If we could get over ourselves, our colonies from the very first could be what we need to re-orient ourselves, to re-gain a sense of mission. I myself have my own opinions about what that means--to me, it means repudiating the notion that we aren't taking God with us to outer space. That somehow God is a superstition best left behind of earth. A NASA engineer once told me, We won't need God in space. The engineers will be God. But we need God to get our space-legs on, just as they needed Him in the opening of the American continent (oh and by the way we need to lose the idea, too, that somehow that was a bad thing). You see, men need an excuse to do something so crazy as to martyr themselves. Notice how I put that: an excuse. They will do so, as long as they don't have to look like the fools they would be under any other philosophical system than -- than Christian, is my own personal take, looking at the cross and what it has meant to mankind over the centuries.

Come to my blog and read, Please Send Catholics to Outer Space, where I explore some other ramifications of space exploration to our economy and the war on terror. Take the Silly Lily poll on the race to Alpha Centauri, too.

http://thewhitelilyblog.wordpress.com