{"id":20274,"date":"2015-09-29T15:05:40","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T20:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?page_id=20274"},"modified":"2015-09-29T15:05:40","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T20:05:40","slug":"aliens-elephants-and-angels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels","title":{"rendered":"Aliens, Elephants and Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p style=\"color: #000000;\">Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other intelligent beings is based on their understanding of themselves. (\u201cAliens must be like us, but a little bit different\u201d) Their perception of alien technologies is based on ours. (\u201cThey must have developed rockets too!\u201d) In other words, the Fermi Paradox is completely geocentric and anthropocentric in its assumptions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">My problem is not that their view is geocentric, but that it is not geocentric enough. Until proven wrong, I\u2019m quite happy to believe in a geocentric universe. Oh yes, I know that our solar system is not geocentric, but do we know that the cosmos is not geocentric? What if \u00a0the entire cosmos circled around this one solar system of ours\u2013if not physically, but at least metaphysically? Do we think this is impossible simply because our planet and our solar system seems small?<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">Seemingly insignificant single events change history. A minor aristocrat is murdered in an out of the way European city and two cataclysmic world wars take place. An angry friar nails theological arguments to a church door and an entire bloody revolution tumbles onward out of control. A boy decides to get drunk and a girl gets pregnant and a tyrant who rules the world is born.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">Those who ponder the Fermi Paradox wonder at the vastness of all things and believe it is important. I ponder at the smallness of all things and know they are important. Individuals change history. Small decisions matter. The Divine is in the detail. I am more interested therefore in what is small rather than what is great in size. Consequently, I am excited by the idea that the earth is, in fact, the center of the universe and that the vast realms of the cosmos surround her and regard her with tender protection and the awe struck wonder with which we might behold a newborn baby.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">It could be that this earth is the staging ground for all that matters in the cosmos. It may well be that this planet is the battleground where the cosmic battle between good and evil reaches it\u2019s climax. Crucial battles must take place somewhere. What if the war in heaven is completed here on this field of war? And what if you and I are soldiers in that cosmic and eternally important battle?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other intelligent beings is based on their understanding of themselves. (\u201cAliens must be like us, but a little bit different\u201d) Their perception of alien technologies is based on ours. (\u201cThey must have developed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20274","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aliens, Elephants and Angels - Fr. Dwight Longenecker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other\" \/>\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\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aliens, Elephants and Angels - Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels\",\"name\":\"Aliens, Elephants and Angels - Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-09-29T20:05:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-09-29T20:05:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Aliens, Elephants and Angels\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Aliens, Elephants and Angels - Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Aliens, Elephants and Angels - Fr. Dwight Longenecker","og_description":"Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels","name":"Aliens, Elephants and Angels - Fr. Dwight Longenecker","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-09-29T20:05:40+00:00","dateModified":"2015-09-29T20:05:40+00:00","description":"Their perception of the universe is conditioned by their geocentric understanding of the fixed nature of space and time. Their perception of other","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/aliens-elephants-and-angels#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Aliens, Elephants and Angels"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}