Project Vision 21

I was recently asked to give a (virtual) presentation on current trends and, as a consequence, the possible future that we would not be heading for. So, I started with a warning that I always use: “I do not predict or know the future”. And then I said: "If tomorrow an asteroid hit Earth or the Martians invade us, what I am saying today is worthless."

I always refer to the possible impact of an asteroid or a possible alien invasion to mention two highly unlikely events, although not with zero probability, which, if they occurred, would force us to put aside the beliefs, actions, behaviors, and habits that we now have. In other words, we always live with an undeniable level of uncertainty.

On this occasion, after my usual comment about asteroids and Martians, one of the participants interrupted me, saying: "Francisco, you are very wrong." When someone tells me I am "very wrong" I am tempted to say, "You are very right: I have been married for 33 years and my wife remembers every one of my mistakes."

Before I could say anything, our friend added: “Asteroids don't exist, and Martians don't exist either. No asteroid is going to destroy us, nor are the Martians going to invade us”.

Although we can (and should) debate at length the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life (and we should debate even more whether intelligent life exists on this planet), I wondered how anyone can doubt the existence of asteroids, something irrefutably known for centuries and probably millennia.

The only thought I had at the time was of those priests who refused to look through Galileo's telescope, arguing that there was no need to do so to determine that Galileo was wrong.

Our good friend (again, before I could say anything) continued: "The Bible doesn’t name asteroids or Martians by name and, therefore, they don’t exist." My intuition to think of the priests and Galileo was not so wrong. Furthermore, this participant added, “Science ended in the 6th century BC. The Bible says so."

I must say and emphasize that, as it should be obvious, I am not against the Judeo-Christian scriptures commonly known as the Bible. Quite the contrary. Those scriptures have been and continue to be the fertile soil of my spirituality and the constant motivation of my studies.

But to believe that the Bible is a catalog of everything that exists or will exist in the Universe and that something that doesn’t appear explicitly mentioned in the Bible doesn’t exist is much more than I can accept as a coherent or adult and mature thought.

Furthermore, the participant who expressed his rejection of asteroids and Martians because the Bible doesn’t mention them did so (what a contradiction!) during a video conference, using computers and other elements not explicitly mentioned in the Bible.

Therefore, if we only see what we see because our beliefs blind us, then we don’t see anything at all, even if we hide behind sacred texts.