Worshiping the Bomb

Image: ObjectsInFilm

A decade after I was born the science fiction movie “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” depicted a race of horribly mutated humans living underground and worshiping a doomsday weapon designed to destroy the Earth. My parents were moviegoers and I dimly remember going to the theater as a boy to watch the film. As I write this most of the movie theaters in the United States are closed due to a global pandemic. What I find so interesting about the whole subject of nuclear weapons is the public is almost completely unaware that atomic bombs, used for propulsion, are presently the only practical way for humans to travel to other planets. Bomb propulsion is the only technology in sight that enables humans to expand into space. While we have no off-word independent colonies our species is at risk of extinction. Again, of interest, one of the ways our species could end is by way of an engineered pathogen. Very few really understand this.

I connect this seemingly latent failure of vision to deism in that essential invisibility of God to allow some illusion of free will. If God were not invisible then we would be little more than puppets and any coexistence with God could not be something new, something different than God, and our maker’s design would fail. Religious people do not accept this explanation. It makes religion itself nonsensical for one thing. In my view this concept makes for a perfectly fair world of perfect opportunity. It is in one sense a variation of the teacher student paradox:

https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=episteme
“Eulathus wanted to become a lawyer, but, not being able to pay the required tuition, he made an arrangement according to which Protagoras would teach him but not receive payment until Eulathus won his first case. When Eulathus finished his course of study, he delayed going into practice. Tired of waiting for his money, Protagoras brought suit against his former pupil for the tuition money that was owed. …Eulathus decided to plead his own case in court. Protagoras presented his case in the form of a simple constructive dilemma, which at first, appeared to be a sound argument: if I win, he has to pay me – that is the decision of the court. If I lose, he has won his first case, and therefore has to pay me as that is the stipulation of the contract. I will either win or lose. Therefore, either way, he must pay me. Euathlus defended himself with a counter-dilemma that had the same strengths and/or weaknesses as the case put forth by his teacher: If I win, I do not have to pay – that is the decision of the court. If I lose, I will not yet have won my first case, and therefore, I will not have to pay as that is the stipulation of the contract.   I will either win or lose. Either way, I do not have to pay.”

Of course there is no free lunch. We all have to pay and there is no cheap.

The Christian way to view this is we are all broken on the Cross. The world is perfectly fair, God is perfectly just. Never believe that others get away with more or less.

Humankind seeks ultimate meaning and any ultimate meaning would necessarily be an intelligent, self-aware meaning. This ultimate Being would create humankind to be different than God and would necessarily have to be invisible and separate or be defeated. With the H-bomb humankind has created peace at the risk of extinction. Yet this same device we fear is also the only way to avoid the inevitable extinction event. Whether it is used to deflect an impact threat or create space colonies by moving immense masses of material. The problem resonates with evolution itself. For life to evolve and stay then less evolved forms must die out and disappear. This seems to defeat evolution which, whether certain people wish to admit it or not, does have a purpose. Survival.

We are trapped in stupid world and chasing illusions. Like a cat trying to catch a laser dot on a wall. We have that power of the sun, fusion bombs, which can lift masses in the millions of tons off the surface of the Moon and other bodies. Such activity can create artificial spinning hollow moons where a population in the tens of billions can be supported. Harnessing the power of our own sun and applying beam propulsion can accelerate these constructs toward other solar systems at a percentage of the speed of light. Centuries from now, upon arrival, these starships can use bombs to slow down.

While humans live useful lives not much past a half a century we have little hope of survival. Until we have an indefinite lifespan and are able to freeze humans without damage and revive them (we will probably freeze people first), we are bound for extinction. We have the bomb to thank for the over half a century of peace on Earth. We have the bomb to allow us to safeguard our species by enabling space travel and space habitat construction, as well as deflecting impact threats. We have the bomb and curse it as if it should not exist when it is our best chance of surviving. Much of humankind worships a God that by design cannot magically grant our wishes.

The minority who hold most of the wealth worship money which is actually destroying society with the classic cycle of corruption causing the rise and fall of empire. We might have more of a chance of lasting as a species if we worshiped the bomb.