Voyager 1 has been steadily working its way out of the solar system, and it now appears to have entered into a completely new region of space. NASA says it’ll only be a matter of time before the spacecraft exits the solar system completely, becoming the first human-made object to enter interstellar space. (here)
I realize that Voyager has been in space just a few months longer than I’ve been alive, but why aren’t we more excited about this as a people? We Americans sent this into space over 34 years ago and it is traveling further than any human object has traveled before. And yet… we are concerned about Hollywood’s hottest dads… how to grill the perfect steak… and celebrating the black leather jacket.
I grew up in the repercussions of Star Trek and Star Wars, where space was simply out there waiting for us. Now, it looks as if we are turning in on ourselves. What a shame.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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