Space, the Final Frontier. Really?

No doubt, outer space is cool. I mean, it’s huge and mysterious and conjures up all sorts of questions and speculations. Who doesn’t feel small when they consider its vastness? Who hasn’t wondered what’s out there? The ancients were very interested in the stars. It was the dwelling place of the gods. Their mythologies spoke of visitors from the stars coming down and bestowing upon them great wisdom. They arranged their monuments and cities to mimic the constellations they saw in the night sky. “As above, so below.” We moderns may not think of it in exactly the same way as the ancients, but we are no less fascinated by it. Instead of mimicking the stars in stone and city placement, we make movies and write books. Indeed, I will soon be joining the masses to see the new Star Trek movie. Why? Well, the opening lines of Star Trek takes a shot:

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Now, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this subject. I’m awe-struck by the images captured by the Hubble Telescope. I get into the space documentaries on The Discovery Channel. And It’s a pretty safe bet that I will see most every sci-fi movie that comes out. But it has come into my mind that our fascination with outer space isn’t really about what’s out there. Rather, it’s about something much closer to home. Listen and you will hear a comment something like this: “We hope our exploration of outer space will answer questions about our own origins.” Look and you will see that our favorite extraterrestrial characters exhibit very human qualities – specifically, those qualities we admire most and would like to see exhibited within us. Superman was a genuinely good man. Yoda was wise. ET was a true friend. And it was the human side of Spock that eventually enabled him to overcome the cold logic of his Vulcan side.

So, maybe space isn’t the final frontier after all. Maybe the final frontier is really about finding the ideal human. Some evolutionists believe we will one day get there. But this begs the question: Where did we get such an idea? Could it be the lingering effects of what once was; the afterglow of who we once were? Graham Hancock speculates that humanity suffers from a collective amnesia about its past. If we could go far enough back in time, maybe we would meet this ideal version of us. I personally think there is something to this. I’ll explore this more in Monday’s blog post. But in the meantime, enjoy these stunning photographs taken from the International Space Station.