Enterprise, Falcon, or Galactica?
What’ll it be?
Yeah, I’m serious. And yeah, this is a big deal. (I will explain later; please hang in there and humor me ’til then.)
Now, back to the important question: If you were living in a place and a time where things like space travel and space traveling ships were pretty much normal, and you could be on board one of ’em en route to some supercool, fantastic, inter-stellar adventure, would you be inclined toward a ship like one of the icons of modern sci-fi? Would you be jonesing for a seat on the bridge of a Captain Kirk style Enterprise? Or would you prefer a place in the cockpit of a Star Wars-esque Millennium Falcon? Or would you perhaps opt for a cabin on a Galactica-like Battlestar type of ride? (A quick note to all hard core fans reading this: These ships were assigned their original order of appearance alphabetically, so please, no hate.)
Or maybe you’re thinking of something else, like a Japanese Yamato or a Jupiter 2 retro kind of a deal?
Or perhaps a…TARDIS?
Whatever your preference, it’s fun to think about.
It’s also important to think about.
As Christians we know – or oughta know – that our future involves ruling and reigning in real physical bodies in a real physically restored cosmos with real physical places to go, see, explore and cultivate.
That’s the future.
That’s our future.
It’s our adventure to come.
It’s very physical. It’s very real. And it covers all of God’s material creation.
Anybody else out there incredibly jazzed about this besides me?!
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Our Lost Vision of Eternal (Physical) Adventure
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We are well served to grab on to and savor this biblically revealed and redundantly confirmed truth from time to time…especially as we fight the good fight here and now in this fleeting, temporal chapter of our eternal adventure. The best sci-fi and fantasy points toward a more vivid and fantastic future physical reality of eternal adventure and ever-expanding experience by God’s people in His creation. Put another way: Gnosticism makes for terrible sci-fi.
Yet we’ve gone all (or mostly) Gnostic and thus lost much of that visceral sense of fantasy and sci-fi appreciation in the modern professing Christian subculture, and that loss has been great. In the place of a vivid, detailed, hopeful understanding of our real physical roles in a restored physical creation, we’ve been left open to any number of supremely lame and even depressingly sterile, uninteresting, non-physical, and unbiblical views of the future for God’s people.
The typical Christian these days is far more likely to be surprised by the physicality of the future world in which Christians are to ultimately reign than he is to happily embrace or passionately anticipate it.
It is this ignorance-fueled apathy that has left the door to fantasy and sci-fi dominance open to those with the least basis or reason for real hope or promise in the future. As such, the “best” or most impactful works in fantasy and sci-fi tend to be riddled with the fundamental worldview poisons that one would expect from the unbelieving (aka “foolish”) minds that have crafted them.
This is why things like the Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, and Galactica are important.
They inspire.
They motivate.
They move…and not just fictional people from fictional points in fictional universes.
They move – and shape – worldviews.
Right here and now.
Just as they should.
[Tweet “The Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, and Galactica are important because they move people and worldviews.”]
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To Boldly Go Where No Unbeliever Can
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Last month in Why All Christians Should Own Robots, I tried to encourage fellow Christians to grab hold of and celebrate many present and looming advances through technology with a renewed (or perhaps first time) emphasis on the glory of God. Specifically, I am hopeful that His people will seize the beautiful opportunity that He is providing even now for us to lead and mold technology and approaches to technology in a bold, confident, and, most importantly, Christ-centered manner.
It is in this spirit that I encourage my fellow Believers to consider and answer the beginning question here: Enterprise, Falcon, or Galactica?
Or TARDIS? Or Jupiter 2? Or…whatever you’d like to provide as an answer – but please, only serious answers.
We should be taking our fantasy seriously, since it molds so much of our understanding of and hope for both the present and future.
Let’s consider these things seriously, and enjoy doing it.
So which ship is for you?
And why?
And what else comes to your mind as you think along these lines?
Please feel free (and encouraged, even) to share in the comment section…I’m really looking forward to seeing what Christ-centered imaginations can come up with…
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© 2015 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.
Soli Deo Gloria!
A great deal depends on if and how the laws of physics (Maybe they WILL be changed, Scotty) are altered in a restored universe. I've always been struck by C.S. Lewis' portrayal of the Oyarsa (angles) in 'Out of the Silent Planet' and how they travel at the speed of light. Then again, the huge New Jerusalem bears a striking resemblance to a Borg cube. The ships of popular SF moves and TV are all quite impractical from the standpoint of current physics – the down-is-perpendicular-to-the-direction-of-travel deck orientation for one thing.
A lot also depends on what abilities / gifts our resurrected bodies may possess. The post-resurrection Christ could pass thru locked doors and seems to have been able to 'teleport'. Will our bodies have the same capacities or are those reserved for the Lord? Will we have some control over physical forces such as electromagnetism and gravity? Such abilities might well obviate the need for ships, except as cargo carriers.
Then, too, there is the question of whether we will go out as independent explorers or in groups. Perhaps as colonists?
And, above all, there is the question of exactly how such interstellar travel will be a form of worship, expressing our love for our God.
I really love this thread. Thankful to have found this site.
But what will Star Trek be without Klingons, Or Star Wars without the Sith. I also look forward to being completely sinless, in thought, word and deed. But what will we do in spaceships with no people procreating and seeding the universe. And can even God create new races without sin coming in again. The word says sin will be forever banished. I just wonder how this is going to work, with no challenges to face. Love all three ships and movies you mentioned BTW . Couldn't possible choose one over the other. Except that Galactica pictured is not the real one, 😉
One thing I know for certain, I wouldn't want to be in the Bindaf 3000. If those other ships point to hope in Christ, the Bindaf 3000 points to the destruction of every false Christ. It celebrates defeat of the negative…but destroys itself in the process by losing focus on celebrating the positive.
By the way, Scott, feel free to have a look on DozerfleetWiki at Stationery Voyagers, Volition Dilemma, and Vocational Destiny. The latter two articles have Gerosha significance too. If there are any errors in the thought process, let me know, so I can fix them.
The space beyond this solar-system has so much detail and so many things to check out I find it unlikely that humanity is meant to be confined here for long. A safe way to quickly go from star to star is to me only logical. It may be natural wormholes, an "easy" warp drive or digital uploading. With God as your chief engineer a starship may be just a matter of convenience.
If however this means of going "faster than light" were discovered before the last trump then someone will find interesting ways to do unsafe things with it and wage war.
If humanity still has reproduction after the resurrection to glory then there is an interesting population dynamic. Immortality + reproduction means infinite population growth. We will literally need a billion worlds in a billion galaxies. Just for starters. They don't need to have biospheres, we can make those. Earth is the seedbed for the stars just as Eden was the seedbed for the earth.
The hebrew: Go forth and fill the earth can be translated, Go forth and overflow the earth.
Nice question Scott.
Thanks for chiming in here, Wesley.
Like you, I just love the beauty and intricacy of the known universe as we can see it now, and can only imagine what we will be inspired (and equipped) to explore and cultivate "out there" in the future.
While I have no doubt that as long as sin persists fallen men will continue to warp all available technologies toward self-serving and destructive ends, I am oh so anxious about the sinless physical reality to come. The prospects for perfect adventure through perfect harmony with the King are indeed endless and infinite. Woohoo!
Practically speaking, I wonder, if we had materials on one planet that would be well used and/or needed on another, how would we go about getting them there? This was the first angle that got me to thinking about space ships in a real, practical sense as a part of our likely future in the restored cosmos.
I love it when something like this question can help to inspire Christians to contemplate the actual, real, *physical* nature of our eternal adventure!
Have a good one!
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
(1 Corinthians 2:9)
Amen! We have no idea as to the splendor of wha is coming in the physically restored creation, but we DO know that it is coming. Woohoo!
Keep reading there:
"But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1Co 2:10)
You missed the good part. I had an old Mustang, that will be young again as will I, We will ride through the clouds and the cosmos, per chance we will ride together pardner!