Are We Alone?

A few weeks ago I took the December issue of National Geographic out of the mailbox and as I walked back to the house, I slipped the protective sleeve off and read the cover; "Are We Alone? Searching the Heavens for another Earth". I half way thought that there might be some new and revelatory information and at my first opportunity I read the article. In typical National Geographic style there were several fold out pages of Hubble Space telescope computer enhanced composite photos of the heavens and of artist representation of what the astronomers think that they have seen, complete with charts, picture graphs and strings of numbers with lots of zeros. This was followed by a two and a quarter page article that told me the astronomers have seen lots of real shiny things way far, far away and that the universe is much larger than they ever imagined. The author, Timothy Ferris, summed up his article with this one sentence; "We believe that billions of such planets must exist and that they hold the promise of expanding not only the scope of human knowledge but also the richness of the human imagination."

The National Geo author has asked the question, "Are We Alone?" and then kinda-sorta answers the question with "Probably not." Well, Duh! I don't even own a telescope and I could have told you that.

The idea that we are not alone in the universe is no longer the exclusive stock of science fiction and the fantasy of UFO enthusiasts but are now the topic of articles in the National Geographic on our coffee tables. While the modern astronomers do not have proof that there are other Earth like worlds, they are no longer willing to ignore the probabilities that such worlds surely must exist. Scientists have no proof that there is life on other worlds but are busy trying to find scientific evidence to support their growing belief that other forms of life surely must exist. Billions of tax dollars have been spent to send numerous probes to the moon and to Mars to find evidence of life or at least that conditions were once favorable to support life as we know it.

I find it hard to imagine that our Creator placed the billions of stars and galaxies in the heavens for our night time enjoyment. With the each new telescope and astronomical observatory the astronomers are only beginning to understand the infinite vastness of the Grand Universe.
Although the article in the National Geographic didn't show the location of our nearest neighbors or give conclusive proof that we are not alone, the author did offer the encouraging words, "We believe that billions of such planets must exist and that they hold the promise of expanding not only the scope of human knowledge but also the richness of the human imagination."

Just imagine! Billions of earth like planets where there is surely life and perhaps intelligent beings that might be as smart as us, imagine that!