I suspect
that science fiction has conditioned people to think of the discovery of
extraterrestrial civilizations (because, let's face it: no one but a scientist
will be inspired by the finding of something like bacteria on another world) as
lying in the near future, but this conditioning is almost certain to produce
disappointment. Consider the distances that would have to be covered; there is
a reason why the word "astronomical" has come, in our language, to
describe incredibly large numbers. The starship Enterprise may zip from
one galaxy to another the way that we in the early Twenty-First Century might
jet from New York to Miami Beach, but a real interstellar commute would turn
travel to travail. Aside from the Sun, the nearest star to Earth is Proxima
Centauri, at a distance of 2.3 light years; this means that, even were it
possible for a vehicle to travel at the speed of light, such a vehicle would
require 2.3 years to reach a planet orbiting that star. Many of the stars that
we think we see actually died centuries ago, but were so far away that the
light they emitted before then is only now reaching us! Furthermore, it's
estimated that, of all the solar systems in our unbelievably vast universe,
only a small percentage contain bodies that have the potential to support life.
All this means that, assuming that intelligent beings do exist elsewhere, it's
of the utmost unlikelihood that we'll make contact with them during the
lifespan of anyone born this year.
I don't
foresee centuries of fruitless exploration of space, but that's
because—fortunately—I, a Christian, don't foresee centuries of continued
existence for the world as we know it. In my analysis, the Final Judgement
cannot take place before we human beings have fulfilled the Great Commission to
preach the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, thus giving everyone in the world
the chance to choose between Truth and Error; this time, however, must not be
far off, because there are few places on the globe that missionaries have not
yet penetrated. During the coming Millennium, the 1000 years of rest for
mankind during which Christ and the Saints will rule, will it matter whether
we've conquered other worlds? Will it not be enough to know that our Lord has
overcome this world?
