God Squad: Are other planets off limits?

If the human race ever finds a way to reach and colonize another planet, do you think we should do it? The reason I ask is that some religious people I know say God would not want us to settle other worlds. They say that if God wanted us on other planets, God would have put us there already. Some of these people don't believe that humans ever walked on the moon or that the International Space Station even exists.

-- B., Westbury

I think you need to hang out with a better class of religious people. The idea that the moon landing or space station are just hoaxes is ridiculous. However, your question does raise the important issue of the relationship between religion and science.

One of the first obstacles to the development of medical science, for example, was the religious objection that God made us sick to punish us for our sins, and therefore it's a sin against God to heal the sick. Galileo had trouble convincing the church that a heliocentric solar system was not a violation of the teachings of Genesis.

If religion opposes scientific advancements, it will become irrelevant, like the Luddites who smashed machines in England in an attempt to stop the industrial revolution. God wants us to use our minds to make the world a better place. A spirit of exploration, whether it involves crossing an ocean to discover the New World or crossing space to discover new habitable planets, is a gift from God to expand our vision of the world God has created.

In fact, the first verse of Genesis, properly translated from the Hebrew, does not say that in the beginning God created this heaven and this earth but rather: "In the beginning of God's creating this heaven and this earth." This means that God may have created many other worlds, and possibly other civilizations.

God is the God of the whole universe, not just our own planet, and someday perhaps our vision of God's magisterial creation will expand as we "boldly go where no one has gone before." The conflict between religion and science is absolutely real when science violates the moral law, but it's not real when people try to limit our minds and our impulse to discover what God has wrought.

My father always stressed education when I was growing up. He'd say to me, "Educated people will look up to you even if you're a pauper." Well, maybe that was true in my father's Italy, but I don't know about here. I teach at a community college and wherever else I'm asked to teach. I really do believe that education will cure the ills we have in this world. Does God agree? Is there anything in Scripture that urges people to strive to learn?

-- H., Smithtown

I think we had the same father! I, too, was taught that education is the highest value and most important task of life. This message is obvious for people who receive God's words in sacred books. Let's begin with Deuteronomy 11:19: "And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou list down, and when thou risest up." The emphasis is on teaching our children, which means we must first learn the words of God for ourselves.

And then there is Proverbs 1:5: "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels." This verse reminds us that there is a difference between wisdom and learning. Smart people, people with learning, are not always wise people. Smart people know what is true. Wise people know what matters is to live the truth.

I agree that there are not enough learned people in our world, but on balance I think there are enough smart people and not enough good people. The Nazi scientists were smart and learned but not good. Just as it's wrong to make cultural idols out of ignorant and uneducated celebrities so, too, it is wrong to idolize people with outstanding educational credentials and deficient moral values.

We see the perils of worshipping smart people in the Christian Testament (Colossians 2:8): "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The point is that religious faith is not always the result of learning. A good mind will sometimes fail to get a person to the place where only a good heart will suffice.

Still, I'm on your side. I believe in learning, and my faith encourages me to learn every day. The reason is that God is not only love. God is truth. Perhaps this is why we're commanded to find God with both our mind and our heart.