. It can always be argued that the Curiosity, and any additional exploratory apparatuses or people, have not looked everywhere, under every circumstance. There could be life deep within Mars, or only under rocks in a few places that have been overlooked, or the life might not have been Carbon-based, so the wrong procedure was used to find it. However, I think that we may decide that there is reasonable doubt that life now exists, or ever has existed, on Mars, at some point, if there is no evidence for it.

Who cares if there is life on Mars? Well, curious people ought to care, just to find out. Also, it is possible that, if Martian life forms are found, we might be able to study them, and learn something of value, such as a cure for cancer, or how to establish life on the moon. The discovery of the Americas by Europeans is not an exact parallel, of course, but that discovery certainly changed life in Europe (and the Americas!), in ways that would have been impossible to predict. Do I anticipate important benefits to humans, if life is discovered on Mars? No, but it can't be ruled out.

If there is reasonable doubt that life has ever existed on Mars, then we will probably be more inclined to go there ourselves. The argument that we have messed up the biology of earth, and, therefore, shouldn't be allowed to mess up the biology of Mars, will be weak, or non-existent. Why should we go to Mars? Because it is there, as someone said about why we should climb Mt. Everest, however strong or weak that argument is. It is possible that there may be commercial and scientific value from various phenomena, geological, meteorological, or astronomical, discovered going to Mars.

We certainly have enough to do on earth. Poverty, disease and sin are a long way from being eliminated. But perhaps, as the pictures of the earth from the moon changed our way of thinking about ourselves, probably for the good, looking at earth from another planet, with an atmosphere, might also change our way of thinking about ourselves, for the good, enough and more to offset the expense and effort of going to Mars. But don't hold your breath.

Thanks for reading. I have previously mused about the possibility of religious activity among living things on other planets.

Extraterrestrial Religion

Are there planets where there is life? Is such life self-aware, and/or able to communicate ideas to others? Are there religions on other planets? I wish to muse about these things. (I recently mused about a similar topic, namely the religion of robots.)

Some authors have supposed that there is such life on planets in our own solar system.

C. S. Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet, the first novel of his space trilogy, described Mars (Malacandra) as a planet with water, and life, in canals on the planet's surface. There were three intelligent species living there, all three worshiping the Oyarsa of Mars, approximately an archangel. They had some knowledge of Maleldil, Christ, and his redeeming sacrifice. Lewis also supposed that Venus (Perelandra) was inhabited by an intelligent race, human in appearance, who were subjected to a temptation similar to that described of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

At least one author, Zenna Henderson (see also the Wikipedia page on her) had her aliens, who were indistinguishable from humans in appearance, living on earth, among us, but with a religion that was central to their culture. This religion seemed to be compatible with Christianity.

Harold Myra supposed that the Fall had made our part of the universe into antimatter. He had several unfallen worlds in his galaxy.

Dolphins, chimpanzees, and perhaps other terrestrial species may be self-aware, and have some power of communication, enough to develop a religion, perhaps. So far as I know, there is no evidence that they have such. There are a number of works that suppose dolphins or whales to have such capacity. I am not aware that any of them propose that these creatures have any religion.

Other authors have also considered these themes.

Does the Bible say anything that would preclude intelligent life elsewhere? I don't know of any such thing. Conversely, it doesn't say anything that proves that there is such life.

If there is intelligent life elsewhere, is it necessary that it have a religion? I suppose not, but would be surprised if there were no such, if other species with intelligence exist.

Did the Fall affect other planets? Did Christ die for other planets? Probably, as I read the scripture, although I don't think the Bible is absolutely conclusive on these matters. Romans 8:18-25 may mean that when it says that the "whole creation" has suffered until the time of Paul's writing.

Thanks for reading these musings.

*  *  *  *  *

Note added June 23, 2011: A recent post by a Christian author of fantastic literature claims that there can be no non-human intelligent life in the universe. Some other Christian authors disagree, in the comments.

*  *  *  *  *

Added November 11, 2012: Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis, claims that, if there is intelligent life on other planets, "any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but they can’t have salvation." Ham is responding to statements by a Vatican astronomer, to the contrary. That is, the astronomer claimed that intelligent extraterrestrials could be redeemed.

*  *  *  *  * 

Added July 27, 2015: A planet with physical characteristics similar to ours has recently been discovered. In response, apparently an atheist wrote that this discovery made belief in God (or in Judaism or Islam) impossible. Benjamin L. Corey begs to differ.