As Seen from Space

I've read that some astronauts have said/written that seeing the earth from space has had a profound effect on them. I've had a long-time interest in astronomy and cosmology, and I wonder if seeing the earth from space would have any sort of impact on me. 

Pretending for the moment that I'm an astronaut, what I see from my spaceship is a blue and white globe against a black background. And there's some brownish stuff but I can't be sure what it is. I don't see any aliens, alien space ships, gods, heavens or hells. I always found it interesting that the three groups who never report unidentified flying objects are astronomers, astronauts and airline pilots; the people who would most be expected to see UFOs if they existed. And yet people all over the world regularly report sightings, and some have even been abducted. It is my theory that there is a strong correlation between alien sightings and mind altering drugs, alcohol and a vivid imagination. Plus the potential for cash if the abductees can sell their story.

If I move my ship to a little lower orbit I can see geological features. The blue stuff is water, the white is clouds and the brownish stuff is land. I can see separate continents, and on some of those continents I see mountains. But that's about all that's visible from this altitude. Moving closer I can start to make out geographical features. There are mountains, valleys, forests, plains, glaciers, rivers and some large in-land lakes. 

Moving still closer I see man made features. There are cities, bridges, ships, planes, airports and large buildings. Risking one more orbit change; I don't want to be reported as a UFO sighting, I move my ship closer and, Aha!...I can see people! I watch them for a long time. There are a lot more similarities than differences in what they do. One of the things they do most, besides spending time on the internet is watch television. I can understand the interest in the internet. The attraction of the majority of television programming baffles me. Do the dozens if not hundreds of sit-coms and 'reality' shows really provide us with anything other than mindless entertainment, and a vehicle for marketing people to inundate us with silly commercials? Do the ad people who dreamed up the Allstate and Liberty Mutual commercials really believe we will buy their insurance because of a man imitating a dog, or the guy with Limu the Emu doing basically nothing other than uttering the same phrase over and over? What's even worse is to consider is that maybe we are responding to it. If so what does that say about us? I may have written this somewhere before but if so I think it's worth repeating. An old hunting friend would occasionally comment that, from an intellectual view we haven't progressed far from the caves. From what I am seeing I can't argue with that.

One thing that strikes me from my view in space is that with some slight differences peoples lives are basically the same. They're born, raised, get an education, get a job, leave home, get married, have kids, retire and die. It's kind of like watching a bee or ant colony, everybody doing the same thing day after day, year after year. One difference is that bees and ants have a communist form of government. No private property, no choices to make, everyone working for the common good. But an even bigger difference is that bees and ants have a common purpose, and if they thought about it, a common meaning. Humans don't have a collective meaning or purpose. Many people create their own purpose. Others simply go through life doing what humans do without giving thought to such matters. But sooner or later, whether having purpose or not, everyone is confronted with their mortality. With all of societies progress in medicine, technology and other fields, there is still no answer for death.

Some of the buildings I saw from my ship are churches. Churches symbolize societies attempt to address/alleviate the prospect of death by promoting the concept of life after death. We don't die. We simply cease to exist on this planet and 'pass on' to an eternal and better existence in another world. This is the concept that people pin their hopes on. They have to because that is all there is; either that or accept that death is the end.

From my spaceship I can't see that other world. Nor can I see the gods who created it or the souls who are already there. There has never been nor will there ever be contact between the two worlds, nor have emissaries ever bridged the cap between them, unless we allow the countless Virgin Mary appearances. But people know that the other world is there. It has to be. Because we don't want to die.