Dmitry Mayorov 2
Man always attracts unusual. And the less the probability of finding answers to your questions , the more fun it seems the search. Maybe that's why one of the issues deserving our attention in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries , was the search for extraterrestrial life. And probably for good reason idea of ;;the existence of other worlds has long been one of the most important in science fiction ...
Earth - one of the worlds ?
If there are other worlds , our Earth - the only one of them. And in the vast universe, probably not the most important. Since the last century on the subject written hundreds of short stories and novels , removed a lot of art and even nauchnopopulyarnyh films, in which the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life has long been resolved positively . But is it really?
If there is life on other planets , then the set of positions of religious thought are false . According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church , God - the Creator of heaven and earth . God is responsible for its creation, sends into the world of His only begotten Son, that " whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" ( John 3, 17). Incarnation of the Son of God happened in the human body, but not in the form of some alien. The Son of God died and rose again in the human body , was taken up and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come to judge the world at a time when the human race is so utterly corrupt that its further existence would have no meaning, as in the days of Noah: "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man be , for he is mortal ." (Gen. 6: 3 ) . When will this court , " the heavens shall pass away with the noise , the elements will be dissolved with fire, earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up ... burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt ... " (2 Pet. 3 , 10-12). " And when he had opened the sixth seal, I looked, and, lo, there was a great earthquake , and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, as a fig tree shaken by a great wind, dropping its unripe figs . And the heaven , coiling like a scroll , and every mountain and island were moved out of their places . " (Revelation 6 : 12-14 )
If you believe the divine revelation , the very existence of the universe is connected with the spiritual and moral state of humanity. She would die to be transformed into a new world , " and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes , and death shall be no more, nor mourning, or crying, or pain will be gone , for the former things have passed ." (Revelation 21 : 4). Death in the world will not, and in our world, everything perishes , everything is subject to the law of destruction. Could there be other reasonable worlds , the existence and destruction of which depends on the moral state of our world ? Hardly. Scripture and the Old and New Testament does not contain any mention of other worlds . There are none in the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church. This, by the way , says the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, Alexey Osipov . However, popular culture has an impact on attitudes and Eastern and Western Christians . For example , an Anglican priest John Polkinghorne in his book "Faith Physicists ", explaining the Christian doctrine of the end of the world, leads to only look at the future of science of the universe , avoiding the thorny question of the relationship of eschatology from the moral degradation of humanity.
A year ago, Director of the Vatican Astronomical Observatory Father Jose Gabriel Funes in the interview to the official edition of the Vatican Osservatore romano said that belief in God does not interfere " to recognize the existence of other worlds , even more advanced than ours, while not questioning the belief in creation incarnation and salvation. " Funes explained that, just as on Earth are a lot of kinds of living beings , as well there might be other beings created by God , on the other planets . "If we consider earthly creatures " brothers " and " sisters " , then why can not we also talk about the" brother - Aliens " ? It still would be a part of God's creation, " - said the Vatican's chief astronomer .
Aliens: who are they?
In Orthodox circles are well-known book, in which the question of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations is decided strictly negative. Perhaps the first in the series - Hieromonk Seraphim Rose edition († 1982 ), "Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future ." In his work, the author argues that the spirit of science fiction, the power of the popular culture , and the appearance of UFOs since the 1940s , are closely related. Demons , who were devotees of the early centuries of Christianity in the form of monsters , to the modern man in the street would not produce a proper exposure. They could frighten , but not forced to worship them . However, the modern non-religious people , brought up on the works of science fiction, of course, willing to accept for alien demons . And even will crave a meeting with the " green men " and be proud of what he was privileged to be a contactee between the two civilizations . Book priest Rodion "People and Demons ," published in St. Petersburg in 1990 , there was more than ever . This time the people called " kashpir during Chumak ". Bioenergy and psychics quickly conquered the souls of men in the vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet ideology. Demonic nature of their activities and revealed in his work priest Rodion ( alias on . Alex Frost ) . In one chapter the author analyzed the "phenomenon of unidentified flying objects ." In addition to the anthropogenic factor (90 percent of UFO activity caused by the technical person) , there are phenomena unexplained by modern science.
According to generally accepted classification of ufology meetings with UFOs are divided into three categories. The biggest interest is the so-called BC -III (« Close Encounters of the Third Kind "), when the " contactee " faces " alien " face to face. The researcher compares the effects of these "guests" on the psyche of modern man with the fact that for centuries have experienced Christian ascetics , meeting with demons. Surprisingly, the consequences are the same : fear , depression, depressed, worldly people are often observed in suicide attempts .
Thus, these authors make the same conclusion : aliens - it is old , but the bad friends of humanity. It's the demons that are exactly in the form in which they are willing to accept.
multiverse theory
Favored the idea of modern science fiction about an infinite number of worlds reasonable is nothing new . In the history of the Church has repeatedly met these views , but they were condemned as heresy . For example , philosopher Origen , who lived in the III century, the work "On the basis" has consistently pursued the idea of ;;a plurality of worlds ( in modern terms - the theory of the multiverse ): " Those intelligent creatures who have sinned , but because erupted from its initial state according to the measure of his sinfulness , were punished clothed bodies. But when they are cleansed, they rise again to its former condition , completely getting rid of the evil and on the phone . Then, in the second and third time , or many times they re- clothed bodies in punishment. For it is quite possible that the different worlds existed and will exist - one in the past , others in the future " (" On the basis . " Book 2 . Chapter 8. Par. 3). As is well known , Origen was posthumously condemned by the Local Council of Constantinople 543 years . The same verdict rendered participants of the V and VI of the Ecumenical Council in 553 and 680 , respectively. In the countries of Western Christianity the question of condemnation of Giordano Bruno (executed in 1600 ) rises more than one century . He was also a supporter of the idea of multiple universes . Known for his treatise " On the infinity of the universe and worlds ", which is mostly philosophical and theological , but not a scientific argument . The modern researcher F. Yates in the book " Dzhorzhano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition" is consistently pursuing the idea that the Church is persecuted Bruno for this idea, but for heresy , the revival of Hermetic traditions (eg , the popularization of the treatise of Hermes " Asclepius ") , pantheism , and more .
What science says
Scientists do not share the optimism of ufologists accompli contact with extraterrestrial intelligence . They still have not managed to find not only reasonable , but also any other form of life beyond Earth , although for this purpose have been spent billions of dollars. Interplanetary space stations inspected all the planets in the solar system, and even some of the most advanced satellites. For example , the research unit " Huygens " in 2005 visited Saturn's moon Titan . Three rovers travel through the red planet and its orbit satellite hanging with powerful optics . Already studied about half of the surface of Mars, but no trace of life, and even water is not detected. Terrestrial viruses and bacteria could live in cold environments of space , vacuum and radiation. But they do not exist on comets and meteorites , cosmic dust either in or on the surface of the studied celestial bodies.
Another possibility is the search for extraterrestrial life is to study the so-called extrasolar planets , ie the heavenly bodies around stars , usually with one luminary . By December 2008, found more than 250 such planets , and the smallest of them is only three times the size of Earth. But to say there is life on them , modern science can not.
Another opportunity to find a " fellow human beings " offer astronomers . For more than half a century, a program of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, that is, " SETI "). Its sub- METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence - « message for extraterrestrial intelligence " ) is designed to attempt to transfer messages from a reasonable human beings outside our solar system. Both programs use the world's most powerful radio telescope . Astronomical Observatory, Arecibo is located in Puerto Rico , 15 km from Arecibo , at an altitude of 497 m above sea level. Research conducted by Cornell University in cooperation with the National Science Foundation ( USA).
Prominent Soviet astronomer Victor Shklovsky in the book "The Universe . Life . Mind "(M. Science . 1987) wrote about these programs with enough pessimism. The fact that the range of electromagnetic waves is very broad , the universe is huge and the search for intelligent signals in the cosmic noise - the process is very difficult . The Internet operates the project SETI @ home: Arecibo radio signals transmitted from the laboratory into a worldwide network of hundreds of millions of computers around the world are trying to find space cacophony of gold grains reasonable signals. To no avail.
To be or not to be ...
It turns out that neither science nor religion in the traditional scriptures do not give us sufficient grounds for belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life. Perhaps this question has no meaning for man's salvation . The same conclusion is prominent Russian scientists and theologians who are actively discussing the topic in recent years. The controversy on this issue , considered from a scientific and religious parties going on, for example , the site Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev .
" Is there life on Mars? Is not there life on Mars? This science does not know "- said another hero of the famous Soviet film. So is it worth spending precious time reading science fiction , from which today are crammed shelves in bookstores ? The author of this article did not escape this youthful passions and saw : a fantastic atmosphere for writers - just a convenient field on which their characters can show the best and worst of human qualities. The boundaries of fiction apart to the edge of the universe and beyond ...
But the main thing is , though , in the soul of man. If fascination fiction, anti-Christian in its spirit , does not go into a passion (which , alas, have not escaped many readers ) , in some works can be learned and useful ideas . Especially if their authors - people who are able to distinguish good from evil. There is a fantastic edition of the discharge , which can be recommended to believers . For example, always contemporary novels of Jules Verne and Lewis Carroll , is not in vain in the church bookstore sells books Julia Ascension ... On the " God-seeking " the works of Sergei Lukyanenko can argue long and even with some of his ideas to accept. But spend years and health to such classes for a Christian , of course, is sinful . No wonder the Church Fathers say that Satan is the chief visionary , shall think to be God ...