Notwithstanding the likelihood of disappointments, Yuri Milner teamed up with self-avowed atheist Stephen Hawking on Monday, July 20, 2015, to make the announcement, (digressing somewhat from the matter at hand) the same Stephen Hawking who once stated that "space travel offers the best hope for our species' immortality." [2] Traveling at the speed of light, perhaps? [3] As far as this blogger knows, no known matter hurtling through space at the speed of light can maintain its composition without vaporizing. Maybe Stephen Hawking knows something the world does not know, or maybe his ego had exceeded his intellect, causing him to spew nonsense that has no empirical evidence. However, that is not to say that traveling at the speed of light, or even faster, does not occur or that an eternity of existence is conjecture. Traveling at the speed of light is possible for a spirit since the spirit is not composed of matter. A spirit is also eternal, just as God is eternal, and it is God who breathed spirit into man, so that man is truly an image of God.
God does not exist in Stephen Hawking's world. Why should Stephen Hawking, the atheist, be concerned with immortality? Why not let his Godless theory of spontaneous creation [4] dictate the certain but not-so-spontaneous death and the sufferings that sometimes accompany it? Why should atheist Hawking place the human species above all other species when speaking of immortality by referring only to "our species" and remaining silent as to all other species? Is the human species so special? Of course! Man is God's creation. Man is the human species and is special. There is no doubt in this blogger's mind that Stephen Hawking believes that he is special not only because he is man, but also one who is intellectually gifted.
Because Stephen Hawking is special, therefore who other than Stephen Hawking, an atheist scientist who believes that "life rose spontaneously on Earth" [5] and who is famously smart would a tycoon named Yuri Milner pick to make the announcement on his spending of $10 million a year for ten years to look for the existence of alien life form? Nobody, except for Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking is the man, the one who can neither explain with absolute certainty how the conditions that permitted the "life" he referred to that "arose spontaneously on Earth" could be so perfectly synchronized for "life" to thrive on this planet nor deduce by infallible logic how humans became the only earthly species that is superior by far to all others, and the one who does not tell the world why he became so angry at God that he declared himself an atheist. [6]
Nobody is perfect, but Stephen Hawking was the perfect person for the job Yuri Milner had for him, making an announcement for Milner. If a brilliant mind can be bought, certainly less brilliant minds are for sale as well. A number of scientists will be given the assignment from Yuri Milner to find something that in this blogger's subjective and unscientific opinion does not exist. But that is money well-spent--on something that cannot be bought, definitive knowledge of whether "humanity is alone or not." [7] Anything that cannot be bought is priceless. Therefore, the $100 million is arguably priceless.
What truly is priceless is one's abiding faith in God which Yuri Milner seems to lack, which he is unable to purchase with his wealth. Not being able to buy God, Yuri Milner is paying scientists to find what is neither in the future (not the eventual existence of extraterrestrial life but its existence relative to time in the present) nor at some place far away (measured perhaps in terms of light years). By doing so, he is refusing to acknowledge that "intelligent extraterrestrial life" had existed previously on this very planet Earth, in the Person of Jesus, the Son of God, Who was indeed an intelligent extraterrestrial being, for He was both God and human, conceived by another extraterrestrial entity, the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, an extraterrestrial phenomenon. If the Son of God is not "extraterrestrial" enough for Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, it is a possibility that they could, after their mortal lives, spend their eternity as spirits looking for whatever they think extraterrestrials ought to look like, with no result, no satisfaction, no God and no peace. That would be Hell.
There is not enough combined wealth on planet earth to buy a ticket out of Hell but enough to go there [8], nor is there enough combined intellect in humans to know the Truth without God. Besides the $100 million that Yuri Milner has to spend on finding extraterrestrial life, the hundreds of millions more that he likely still has will be worth zero to him at death. Similarly, the intellect that Stephen Hawking was gifted with will expire at his death.
In life, some are gifted with wealth, some with intellect, some with beauty, some with hardships [9] and some with unyielding faith in God. All these gifts come to an end except faith which lives on in eternity. The fact that faith in God may not be innate for some, it can be acquired, not with money or intellect, but with humility and purity of love, things that everyone is capable of, that cost no money but that are so rare to come by. Faith in God ("Faith") is as perfect a marriage partner on earth as any other: Faith and wealth, Faith and intellect, Faith and beauty and Faith and hardships. All of these "marriages" will lead to Heaven. Other marriages, such as atheism and atheism, pride of wealth and pride of intellect will not.
One would hope that Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking would awaken to faith in God, that together they would look interiorly for the Truth that lead them to Heaven rather than externally to other theoretical universes that lead them to the vast emptinesses devoid of life and love.
What truly is priceless is one's abiding faith in God which Yuri Milner seems to lack, which he is unable to purchase with his wealth. Not being able to buy God, Yuri Milner is paying scientists to find what is neither in the future (not the eventual existence of extraterrestrial life but its existence relative to time in the present) nor at some place far away (measured perhaps in terms of light years). By doing so, he is refusing to acknowledge that "intelligent extraterrestrial life" had existed previously on this very planet Earth, in the Person of Jesus, the Son of God, Who was indeed an intelligent extraterrestrial being, for He was both God and human, conceived by another extraterrestrial entity, the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, an extraterrestrial phenomenon. If the Son of God is not "extraterrestrial" enough for Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, it is a possibility that they could, after their mortal lives, spend their eternity as spirits looking for whatever they think extraterrestrials ought to look like, with no result, no satisfaction, no God and no peace. That would be Hell.
There is not enough combined wealth on planet earth to buy a ticket out of Hell but enough to go there [8], nor is there enough combined intellect in humans to know the Truth without God. Besides the $100 million that Yuri Milner has to spend on finding extraterrestrial life, the hundreds of millions more that he likely still has will be worth zero to him at death. Similarly, the intellect that Stephen Hawking was gifted with will expire at his death.
In life, some are gifted with wealth, some with intellect, some with beauty, some with hardships [9] and some with unyielding faith in God. All these gifts come to an end except faith which lives on in eternity. The fact that faith in God may not be innate for some, it can be acquired, not with money or intellect, but with humility and purity of love, things that everyone is capable of, that cost no money but that are so rare to come by. Faith in God ("Faith") is as perfect a marriage partner on earth as any other: Faith and wealth, Faith and intellect, Faith and beauty and Faith and hardships. All of these "marriages" will lead to Heaven. Other marriages, such as atheism and atheism, pride of wealth and pride of intellect will not.
One would hope that Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking would awaken to faith in God, that together they would look interiorly for the Truth that lead them to Heaven rather than externally to other theoretical universes that lead them to the vast emptinesses devoid of life and love.
[2] http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/im-atheist-stephen-hawking-god-space-travel-n210076
[3] http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29082/would-time-freeze-if-you-could-travel-at-the-speed-of-light
[4] http://news.discovery.com/space/the-universe-no-god-required-120626.htm
[5] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/20/stephen-hawking-announces-100-million-hunt-for-alien-life/
[6] If Stephen Hawking did not say why he is an atheist, Stephen Hawking's ex-wife, Jane Wilde, did it for him: "'I understand the reasons for Stephen's atheist beliefs, because if at the age of 21 a person is diagnosed with a terrible disease, are you going to believe in God? I think not."' See http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stephen-hawkings-first-wife-jane-wilde-prayed-god-he-would-live-he-mocked-her-faith-1484522
[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/20/stephen-hawking-announces-100-million-hunt-for-alien-life/
[8] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A8-10&version=NIV
[9] Hardships can hardly be considered a "gift" but the life that came with hardships is a gift. That fact cannot be minimized or overlooked. No one knows why different lives have different gifts and why hardships fall on some but not others. That only God knows.
[3] http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/29082/would-time-freeze-if-you-could-travel-at-the-speed-of-light
[4] http://news.discovery.com/space/the-universe-no-god-required-120626.htm
[5] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/20/stephen-hawking-announces-100-million-hunt-for-alien-life/
[6] If Stephen Hawking did not say why he is an atheist, Stephen Hawking's ex-wife, Jane Wilde, did it for him: "'I understand the reasons for Stephen's atheist beliefs, because if at the age of 21 a person is diagnosed with a terrible disease, are you going to believe in God? I think not."' See http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stephen-hawkings-first-wife-jane-wilde-prayed-god-he-would-live-he-mocked-her-faith-1484522
[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/20/stephen-hawking-announces-100-million-hunt-for-alien-life/
[8] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A8-10&version=NIV
[9] Hardships can hardly be considered a "gift" but the life that came with hardships is a gift. That fact cannot be minimized or overlooked. No one knows why different lives have different gifts and why hardships fall on some but not others. That only God knows.
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