{"id":127,"date":"2012-04-05T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues\/"},"modified":"2012-04-05T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T08:04:00","slug":"asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html","title":{"rendered":"Asteroids, Extinction, and Other Religious Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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artwork by Don Davis, NASA<\/a><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

crossposted with No Unsacred Place<\/a> <\/i><\/p>\n

According to a story on Space.com<\/a>, a \u201cbus-size asteroid\u201d came within 96,000 miles of Earth early on Sunday morning. It posed no threat \u2013 even if it had collided with Earth it would have burned up in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s usually the case with asteroids that come near Earth \u2013 but not always. Some asteroids are big enough to alter the course of life. Scientific celebrity Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a> (and that\u2019s not an insult \u2013 I\u2019m happy science has a celebrity ordinary people will recognize) posted this essay on Wired.com titled \u201cWe Can Survive Killer Asteroids \u2014 But It Won\u2019t Be Easy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t attempt to summarize it. It\u2019s not long, and as with most of Dr. Tyson\u2019s writing, you don\u2019t have to be an astrophysicist to read it. Instead, I want to explore some of the religious implications of a major asteroid strike.<\/p>\n

Once in about a hundred million years Earth is visited by an impactor capable of annihilating all life-forms bigger than a carry-on suitcase \u2013 Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our oldest and strongest evolutionary instinct is for survival \u2013 for ourselves, for our relatives, and for our species. If we have adequate warning (and according to Dr. Tyson, we probably will) we can destroy, deflect or redirect a killer asteroid. We have technology the dinosaurs did not \u2013 presumably we will use it.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, another very old and very strong evolutionary instinct tells us to live for today because the future is uncertain. Eat all you can, because you never know when food will be available again\u2026 even if you live in a society where food is overly abundant. Reproduce as many times as you can as soon as you can, because your offspring may die and you may not around to reproduce later\u2026 even if you live in a society with low infant mortality or a society that can\u2019t support more children.<\/p>\n

Even if we have clear evidence of the approach of an extinction-causing impactor, many will choose to ignore it. Some will actively deny it, claiming any probability less than 100% means \u201cthey don\u2019t know\u201d and that attempts to prevent an impact are a \u201cwaste of money\u201d or an \u201cassault on freedom.\u201d Others will find extinction doesn\u2019t agree with their religious doctrines and will confidently proclaim \u201cGod would never permit it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Should that time come, it will be our job to out-debate, out-organize, and out-vote those who can\u2019t overcome their evolutionary instincts to live only for their immediate desires.<\/p>\n

There are those who think the extinction of humans would be a good thing. We\u2019ve trashed the planet and continue to abuse our fellow creatures \u2013 the world would be a better place if we disappeared and made room for a new species to evolve. But any new species would be produced by the same evolutionary processes that produced us. A new species would share our instincts for survival, for living for today with no thought of tomorrow, and of favoring ourselves and those like us over those who are different. The elimination of humans would not be \u201ca fresh start\u201d so much as \u201crestarting the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best chance this planet has of evolving highly intelligent, self-aware and compassionate creatures is for us to grow up.<\/p>\n

But even if we avoid or divert all killer asteroids, one day the Earth will die. At some point (I\u2019ve seen estimates from 1 billion to 7 billion years in the future) our Sun will run out of fuel and expand into a red giant. It will engulf Mercury and Venus and even if it doesn\u2019t swallow Earth, it will raise temperatures to a point that no life can remain.<\/p>\n

Hopefully by then we will have developed the technology \u2013 and the willpower \u2013 for interplanetary travel. While the speed of light looks to be an inviolable limit, it should be possible to construct self-contained biospheres that will allow travel over many years, or if necessary, over many generations.<\/p>\n

But this is not just a question of technology \u2013 there are also religious questions. When our planet dies, what will happen to the Otherworld, the realm of the gods and ancestors? Does it exist on its own, or is it inseparably intertwined with this world and one cannot exist without the other? Will rebirth cease to be a possibility, leaving union with The All our only option \u2013 whether we are ready for it or not?<\/p>\n

Will our gods and goddesses, our ancestors and the spirits of this world travel with us to new worlds? Do they already transcend this planet? Will the label \u201cEarth-centered\u201d be replaced by \u201cGalaxy-centered\u201d or \u201cUniverse-centered\u201d?<\/p>\n

What land spirits will we find on other planets? If we find a planet with human-like life, will those people recognize deities similar to ours?<\/p>\n

The thought of the death of our planet, the extinction of our species and of traveling to other worlds raises many religious questions. The only answer to most of these questions is \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

But I do have faith.<\/p>\n

As a Pagan, I have faith that Nature is even bigger and stronger and wiser than what we see and experience on this planet. As a Universalist, I have faith that whatever becomes of our world will work out OK for all, eventually if not immediately. And as a Druid, whatever form Nature takes, I will study it, I will honor it, and I will tell its stories and sing its songs.<\/p>\n

Blessed be Nature. Blessed be Life. Blessed be the Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the galaxy NGC598, more commonly known as M33 \u2013 NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

artwork by Don Davis, NASA crossposted with No Unsacred Place According to a story on Space.com, a \u201cbus-size asteroid\u201d came within 96,000 miles of Earth early on Sunday morning. It posed no threat \u2013 even if it had collided with Earth it would have burned up in the atmosphere. That\u2019s usually the case with asteroids […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAsteroids, Extinction, and Other Religious Issues<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"artwork by Don Davis, NASAcrossposted with No Unsacred Place According to a story on Space.com, a \u201cbus-size asteroid\u201d came within 96,000 miles of Earth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asteroids, Extinction, and Other Religious Issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"artwork by Don Davis, NASAcrossposted with No Unsacred Place According to a story on Space.com, a \u201cbus-size asteroid\u201d came within 96,000 miles of Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-05T08:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-TQnmSNpchOY\/T3uL0qLg5XI\/AAAAAAAAA9c\/ytLdOcjferc\/s320\/Coast_Impact.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html\",\"name\":\"Asteroids, Extinction, and Other Religious Issues\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-05T08:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-05T08:04:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"artwork by Don Davis, NASAcrossposted with No Unsacred Place According to a story on Space.com, a \u201cbus-size asteroid\u201d came within 96,000 miles of Earth\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2012\/04\/asteroids-extinction-and-other-religious-issues.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Asteroids, Extinction, and Other Religious Issues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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