Lunar Real Estate Lesson

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently declared that humans had better get busy blasting off to the stars above and establishing self-sustainable colonies. The reason for this bold statement? We need to find new homes, to ensure the survival of our species. Human-made disasters (plagues, nuclear war) and natural disasters (asteroid impacts, rapid climate change) could instantly annihilate our species in the blink of an eye while we are all "trapped" on our beloved blue planet. Taking Hawking's advice the Guardian did a fun job of presenting the real estate options available to humans considering a change of scenery.

Hawking's argument echoes the sentiments of the British Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees who has stated that it's 50-50 whether humanity will survive the 21st century. He challenges anyone to take this bet. Not surprisingly, he's betting that we won't make it. Who are these depressing scientists? I'm told they are more intelligent than me so maybe they are on to something.

Now there's nothing that realistically could be done to prevent an asteroid impact but even that failed to destroy the dinosaurs completely. But there surely is a hell of a lot that humans could be doing to combat climate change (leave that precious car at home), nuclear war (demand total disarmament now) and biological plagues (demand a ban on these terrible weapons). These eminent men seem willing to embrace realism and choose the easy way out instead of working to improve and save the only proven and perfect home for humanity and all other living beings. They are essentially saying, "We give up! Let's get out of here and try it all again somewhere else. This time it will work, we promise". I beg to differ.

Another thing that's clear from these statements is a high degree of arrogance that human life is the most sacred and worthy of saving; more than any other. The whole of (earthly) creation could, and almost should, be sacrificed that we might live and have everlasting life. It's nice to realize that scientists and evangelicals have something in common after all.