Aliens And Evangilization

[Sojourner]

Pedro,

Not to butt in, because I know you directed that comment at Don, but that was a fascinating thought. It makes me think of that bit at the beginning of St. Augustine's Confessions , "our heart is restless until it rests in you."

But what about the blessing at the beginning of Genesis, to "be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it." (among other things) Fulfilling this blessing, even without the Fall, would necessitate their at some point leaving the Garden and exploring the rest of the Earth, and wouldn't it have been the blessing that drove them to explore? And that blessing wasn't negated by the fall, i.e., we still have some of it; although you could say the curse on Cain was a modification of it.

A thought ...

Sojourner

[Don John of Austria]

Sojourner-- this blessing was simply an act of making man fruitful( fertial) not a command He had uttered the same words to lower animals and the coundn't have understood a command. No if there had been no fall then all people who ever lived would have lived in perfect harmony with God in the garden.

Pedro I think one must seperate Our desire to wander homelessly and our desire to explore, however, I think our desire to conlonize space is partly because of our desire to wander, and a profound since of homelessness.

[Don John of Austria]

bump

[Don John of Austria]

bump

[PedroX]

esteemed Don,

Can we separate our desire for exploration from our desire to wander homelessly. Isn't our desire to explore little more than a home that over the next horizon we will find home? The old King James Version (bread and butter as I grew up) described us as "aliens and strangers here". We are constantly striving to find our way to Eden, or for a few of the saintly among us to heaven. The restless in man is a by product of the curse. Thrown out of our home, and no longer able to take evening walks and converse directly with God. The closest we come is the Eucharist and for brief moments we transcend this vale of tears and touch home. Then, we move on.

peace...

[God Conquers]

Interesting thread!

Pedro and John- I would say that the wanderlust we posess also gives us the desire for evangelism, so it may not be a wholly bad thing.

Why couldn't we do whatever we wanted to on uninhabited worlds? We certainly do whatever we ant on our world, and its necessary for our survival where others are not.

I think the main thing to consider would definately be whether or not an alien life form were part and parcel of mankind. We could certainly consider an intelligent being a person. However, this would not necessarily make them in need or merit them salvation, for demons and angels are "persons" and they do not need salvation.

This is great, I don't get to think about this stuff very often.

[Don John of Austria]

Godcounquers I agree that evangelism is related to our wanderlust but if there was no fall there would be no need to evangelize so it is definantly connected to the Curse that was our punishment.

[God Conquers]

this is true.