Looks like Mormons would do well in space. A series of articles being done on various religions and how they would fare in space and handling Martians and other aliens that invade our solar system (would they be illegal aliens?).
With our views of Kolob, materialism/spiritualism, and God creating new life and planets continually, it makes for a comfortable view of the universe for most Mormons. Yes, Joseph Fielding Smith did not believe we should have anything to do with space, but I believe most of us today think it is generally a good thing.
Well, Orson Scott Card would agree. Battlestar Galactica has a lot of Mormon themes.
Well, the original Battlestar Galactica had a lot of Mormon themes, but only because the creator/writer is LDS (Glen Larsen). The new version not so much.
For OSC, space is a very violent and mean place, where they use kids to wipe out entire civilizations.
I prefer to think of the Cosmos as a quiet, pensive, lovely place with lots of space to stretch out. It is where the aura of long dead hippy freaks, flower children and Gary Wright ascend to astral planes.
I would agree with quiet. Lots of space to stretch out is relative (literally and figurative). It can be aesthetically lovely, but not more than that. I completely disagree that it is pensive because it is more hostile to life than our oceans. Realistically long distant travel will kill us, although interesting to imagine. In fact, we are always about a half million years away from destruction standing here on Earth with 100 million years pretty much a sure thing for extinction. One good gamaray aimed in our direction from an exploding dwarf star will do something never done before; wipe out every living thing and make Earth uninhabitable.
I like the Dr. McCoy quote from the Star Trek reboot, “One tiny crack in our hull and our blood will boil in 13 seconds, a solar flair might crop up and cook us in our seats . . . space is disease and danger wrapped up in darkness and silence.”
Thanks for the Lovecraftian thoughts there, Jettboy. 😉
It’s too bad you’re right from a purely materialistic point of view.
We can certainly see who is the pessimistic one here…. 🙂
Risks in space? Of course. But there are more dangers in slipping in your bathtub and being injured than there is of being fried by a solar flare.
Seriously, there is a great chance of the super-volcano at Yellowstone to go off and wipe out life than there is of destruction from space. It explodes every 600K years, and it’s been 640K years since its last explosion….
So perhaps we need to look to space for safety, rather than danger????
And besides, if we’re going Star Trekian, why not evolve into higher beings that can traverse the cosmos without danger?
Right now, there are certain limits that come from physics as we understand it. But I am going to say, in spite of my physics background, I think super-luminal (faster than light) travel is possible. If God answers our prayers, and sees all, he certainly does, so there must be a way to do it.
Still, I wonder, if I met Spock, could I baptize him? What about a less humanoid species, like the Horta (rock creatures from Trek) ?
We use baptism, because it symbolizes the way we bury here on earth. If on other planets they do not bury their dead, but say: shoot them off into space to drift forever, or turn their bodies into a jello salad, would we be able to adapt the ordinances accordingly?
Baptism has more to do with rebirth and resurrection than burial per se.
Folks, you are massively, massively overestimating the dangerousness of space. Star Trek (and Hollywood in general) is simply not a good source of information. As an engineer I testify that a leak in a spaceship is MUCH less dangerous than a leak in a submarine and that a solar flare is NOT inherently more dangerous than a snow storm. We will have to bring our own environment with us into space, but that is just as true about the sea.
If you are interested this site has lots of fun information:
Try here for more information:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/index.php
I bet theology has very little to do with what religions would do well in space. It would have more to do with what religions fit the sociological needs of space expansion. Mormons’ communal, pioneer spirit is probably at least an order of magnitude more important than any of the stuff you cite in your post. At least.
Sounds like Eric James Stone (lds sci-fi/fantasy author) got it right with his 2011 Nebula and Hugo nominated story about Mormons and aliens entitled “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made.”
http://www.ericjamesstone.com/blog/bibliography/ Read it for free online, or download it if the subject intrigues you.
JKS, I love you. I tried so hard to get my hands on the magazine it was published in but they evidently forward-date their publications by so many months that though I thought I was right on time, I was two months too late. 😛
The Leviathan story was excellent.
In case it was unclear, you can read it at Stone’s website.
http://www.ericjamesstone.com/blog/stories/that-leviathan-whom-thou-hast-made/
I have a copy of the Leviathan story but haven’t read it yet despite having noticed it was about Mormons and was writtenby Eric. I suck, don’t I…
Bruce, many of us suck, so don’t feel like you are all alone.
I wasn’t even aware that there was a recent Mormon Nebula/Hugo winner. But then, I don’t pay much attention to what goes on around me. Narcissism just takes up a lot of my time….
I admit some of my observations are based on reading and watching science fiction, but most of it comes from what scientists have said. I am sure there are technologies that can one day make space travel much safer than it currently is for long distances. For the moment from what I know my view of space really is Lovecraftian in the material sense. You can read of the dangers here from Richard B. Setlow, a Senior Biophysicist at the Brookhaven National Laborator.