I write this blog for many reasons. It is not a hardship really as I love to write- it is one of the things I do at rest.
But for me, it is also a deliberate spiritual practice. By this, I mean that it is a way of searching deeper into the mess of life, looking for what I can only describe as ‘God’.
And what you look for, as the good book says, you will surely find. In the most unlikely of places.
Today, for instance, I was thinking about extra terrestrial life forms. I could be cruel and suggest that the meeting I spent several hours in left me feeling like an alien- or wondering whether I had been abducted by aliens from planet bureaucracy.
But I was reminded of The Drake Equation.
So- the argument goes something like this-
- Around 7 new stars form even in our galaxy each year. There are thought to be more than 80 billion galaxies in the universe.
- Around 40% of sun like stars have planets
- Around 10% of stars systems in our galaxy may be hospitable to life- in terms of stability, having access to right mix of building blocks for life etc.
- It is possible that two planets in our own star system may have actually developed life- Earth and Mars. Our star is one of 100 Billion stars in the Milky way.
- But intelligent life? Drake guessed that of all planets with life, one in one hundred might go on to develop intelligent life. A controversial estimate. There are billions of life forms on earth- and only one regarded as ‘intelligent’.
- But if they develop elsewhere, it does seem to be reasonable that they might seek to communicate.
- Assuming, of course that they do not destroy themselves before they get round to it.
And there is the rub.
Unless you believe the conspiracy theorists and the UFO nuts, then we have to deal with the fact that no one has yet found any evidence of intelligent life beyond this planet. Even accepting the fact that the universe is very big, according to Drake’s equations we really would have expected to do so.
He thought that there would be around 10,000 communicating intelligent life forms just in our own Galaxy.
Drake could have got his numbers all wrong- after all, there are a LOT of wild speculative assumptions. Perhaps this planet is unique in all creation, as some Christians are quick to believe. This means that we humans are indeed the very centre of everything- the epicentre of all creation- that the whole universe is a giant cup cake, and we are the cherry.
The flat earth folk thought this too- before they failed to fall off the edge and discovered humans on the other side of our own planet much like themselves. We did not treat each other well- but that is a different story.
Another possibility was suggested by Enrico Fermi– who believed that technological civilisations tend to disappear very quickly. We either destroy ourselves, or we destroy others. Or perhaps there is always going to be a comet coming our way if we wait long enough.
And when you think about it, the durability of our civilisation in the vast timeline of the universe is rather untested.
What has this to do with spirituality?
Well- these thoughts occur to me-
- Whether or not we are alone, we are beautiful
- Whether or not we are alone, we are deadly and destructive- particularly towards those who are ‘other’
- We are ephemeral, and caught up in tiny matters of total insignificance
- And yet we are special- called to live in the image of the maker of all this majesty and mystery
- And the ripples we make on our universe will be dependent on the quality of our loving, not our invention and enterprise. Because without the former, the latter will end badly
What can I say- it was a very long meeting.
this fragile tent 
