The Multiplicity of Planets

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

Silverthorne:
> > Hell, we're only NOW coming to grips with the idea that life can and 
> > DOES exist on some other planet than ours--and doesn't that just
> > blow the centuries old, 'mainstream' ideas of our place in the 
> > universe VIA the various holy texts (you know, where this is the 
> > 'only' world, created by God...and we are the only intelligent
> > beings, made in his image, the chosen ones etc)...?

Dicentra: 
> I don't remember reading that particular doctrine in the Bible.  (Is
> it in the Koran?)  The concept of the uniqueness of Earth is something
> that got added at some point during Christianity's long history.  Or
> maybe it was present in Judaism prior to the Christian era.  Sheez, I
> don't know...  (If I were in the mood, I might try to track down the
> era in which it was introduced.)

Eloise:
I guess it's kind of implied in the creation narrative(s). God made the earth 
and the sun, moon and stars are just there to service it with light, warmth 
and some pretty, twinkly decoration. It was certainly there, at least in the 
sense of exalting the earth's part in creation, in the church's refusal to 
accept the idea of a heliocentric solar system.

Dicentra:  
> My own religious tradition (the same as Sci-Fi writer Orson Scott
> Card) holds that God has numerous planets, all in different stages of
> development and all of them ultimately populated by his offspring, and
> that creating and populating planets is What God Does All Day.

Eloise:
I doubt there's a standard Anglican viewpoint on this. ;-)

Dicentra: 
> Which means, at least to me, that the idea of life on other planets
> doesn't challenge the Bible at all -- just a particular doctrine that
> was inferred from it.

Eloise:
No, it doesn't to me. The idea that we could be totally alone in this vast 
universe, that we could be the only beings that a caring creator, if such there 
be, is concerned with just seems inconceivable. 

Dicentra:  
> I don't know for sure, but this doctrine might derive from a peculiar
> notion we humans hold: rarity = value.  Sand is common, so it's almost
> devoid of monetary value, but pink diamonds are rare, so we pay big
> bank for them.  It's a purely market-driven value system.  

Eloise:
It could well do. Or simply from that inner need that most humans have to 
feel special, I guess.

Dicentra: 
> I would contend, on the other hand, that from the universe's point of
> view (assuming it has one :D), valuable or needed things exist in
> abundance, and less-valuable things are rare, because they aren't
> needed as much.  > 
> It always boggles my mind when people say that they contemplate the
> universe on a starry night and feel insignificant.  Why insignificant?

Eloise:
Aah.
Well, it's kind of being put into a minor version of the Total Perspective 
Vortex, isn't it?

I get it. It's not that it's feeling insignificant in the sense of "I'm so 
worthless, what's the point?" as insignificant in the

3   When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the 
stars, which thou hast ordained;
4   What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou 
visitest him?
5   For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned 
him with glory and honour.
6   Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast 
put all things under his feet:
7   All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;


I think it's insignificant in the 'I'm so small compared to all this 
vastness' way.
It's kind of humbling, realising that I'm a tiny sentient speck on a speck of 
dust in a unverse of infinite size.

Dicentra: 
>    I usually get totally psyched on occasions like that, because I
> sense that I'm a part of a really cool system of existence, most of
> which I don't comprehend but am eager to learn about.

Eloise:
I'm just amazed that I exist at all. ;-) and even more so that I'm actually 
*aware* of existing.

Dicentra:   
> And then there's the vertigo that comes from sitting in a campground
> in Canyonlands Natl. Park and noticing that without the light and air
> pollution of the city, the stars are just as clear at the horizon as
> at the top of the sky, which reminds you that the earth is an orb
> that's just hanging there in the sky -- naked and unashamed -- with no
> fishing line holding it in place.

Eloise:
Aah. You're lucky. I don't think there are many places in the UK where you 
can actually *see* the stars in all their glory these days. I've been very 
struck by it in recent weeks. We've had some nights that have been exceptionally 
clear; that's been evident by the steadiness and clarity of the stars that were 
visible, but only a fraction of them *were* visible with our light skies. I 
find it incredibly frustrating and a matter of great sadness that my own 
children cannot see the heavens as I did when I was their age. I don't remember the 
last time I actually saw the Milky Way and I don't even live in a proper town.

> --Dicentra, who screams "terraform! terraform!" each time news of
> water comes from Mars

Why? Are you thinkng of emigrating?

~Eloise


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