At the time of the first Christmas, the magi looked to the heavens for signs about their life on Earth. And they were not disappointed; the journey they undertook because of what they saw in those heavens enabled them to participate in one of the most significant events in human history. To us, their intracontinental, purely terrestrial trip might seem trivial, but they likely felt they were traversing a sizable portion of the world. So I wonder if those magi could have conceived of the heavens themselves as a destination rather than a navigational aid, and what it would take to reach them.
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Science Corner: A Bumper Crop of Science
Some weeks it can be tricky to find a way into the science news that might be of interest to those outside the specific community of investigation. But not this week. Climate change, major space missions, and human bioengineering command our attention, and all three were in the headlines in the past four days. So let’s take a quick survey of all three.
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Science Corner: A Rocket Race Everyone Wins
Although India’s first Mars mission was a couple of years ago, the enthusiasm for Hidden Figures likely inspired a recent profile of some of the women on the team behind the mission. Getting to Mars wasn’t the end of the story, either. Last month, the Indian space agency shattered the record for most satellites launched from a single rocket, setting a new standard for cost efficiency. When other space programs are facing budget cuts and cancellation of satellite launches, proven methods for doing more with less may be in demand.
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Science in Review: It Ain’t Rocket Science
Who doesn’t love space? We found out this week that a possibly habitable planet is just next door orbiting the star closest to us, and the Internet erupted with travel plans. People who might otherwise be complaining about an extra 10 minutes added to their commute were suddenly contemplating a journey that would take longer than all of recorded human history. Last year, more than four thousand folks paid actual money just for the chance to be considered for a mission to Mars that almost certainly won’t happen, probably wouldn’t succeed if it were attempted, and can’t possibly take more than a handful of people. The allure of space is strong, even though every single one of us is already an astronaut on a spacecraft traveling 250,000 miles per hour en route to the Andromeda Galaxy. I guess some of us are just really desperate to get away from (a Trump-led America | the European Union | a Clinton-led America | geopolitically topical punchline).
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Who’s Afraid of Angels and Aliens, Alienation and Etcetera?
Socially speaking, as opposed to orations in solipsism, it can be quite alienating to bring up the promises and perils of alien life, especially in the middle of a serious conversation.  By aliens, I do not mean our fellow human beings who rarely ever garner the support of rabid nationalists anywhere. Imagine the late Jean Marie Le-Pen breaking a baguette with a North African immigrant, not for the sake of a photoâ€shoot but out of a genuine sense of ubi caritas et amor. It is nearly impossible to persuade an increasingly hostile sub-culture to replace a pejorative term such as ‘breeding’ with a personably proper, more germane, and humane term such as ‘child-birth.’ Instead, I am referring to extra-terrestrial beings whose putative existence is debated in hushed corners for fear of social ostracism and a commensurate fear of mischief mongering.
Crop circles, after all, were not created by alien spacecrafts but by nocturnal practical jokesters or bona fide experimenters in social psychology privileged with a large pot of research money to advance imaginary agendas of perceived good.  The loss of face that comes with having a cherished theory falsified by a frowning fact can be disheartening to those who cultivate their religiosity around visitations by Extra-Terrestrials. Proponents of ancient astronaut theory suggest that prophetic visions, be it Ezekiel’s or those of John of Patmos, revolve around alien spacecraft. For aesthetic reasons, the angels in heaven themselves might prefer to be conceived as celestial beings blessed with warp drives and complex forms of space ships rather than be depicted as chimerical creatures who look half-bird and half-human. Humor aside, the point for those of us who believe in angels as the side kicks in God’s redemptive story is not to turn them into the focus of our faith. Thus, we can agree with the author of Hebrews that Christology is far important than angelology or to render that epistle with a modern ring, Christology is even more important than the quest for intelligent alien life.  It is precarious to our faith if we think too much of angels and aliens, but it is treacherous to our imagination if we think too little of them. After allaying the fears of the alarmed, these topics can nonetheless be useful in enlarging our understanding of God’s sovereignty if approached with percipience and a gently tethered imagination. [Read more…] about Who’s Afraid of Angels and Aliens, Alienation and Etcetera?