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Greetings, Dear Sister in Christ!

I've been (mentally) far away from FR, spending my efforts where they can actually make a difference and where the needs are great. So -- I've just temporarily wandered (Thanks for the invitation!) into this discussion and would like to share some of my views on things extraterrestrial.

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Considering that -- everywhere we look beyond our own (incomprenhensibly huge) galaxy -- we see views like this:

I find it to be astoundingly arrogant for any of us on this third-rate ball of mud to insist (or even harbor the [unfounded] belief) that our Lord and Creator was so profligate and wasteful as to leave the entire rest of His unimaginably vast Creation unpopulated. I certainly find no Scriptural basis for such a belief.

(BTW, that photo does not contain a single star (sun). Every object visible there is a huge galaxy (like the one in the center) made of billions of "suns"!)

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I have encountered folks (even here on FR) who express a vague feeling that photos like the one above above are, somehow, "approaching blasphemy" -- because such objects are not mentioned in Scripture.

But...

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Nowhere in Scripture do I find the word, "galaxy". How many galaxies could the recorders of God's revealed Word (who lived in the northern hemisphere) see? (*See "NOTE", below.*)

More importantly, did the language in which they recorded God's Word even have a term for "galaxy"? I haven't found any evidence of such a term...

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Obviously, our physical bodies and brains were wonderfully optimized for survival on and dominion over this particular planet. (Not "perfected": I just had to scrub my leg with strong surfactant because I brushed up against poison ivy...) '-)

But, many here would agree with my belief that is is my spirit (and not my physical body) that was "made in the image of God" [Who is 'Spirit'].

So, when my soul (spirit) makes that final "rotation onto the imaginary axis" {Inside joke} and crosses the boundary into the Heavenly realm, I am prepared to stand there, in my "heavenly body", arm in arm and singing praises to our Lord in sweet harmony with other creatures "made in the image of God", whose lives in this universe were spent in physical bodies that were optimized for life in conditions that would destroy us "carbon-based earthforms" instantly.

"ETs"? I will not dishonor our Creator by insisting that they were/are not in His grand plan and design. However, I'll keep a sharper watch out for rattlesnakes than for "visitors from outer space". The universe is just. too. big...

*[NOTE:]* The recorders of Scripture could, of course, see that great "milky river of stars" that is our own Galaxy -- viewed from the inside-out. And, they certainly could see with their unaided eyes a faint, blurry spot in the constellation of Andromeda (what we call "M31").

THAT's IT!

But... until we developed mechanical extensions of our senses (telescopes) -- or wandered into the southern hemispher to see the "Magellanic clouds) there was no concept that other galaxies existed (or that a name for them was even needed).

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The above photo is "not Scriptural"? Big surprise...

So, when my soul (spirit) makes that final "rotation onto the imaginary axis" {Inside joke} and crosses the boundary into the Heavenly realm, I am prepared to stand there, in my "heavenly body", arm in arm and singing praises to our Lord in sweet harmony with other creatures "made in the image of God", whose lives in this universe were spent in physical bodies that were optimized for life in conditions that would destroy us "carbon-based earthforms" instantly.

Seems reasonable to me, dear brother in Christ!

Oh, I didn't locate the "easter egg," but I caught your ref to the "imaginary axis ... [that] crosses the boundary into the Heavenly realm."

By analogy to "rotation" of the Cartesian Plane's Y Axis — which is said to be "populated" entirely by imaginary numbers — by rotating the X Axis around a zero point. The X Axis is "populated" by the real numbers.

In temporal terms, one might say the X Axis is a good model of "ordinary" human time. That is, the time concept as a linear, serial, irreversible progression from past to present to future. This sort of time has a "unit": the moment. Time flows only one way, as the simple progression of "moments," nothing more. Sooner or later, everything is "over the dam."

To say the Y Axis is exclusively populated by imaginary numbers tells you exactly nothing. For on the basis of ordinary experience, no one can visualize an imaginary number, or conceive what purpose it might possibly serve in the great scheme of things.

Definitionally, the basic imaginary number is i, which equals the number expressing the square root of 2, or –1. Going to its mathematical usage, an imaginary number, when squared, gives a negative result. As it turns out, sometimes this comes in handy:

... by simply accepting that i exists we can solve things that need the square root of a negative number. — See: Math Is Fun.

My takeaway from the above description of Y and X axes, imaginary and real numbers, and "horizontal" time" and "vertical time" (speaking hypothetically here) is that the two "time orders" sketched on the Cartesian Plane mutually interact in the human subjective sense, in the mind. (And that's where complex numbers come from.)

I'm not sure that my dear brother MHGinTN would entirely agree on this. But I must say that his concepts of linear and planar time pretty much jibe with the temporal meanings I assign to the axes X and Y respectively.

But then there would need to be a "volumetric time," to "encompass" them both, and bring them into mutual relation.... Need a new axis!

But that hypothetical Axis cannot be located on the Cartesian Plane — for that plane is relentlessly "flat."

Anyhoot, to get back to where we started, I think of the critturs along the "imaginary axis" to which you referred — Y Axis — as possibly suggesting "time-like," directional properties or qualities to the mind of an observer.

I do not think/believe the separation of the temporal body and immortal soul occurs within such a dimensionally-limited spacetime.

Or even in any possible spacetime. For our Lord is not "in" Time. Or "in" Space. JMHO FWIW

Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts, dear TXnMA!!!

And thank you so very much for posting the awesome photo!

greetings in Christ TXnMA

"I find it to be astoundingly arrogant for any of us on this third-rate ball of mud to insist (or even harbor the [unfounded] belief) that our Lord and Creator was so profligate and wasteful as to leave the entire rest of His unimaginably vast Creation unpopulated."

As an atheist I used to think christians were arrogant for believing we were the only life in the universe.(I didn't actually know if christians believed that but being a$$ about face was par for the course as an atheist).After all the universe was just so big.I eventually began to think that the main reason I believed that was because if life had just 'happened' here then it must have just happened elsewhere as well.After all,there was just so much room,as if there being room somehow mandated something happening.It seems to me that you are making the same statement only placing God where 'just happened' was.Which is fair enough but to attach "astoundingly arrogant" seems a bit harsh toward christians,such as myself,who don't happen to agree.

"I certainly find no Scriptural basis for such a belief."

The Bible speaks of us being the children of God,Jesus is going to reign on Earth,from Jerusalem.The new Jerusalem is going to descend out of heaven to Earth etc.The history of the universe in the Bible seems very Earth centred though granted absence of evidence isn't necessarily evidence of absence.Still to say that it's unfounded or that there's no scriptural basis for believing we're the only physical life seems a stretch.The Bible doesn't seem to talk about any other,so I actually don't see any scriptural basis for what you are saying.

""ETs"? I will not dishonor our Creator by insisting that they were/are not in His grand plan and design."

Well,I wouldn't insist that they don't exist but I don't find anything scriptural that compels me to think they do and the universe being really really big doesn't either.When I see so much 'new age' thinking that swirls around other-worldy life out there coming to save us and see so many who reject God insisting there's other life out there I can't help being suspicious.The Bible tells us there most certainly is other intelligent life in the universe.Some of it being malevolent and maybe trying to hitch a ride on man's desire to believe in some sort of physical saviour.

Sorry to ramble but since you are obviously a FRiend of bb and AG I'll assume I'm in good company.God bless.