“Space. The final frontier.

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.

Its 5 year mission:

To explore strange new worlds.

To seek out new life and new civilizations.

To boldly go where no man has gone before”.

— Star Trek opening

One of my favorite things to dream about was man finally conquering space. Recently I watched Carl Sagan’s series Cosmos: A personal voyage. One of the things I didn’t know was that we already have designs for spaceships that can travel to other solar systems. They’re pretty expensive to build, but they have already been designed.

I believe there will come the day when mankind will populate the galaxy. I’ve always wondered why the Bible didn’t talk about people traveling to other worlds. You know, establishing stations around the earth, and visiting other star systems.

So, the question is… why doesn’t the Bible give us hope for exploring space? I mean – if God created all those star systems, galaxies, and planets… why would He, in his infinite wisdom, create them for mere decoration, crushing our hopes of getting there finally one day, and exploring the whole universe?

Here’s a small science fiction utopia I wrote, roughly inspired by (and unworthy of) the works of Isaac Asimov and Dan Simmons:

In the future, mankind has mastered genetic manipulation. All diseases are gone, and our immune system has all the advantages taken from known species. Man can live and stay young for up to 150 years. Instead of terraforming planets and extinguishing their existing lifeforms, man chose to change themselves and inhabitate all planets. These “ousters” have adapted their eyes to withstand the ultraviolet radiation from the sun; There are those adapted to microgravity, and there are those who have created insect-like wings to fly in low-gravity planets. The metabolism of these space-people makes them able to easily breathe ozone and toxic gases. Those who live in greater gravity planets, are much shorter and muscular than even the strongest human you could imagine. Also, they have evolved a form of stasis appropriate for space travel – they won’t suffer from osteoporosis. Others are able to breathe underwater, and have built oceanic cities. And yet, they kept their ears so they can listen to Mozart and Beethoven. Imagine an intergalactic concert where these superhumans come from the edges of the galaxy, to share a good time together. All of this would be recorded in the not yet existing Encyclopedia Galactica.

Inspiring, isn’t it? Let’s compare it with what the future holds for us, according to the Holy Scripture:

(roughly translated from my spanish Bible)

“When the thousand years have passed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will deceive the nations of the four corners of the world, God and Magog, whose armies, numerous as the sands of the sea, will gather for the battle… and they surrounded the camping of the Holy People, and the city that God loves. But fire fell from heaven and consumed them… Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth; because the first Heaven and the first Earth had ceased to exist, and so had the sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven… The trone of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. They will see him face to face, and will carry His name on their foreheads. There will be no night, and those who live there shall not need lamps or sunlight, because The Lord will give them his light, and they shall rule for all the centuries.” (Rev 20:7-9; 21:1-2; 22:3-5)

That’s it?

A new city coming down from heaven? No planets to explore? (Granted, this city will occupy twice the size of Texas, but still…)

So, what will happen to the galaxies, and the globular clusters, and the other solar systems? No advancement of Science?

Okay, what kind of crap is this?

It is dull and boring. Why doesn’t God mention the stars and everything the universe is made of? Why?

Then, I realized, that the book of Revelations was written by people from the Iron Age, when the planets were just dots in the sky.

It wasn’t until the invention of the telescope in the 16th century that the planets could be clearly seen; Those were the times of Kepler, Galileo, Huygens and others.

The mere idea that there could be other worlds was unimaginable. The world had “four corners”. The Earth was flat. How come God never enlightened the prophets to tell them of these amazing things? And why did the promised future for us, “A new Heaven and a new Earth”, never included the space? Why not a new Solar System? A new galaxy? A new Universe, perhaps?

For one simple fact. This fact explains everything.

If there’s a God, He/She/It did NOT inspire the Bible.

The Bible was written by believers in a flat Earth,

who ignored the vastness of the Universe that is waiting for us.

Keep your New Jerusalem if you want, christians. I’ll choose the stars. As Carl Sagan said:

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.