The Signal
Preaching
Pulpit Science Fiction
The Signal
Ephesians 3:7-12
"What do you make of those references to their religious beliefs?" asked Habib, who was piloting the shuttle. It was a question that all five of the astronauts from earth had thought about. They had been immersed in the information from the scanty communications between earth and the Aquilans. (Everybody referred to the extraterrestrials by the name of the constellation in which their star was located. That star itself had had only a catalogue number when earth received its first communications from them.) But religious questions hardly had the top priority in the preparations for First Contact. Everyone assumed that an advanced technological civilization wouldn't insist upon any religious prejudices or taboos -- although, as actual contact approached, all sort of worries, sensible or not, had begun to surface.
"There are a lot of features of their culture that we should have found out about more," said Nolumba, the anthropologist. "I understand why we're doing it this way," she said. "With a lag of over 100 years for electromagnetic signals and the hyperdrive just coming on line, we didn't have the patience to get to know them better before direct contact. They initiated communications with us after picking up our old radio and television transmissions, so we know they wanted us to be in touch with them. But without an adequate understanding of their cultures, we could be walking into trouble."
"We know enough," said Chen. As the ambassador who was officially in charge of the mission, he felt that he had to be positive. "We've learned over the past three centuries how much all the major religions on earth are alike. The Aquilans seem to have a general belief in a single deity and a system of morality that's a lot like those of earth's major religions. It's all pretty standard. Of course, when it comes to details we'll probably learn some things that will surprise people like you who study cultures."
"I don't know that there's really that much agreement even on earth," said Ibanez. "Buddhists don't believe in a God in the way that Muslims do, and theoretical morality doesn't always show itself in real life. The morality of European Christians sounded fine in theory, but how did it actually work out in practice with their colonialism and missionaries in America and Africa and Asia?"
The medical doctor had been shaking his head and now spoke up. "I'll be surprised if their religion has any real significance at all for them by this time. They're an advanced civilization with a science as good as ours, even if they don't have the hyperdrive yet. They won't take the idea of gods and miracles and demons seriously. Just like earth -- some people may pay lip service to our myths, but those who are educated don't actually think of them as being true."
Habib laughed. "Clarke, I think you're the only full-blown atheist here. But now let's quiet down. I've got to land this thing, and I'm sure that the Aquilans would be more offended by my setting it down on top of the waiting crowd than by any religious differences."
*ÊÊ*ÊÊ*ÊÊ*ÊÊ*
The Terrestrials had known what the Aquilans would look like, but it still took some getting used to. A linkage between bipedalism and intelligence had seemed so obvious in the evolution of homo sapiens that people had come to think of it as a foregone conclusion. "So much for theory," thought Nolumba as she looked at the three Aquilans in the bus-like conveyance that was taking them from the landing site to their city. Their shapes reminded her of nothing so much as large dogs, although the digits on all four extremities seemed to function as well or better than human fingers. Sophisticated as the earthlings thought they were in the ways of the cosmos, it was hard not to smile at what seemed like talking Great Danes.
"I sure wish that spacesuits weren't necessary," whispered Habib. They gave a sense of distance that made it hard to feel that they were really in contact with the other beings. But while the Aquilans were oxygen breathers, all kinds of microorganisms could cause havoc in earth systems.
Radio and television contacts had enabled earthlings to get a fair working knowledge of the major Aquilan language, but there was still some awkwardness in the bus. How do you carry on a conversation with an alien that you've just met? (But, of course, the earthlings were really the aliens here!) "Nice weather"? "How's your mom"? The diplomat Chen, however, wasn't having any problem. He was chatting with the Aquilans, trying skillfully to get all the information he could.
Suddenly, one of their hosts broke off the conversation and pointed out a window. "We are coming to the city," it said. "We will go first to the Temple." The earthlings looked at one another. Perhaps religion wasn't a secondary concern after all.
The buildings of the city were low and rectangular -- an efficient shape if you didn't have to worry about retaining air. Analysis of transmissions from Aquila had led them to believe that there were extensive underground facilities. The bus stopped in front of one building that didn't seem to differ much from the others. The embassy from earth was escorted inside, its members having to stoop to get through the low door.
They entered a large room -- and stopped in amazement. At the front of the room was a large cross.
"What the...!" gasped Ibanez. The others just stared -- except for Clarke. The doctor motioned the others forward impatiently. "It's a simple geometric figure," he said. "It could mean anything."
"Don't look as if you're offended," said Chen in a low voice. He got his bewildered group seated on one of the benches that had been provided for them. One of their hosts, whose dress somehow set him off from the others, walked to the front of the room and faced the earthlings. "Greetings," it said, "In the name of Jesus Christ."
The earthlings sat in stunned silence, hearing little of what seemed to be a prayer and a welcoming speech. When it was clear that some response was called for, Chen stumbled out some formalities. But when two of the Aquilans approached them, Habib blurted out, "Jesus Christ? How have you heard of him?"
"Why, from your electromagnetic transmissions," said the Aquilan. "We had had many ideas about the meaning of the world, and some of our cultures had a belief in a single God, but we first heard about Jesus from your Bishop Sheen."
"Our who?" asked Clarke. But Nolumba had pulled a computer from her pocket and punched the name in.
"Fulton Sheen. Roman Catholic bishop, United States of North America, mid-twentieth century. First religious program on national television, CE 1952."
"1952!" exclaimed Ibanez. "That must have been right at the beginning of commercial television."
"Yes, yes," said the Aquilan. "It was one of the earliest video transmissions that we detected." He moved to a panel and manipulated some equipment to bring a plasma screen to life. There was some grainy footage of a human in some strange old-fashioned clothing standing on a stage and talking. The Aquilan made a few adjustments and they heard a voice speaking in archaic English.
"You see?" said their host. He went on as the screen darkened. "We first heard about Jesus in that way. Later we were able to find out more from transmissions with your Billy Graham and other humans. We were puzzled by much of what they said, but it seemed interesting. As we received more transmissions and were able to learn more about Jesus, many of our people began to believe that this gave us a deeper knowledge of God than we had had before. The idea that God would come to live in our universe and share the death of creatures so that they could share God's life was one that we had never heard of before."
"But that's an earth religion," said Habib. "What made you think...?"
"Yes, yes, of course. We argued quite a lot about that. Was this story of Jesus only for the people of your planet? Some of us thought so. But others believed that if the story really was true then it couldn't be limited to one planetary system. They suggested that our reception of your signals was a way that God used to tell the story to us. What decided the question for most of us was when we received a transmission in which one of your people read from something that was called a letter to the Ephesians."
Now the Aquilan's tone of voice changed as he began to quote from memory words in an old English like that of Bishop Sheen:
Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
-- Ephesians 3:8-12
Comment
In his novel, Contact (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), Carl Sagan made dramatic use of the idea that extraterrestrials would retransmit to earth the first terrestrial broadcasts they received as a way of showing that they were aware of us. In the movie, starring Jodie Foster, which was based on this novel, the scene in which the signal picked up by radio astronomers is resolved into a video image of Adolf Hitler at first seems an absurdity, but it quickly becomes quite reasonable. One of the first television broadcasts was, in fact, of the opening of the 1936 Berlin Olympics by the German dictator. Traveling outward at the speed of light, these signals could be picked up by another technological civilization.
I have stretched things a bit in order to make use of a similar idea here. Fulton Sheen's program "Life is Worth Living" was the first nationwide religious program on television, but it didn't go on the air until a few years after the beginning of commercial television in the United States. Religious programs with Billy Graham and other speakers (some of whom, to be frank, I would just as soon extraterrestrials wouldn't pick up) soon followed. I did not try to tie the story to any specific historical broadcast, but made use of the idea in a quite general way.
The reference in the Ephesians text to the making known of God's wisdom "to the rulers and authorities [tais archais kai tais exousiais -- in the King James Version, 'the principalities and powers'] in the heavenly places" in its original setting refers to the idea that it must be proclaimed to angelic beings. But how would it sound to extraterrestrials? Perhaps with appropriate demythologizing we should see this as a call to cosmic mission -- without the kind of exploitation to which Ibanez refers in the story.
Ephesians 3:7-12
"What do you make of those references to their religious beliefs?" asked Habib, who was piloting the shuttle. It was a question that all five of the astronauts from earth had thought about. They had been immersed in the information from the scanty communications between earth and the Aquilans. (Everybody referred to the extraterrestrials by the name of the constellation in which their star was located. That star itself had had only a catalogue number when earth received its first communications from them.) But religious questions hardly had the top priority in the preparations for First Contact. Everyone assumed that an advanced technological civilization wouldn't insist upon any religious prejudices or taboos -- although, as actual contact approached, all sort of worries, sensible or not, had begun to surface.
"There are a lot of features of their culture that we should have found out about more," said Nolumba, the anthropologist. "I understand why we're doing it this way," she said. "With a lag of over 100 years for electromagnetic signals and the hyperdrive just coming on line, we didn't have the patience to get to know them better before direct contact. They initiated communications with us after picking up our old radio and television transmissions, so we know they wanted us to be in touch with them. But without an adequate understanding of their cultures, we could be walking into trouble."
"We know enough," said Chen. As the ambassador who was officially in charge of the mission, he felt that he had to be positive. "We've learned over the past three centuries how much all the major religions on earth are alike. The Aquilans seem to have a general belief in a single deity and a system of morality that's a lot like those of earth's major religions. It's all pretty standard. Of course, when it comes to details we'll probably learn some things that will surprise people like you who study cultures."
"I don't know that there's really that much agreement even on earth," said Ibanez. "Buddhists don't believe in a God in the way that Muslims do, and theoretical morality doesn't always show itself in real life. The morality of European Christians sounded fine in theory, but how did it actually work out in practice with their colonialism and missionaries in America and Africa and Asia?"
The medical doctor had been shaking his head and now spoke up. "I'll be surprised if their religion has any real significance at all for them by this time. They're an advanced civilization with a science as good as ours, even if they don't have the hyperdrive yet. They won't take the idea of gods and miracles and demons seriously. Just like earth -- some people may pay lip service to our myths, but those who are educated don't actually think of them as being true."
Habib laughed. "Clarke, I think you're the only full-blown atheist here. But now let's quiet down. I've got to land this thing, and I'm sure that the Aquilans would be more offended by my setting it down on top of the waiting crowd than by any religious differences."
*ÊÊ*ÊÊ*ÊÊ*ÊÊ*
The Terrestrials had known what the Aquilans would look like, but it still took some getting used to. A linkage between bipedalism and intelligence had seemed so obvious in the evolution of homo sapiens that people had come to think of it as a foregone conclusion. "So much for theory," thought Nolumba as she looked at the three Aquilans in the bus-like conveyance that was taking them from the landing site to their city. Their shapes reminded her of nothing so much as large dogs, although the digits on all four extremities seemed to function as well or better than human fingers. Sophisticated as the earthlings thought they were in the ways of the cosmos, it was hard not to smile at what seemed like talking Great Danes.
"I sure wish that spacesuits weren't necessary," whispered Habib. They gave a sense of distance that made it hard to feel that they were really in contact with the other beings. But while the Aquilans were oxygen breathers, all kinds of microorganisms could cause havoc in earth systems.
Radio and television contacts had enabled earthlings to get a fair working knowledge of the major Aquilan language, but there was still some awkwardness in the bus. How do you carry on a conversation with an alien that you've just met? (But, of course, the earthlings were really the aliens here!) "Nice weather"? "How's your mom"? The diplomat Chen, however, wasn't having any problem. He was chatting with the Aquilans, trying skillfully to get all the information he could.
Suddenly, one of their hosts broke off the conversation and pointed out a window. "We are coming to the city," it said. "We will go first to the Temple." The earthlings looked at one another. Perhaps religion wasn't a secondary concern after all.
The buildings of the city were low and rectangular -- an efficient shape if you didn't have to worry about retaining air. Analysis of transmissions from Aquila had led them to believe that there were extensive underground facilities. The bus stopped in front of one building that didn't seem to differ much from the others. The embassy from earth was escorted inside, its members having to stoop to get through the low door.
They entered a large room -- and stopped in amazement. At the front of the room was a large cross.
"What the...!" gasped Ibanez. The others just stared -- except for Clarke. The doctor motioned the others forward impatiently. "It's a simple geometric figure," he said. "It could mean anything."
"Don't look as if you're offended," said Chen in a low voice. He got his bewildered group seated on one of the benches that had been provided for them. One of their hosts, whose dress somehow set him off from the others, walked to the front of the room and faced the earthlings. "Greetings," it said, "In the name of Jesus Christ."
The earthlings sat in stunned silence, hearing little of what seemed to be a prayer and a welcoming speech. When it was clear that some response was called for, Chen stumbled out some formalities. But when two of the Aquilans approached them, Habib blurted out, "Jesus Christ? How have you heard of him?"
"Why, from your electromagnetic transmissions," said the Aquilan. "We had had many ideas about the meaning of the world, and some of our cultures had a belief in a single God, but we first heard about Jesus from your Bishop Sheen."
"Our who?" asked Clarke. But Nolumba had pulled a computer from her pocket and punched the name in.
"Fulton Sheen. Roman Catholic bishop, United States of North America, mid-twentieth century. First religious program on national television, CE 1952."
"1952!" exclaimed Ibanez. "That must have been right at the beginning of commercial television."
"Yes, yes," said the Aquilan. "It was one of the earliest video transmissions that we detected." He moved to a panel and manipulated some equipment to bring a plasma screen to life. There was some grainy footage of a human in some strange old-fashioned clothing standing on a stage and talking. The Aquilan made a few adjustments and they heard a voice speaking in archaic English.
"You see?" said their host. He went on as the screen darkened. "We first heard about Jesus in that way. Later we were able to find out more from transmissions with your Billy Graham and other humans. We were puzzled by much of what they said, but it seemed interesting. As we received more transmissions and were able to learn more about Jesus, many of our people began to believe that this gave us a deeper knowledge of God than we had had before. The idea that God would come to live in our universe and share the death of creatures so that they could share God's life was one that we had never heard of before."
"But that's an earth religion," said Habib. "What made you think...?"
"Yes, yes, of course. We argued quite a lot about that. Was this story of Jesus only for the people of your planet? Some of us thought so. But others believed that if the story really was true then it couldn't be limited to one planetary system. They suggested that our reception of your signals was a way that God used to tell the story to us. What decided the question for most of us was when we received a transmission in which one of your people read from something that was called a letter to the Ephesians."
Now the Aquilan's tone of voice changed as he began to quote from memory words in an old English like that of Bishop Sheen:
Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
-- Ephesians 3:8-12
Comment
In his novel, Contact (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), Carl Sagan made dramatic use of the idea that extraterrestrials would retransmit to earth the first terrestrial broadcasts they received as a way of showing that they were aware of us. In the movie, starring Jodie Foster, which was based on this novel, the scene in which the signal picked up by radio astronomers is resolved into a video image of Adolf Hitler at first seems an absurdity, but it quickly becomes quite reasonable. One of the first television broadcasts was, in fact, of the opening of the 1936 Berlin Olympics by the German dictator. Traveling outward at the speed of light, these signals could be picked up by another technological civilization.
I have stretched things a bit in order to make use of a similar idea here. Fulton Sheen's program "Life is Worth Living" was the first nationwide religious program on television, but it didn't go on the air until a few years after the beginning of commercial television in the United States. Religious programs with Billy Graham and other speakers (some of whom, to be frank, I would just as soon extraterrestrials wouldn't pick up) soon followed. I did not try to tie the story to any specific historical broadcast, but made use of the idea in a quite general way.
The reference in the Ephesians text to the making known of God's wisdom "to the rulers and authorities [tais archais kai tais exousiais -- in the King James Version, 'the principalities and powers'] in the heavenly places" in its original setting refers to the idea that it must be proclaimed to angelic beings. But how would it sound to extraterrestrials? Perhaps with appropriate demythologizing we should see this as a call to cosmic mission -- without the kind of exploitation to which Ibanez refers in the story.
