Hi,

There's been an awful lot of Christian-bashing going on lately in the SETI
forums, so I think that it's high time that one Christian who doesn't
believe that SETI is evil spoke out for the majority.

To me, it seems arrogant and selfish in the extreme for a supposed Christian
to say in no uncertain terms that humans are the only life in the universe.
If we were the only intelligent life, why would the intelligent designer
that Christians believe in bother creating a whole universe?  Wouldn't just
one solar sytem, or a galaxy suffice?  Why go through all that bother to
create a seemingly infinite universe, if He (or She) was going to just have
one intelligent species to inhabit it?

Also, in my humble opinion, that the universe, and exterrestrial
intelligence for that matter, serves a purpose much similar to that of a
neighborhood playground or park.  Please bear with me as I continue this
analogy.

Ever since we were born, we've been forced to look out the window at this
huge, beautiful playground, with all kinds of slides and swings and
tetter-totters.  We've wanted so badly to open the door and run outside and
see if there are any other kids to play with, but we can't quite reach the
doorknob, no matter how hard we try.

But, as time goes on and we grow taller and stronger, each attempt gets us a
little bit closer to turning the doorknob and opening the door completely.
Soon, we'll be tall enough and strong enough to open that door and run
outside and go play in that playground for as long as we want, whenever we
want.

Will there be other kids out there?  We don't know, but a part of us hopes
so.  If there are, some of them will want to make friends, and maybe others
will want to be bullies.  It's a playground for everyone, not just one or
two kids.  Sure, we'll get a few bruises and get knocked around a little,
but you can't live at home your whole life!  Life "out there" might be
tough, but it's worth the friendships and worth the knowledge that you're
not alone in the playground.

The point of this analogy, and this post as a whole, is to basically say
that the teachings of Christianity and the Bible actually have nothing to
say about the subject of the existance of exterrestial intelligence.  As I
see it, SETI@Home is a good thing for humanity, because it allows us to not
only answer the question of "Are there any other kids out there, or am I the
only kid in my neighborhood?" but it allows us to search ourselves and our
beliefs.  How will Earth react if intelligent life is found in the universe?
I don't know.  But SETI@Home gets people thinking about how THEY'd react,
and that is always a good thing.

The most challenging things to do are most always the ones that people
resist the most.

Jesse Hathaway