Our knowledge of our solar system is expanding all the time. We've discovered dozens of new moons and planetoids and increased our understanding of the little neighborhood we reside in in our milky-way galaxy. We live in a galaxy of somewhere between one hundred and four hundred billion stars. Our galaxy is one of over two trillion galaxies in the universe. We are driven to explore it. We've spent billions of dollars in searching for life in the universe and the only place we are sure it exists is right here on earth. Life is rare...
As a human being with a three pound brain I am painfully aware that there are some things that I just can't comprehend. I've never been great at math, for example, so I've come to rely on people who are being able to explain it to me in terms I can understand. One such instance I recall is trying to wrap my head around how much a billion dollars is. It was explained to me this way... If you gave your wife a billion dollars and told her to go shopping and not return until it was all spent, then stipulated that she may not spend more than a thousand dollars a day...she wouldn't come home for over three thousand years! When thinking on grand scales like astronomy and how big space is I'm reminded of that analogy.
While I'm a fan of space travel and searching for extra-terrestrial life, given how we treat each other and the other living things on earth...the only place in the universe we're sure life exists...I wonder what we would do if we did find life elsewhere. We live on the most amazing planet that scientists have ever discovered. This blue jewel of ours is home to billions of different life forms. We humans like to believe we are the center of everything. We've come to dominate the earth. How we've treated each other and the other living things on the earth in our rise speaks to our shame.
As a species we just don't value life. Now, I think we have the right to kill for only two reasons...for food and for self defense. The other living things on the earth kill for those reasons. But we murder each other over our differences in politics, religion and over the things we want that others have...just to name a few of our motivations. We humans don't value each other so it is no surprise that we murder some of the most amazing creatures on earth for trinkets and magical potions and passing fads.
Elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolin, sharks and sea turtles are just a few of the other living things we feel entitled to butcher...out of greed and, sometimes, just because we can. When we aren't killing them we cage them or make them perform tricks for our amusement. We do all this while considering ourselves the "highest" form of life on earth.
The biggest murder human beings are involved in is the murder of the earth itself. We trample across our blue jewel like we make no impact and it's resources will last forever. We pollute the air and the water. We think nothing of strip mines and deforestation...so we can have more "stuff". We scar the face of the earth testing nuclear and other weapons. We engage in warfare that destroys plant life and kills any animals in it's wake indiscriminately. If any intelligent beings from other planets were to visit us they would undoubtedly be horrified at how we treat each other and desecrate the only home we have.
I suspect that life exists in billions of forms scattered across the universe. I have no doubt that there are other intelligent beings in the universe. Why they would want anything to do with us is a question we should ask ourselves. Who would you rather visit on a journey...adults or self absorbed, spoiled children? I also suspect that there is a kind of "ethical barrier" in the universe that prohibits species such as ours from infecting other living things in the universe. The adults in the family don't allow the spoiled children to run wild in the neighborhood.
Since the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior I submit that, as a species, we are not worthy of trekking out into the universe and meeting other living beings. We need to grow up first. We need to learn to value our home, each other and the other living things on earth before we attempt to move out of the neighborhood.
Just a thought...from the Blacksmiths Corner.
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