JUNE 18, 2022 – The alien’s filaments were no longer flashing red. They were a blindingly bright, steady red, as the alien’s sound mechanism issued an ear-splitting, “Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!” not unlike an earth-based, commercial building fire alarm. Had I just endangered our whole species? In an ironic twist had I overwhelmed the alien with evidence that to protect the planetary house, its inhabitants should all be extinguished?
With my hands covering my ears, I said, “Could you please stop?”
The alien complied. Several beats into the ensuing silence, it spoke. “If what you say is true, that you humans are destined to destroy your planet or at least its inhabitability for nearly eight billion of you, what can be done?”
“People can pray.”
“Pray? What, exactly, is that?”
“It’s a lot of things, actually.
“Please explain.” The alien’s red state of alert changed to orange, then yellow, then a cool, calm green. I was impressed that the alien seemed to observe the same color convention that we did when it comes to depicting danger. But then again, the light spectrum should be constant throughout the universe.
“Throughout our history, prayer has been an expression of hope,” I said. “If a human wants to stay ahead of the curve, he or she will pray for avoidance, prevention, preclusion, as well as for rescue. It’s our way of appealing to a power higher than ourselves. It’s been known to work, though apart from propter hoc, ergo hoc reasoning, we have no proof certain of the causal relationship between prayer and outcome. But I’m curious . . . Do you have anything comparable to prayer?”
“No,” said the alien. “We have logic and the laws of physics and chemistry.”
“That’s it? How do those things serve you when you’re against the wall?”
“I’m not following.”
“I mean, when you’re in a jam and neither laws nor logic direct you to safety, what do you then do?”
“Laws and logic never fail us,” said the alien.
“Never?” I was skeptical. “What do you call the destructive force of, say, your star, your sun burning out, leading to the end of Goldilocks? What about a comet striking your planet and bumping it off course so that it’s no longer in a Goldilocks position? How does the randomness of such common astronomical events—all well within the laws of the universe—prevent those laws and logic from destroying, thus failing you?”
“Very simply,” came the answer. “We anticipate such cataclysms and adjust accordingly. For instance, we have a carefully devised plan for monitoring every conceivable destructive force, random or inevitable, and for escaping to any number of alternative, hospitable planets.”
“Thus no need for prayer, I guess.”
“No such need.”
“Well, good for you, because here on earth we’ll need to be a good deal smarter than we are before we can assume full control of our destiny—and dispense with prayer.”
“Fair enough. Meanwhile, tell me more about this matter of prayer—its origins and development.”
It occurred to me that perhaps the alien was on a scouting mission for additional “alternative, hospitable planets.” In learning more about us, would the alien be less likely to identify earth as a possible refuge? Or to put the question bluntly, did humanity stand in the way of earth being a sanctuary for residents of Goldilocks? (Cont.)
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© 2022 by Eric Nilsson
