What effect will earth religions have in a multigenerational interstellar starship? Should we export to the stars those religions that has cause so much misery on earth. We must get this right as the stars may be our only hope of survival.

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Presentation: 2012 100YSS Symposium

Rev. Dr. Alvin L. Carpenter

Pastor, First Southern Baptist Church West Sacramento CA

Email address removed

Title: The Non-promise of Earth bound Religions into Space.

The incompatibility of earth bound religions for an interstellar community. You will never get a religion with out getting their doctrine in the bargain. You will never get a religion without their claim that they speak "for" God. All ministers say they are "called of God." This means, I am called and you are not. Any one who has the title Rev. before their name has an agenda. What is that agenda? You have to learn to ask over and over until you get an answer that makes sense. How will the agenda of advancing a religion be compatible on a starship that has the sole agenda of staying alive and living at peace with one another.

   Ask any representative of an earth religion, "Why should we carry your religion to the stars." With the terrible history of religion, and the terrible acts carried out today under the banner of religion it is a very valid question"why should you come to the stars? Then ask again and again until you find the true answer: The goal of religion is to convert and impose. That is the task of all religions otherwise they would disappear in a generation. In Christianity it is called the Great Commission: ^" Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Matthew 28:19-20.

   Today, I would like to pose for your consideration, in the strongest terms possible, that our earth religions are not only nonessential for a interstellar community but are in fact detrimental to the success and well being of a Colonized Interstellar Vessel. One charismatic fundamentalist of any religion will be enough to destroy the entire ship.

   An important question:

   There are many different religions in the world; of these there are many varieties of each religion. Within Christianity alone the World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd edition, 2001) states there are 34,000 different branches comprising the Christian religion. These divisions within Christianity did not occur over a cup of tea but were the result of infighting of the worst sort. One thing we know for certain and that is Christians themselves cannot get along with one another. With that in mind how will they get along with others on a starship?

   All of these religions claim a special relationship to the Divine, and all seek to expand by some form of coercion. If they did not reproduce themselves in some form they would cease to exist. Coercion is the most effective. Fortunate for us, history has recorded the acts of these religions as they made war with one another and with the King. Historians have preserved for us the long history of violence, war, anti-science, anti-scientists, anti-education, homophobic, xenophobic, patriarchal, religions.

Yesterday (9/13/12) in a speech by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ask the question: "Can we have religion without violence? Because until we do the world will never have peace." I think these same words will be repeated a thousand years from now here on earth because there is little indication much has changed and there is no willingness to initiate change by religious leaders.

Religions acknowledge this history and yet they feel they are ready to take to the stars. No, they will demand you take them to the stars. They say they have come a long way but the daily newspaper tells a different story.

The question is: Why? What is their motive? What can they bring that will be so valuable that it will compensate for all their potential to do evil?

   Having been a minister for over 40 years I find their motive a simple one: To convert, to spread the word, to evangelize, to insure all in the interstellar community will not burn in hell for all eternity as infidels. The word Islam means to "submit," and the Christians are commanded to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all people." "Turn or burn," as they saying goes. Religion must make new converts or else it will die in a generation. All power and wealth a religion possesses comes as a result of evangelism and on a starship it will be no different than it is here on earth. Already I have heard one religionists bring up the idea of using the tithe on the starship. The tithe is a doctrine that 10% of all income belongs to God. This lunacy has enriched the church and impoverished the people. Do we need 10% of the wealth of all the citizens on a starship going to a religion?

   Were this star ship to leave next year, instead of 100 years, which religion would you take with you? Scientologists, Roman Catholics, Mormons, Southern Baptists, the fundamentalists of any religion, Unification church, Falun Gong, who would you take right now? Most likely none. This decision will be faced some day and if they (religions) are not willing to be a part of the scientific community and act for the benefit of all humanity, even if they must act against their own self-interest, then they are unworthy of being a part of future humanity.

   Arguments they will make for inclusion:


1.   The good they do.

   Hospitals, orphanages, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, digging wells for impoverished people, comforting the sick, sitting at the bedside of the dying, all of these and more are pointed out as justification for the existence of religious bodies. They would have us believe that there would be no hospitals were it not for religion. I have been in many hospitals, as a minister, and once through those doors there is no difference between a "Methodist" hospital and those built by Kaiser.

   I have pastored for 40 years and there is nothing I have done that could have not been done by an atheist. The Church would have you believe if they were to disappear in a moment all good in this world would cease. While running in San Francisco with my wife I took a terrible fall and was in great pain, I was lying on the ground unable to move while all the "good people" walked around me, then two gay men, those hated by my own denomination, ask me if I was all right. Then the largest of the two bent down an picked up my, dirty, sweaty body, held me against himself and set me on a bench, made sure I would be fine and then they strolled off. Good is not the exclusive domain of any religion and never will be. Whenever a religion tries to use the good they do to justify their existence, or as an excuse to cover the evil they have done, I always ask, "what else do you have."

   In my last hours of life I would much rather have an atheist by my bedside to help me with my passage to the other side. An atheist because I know he/she is there for no other reason than to aid a person in need, no motive of scoring points for a good deed, just an unselfish, honest person. That is the kind of person whom I wish to look upon before I pass. As a theist, I believe there is only one person that stands right with God and that is one that is honest.

2.   Religion provides the basis of morality.

   If this were true then believers would be the most moral of all people and unbelievers the most immoral, of which is obviously false. One does not need a religious moral code in order to know it is wrong to beat your wife. Again, history has clearly taught us that as a model for morality one would not look to the religions of the world. We do the right thing because it produces the right results. If anything, religions, because of their strict adherence to their scriptures provide the basis for immorality. I say this because their intolerance and outbreaks of violence against others and against one another have always been justified by obedience to their holy books.

   This argument is brought up often, that the world will have no moral basis. Yet, why would God impose any moral code? If He has where is it? Is it the moral code found in the Old Testament? Let's hope not. Is the moral code in the New Testament? There is none. It can be said there is one moral code that supersedes all in the bible and it is love, God, love self, love others (Matthew 22). However, this is the one statement dismissed in favor of the one such as "suffer not a witch to live," (Exodus 22:18) and others.

   Interestingly, as a minister one of the most difficult things to do is to get people to love themselves. Religion has so ingrained in them that they are unclean, unworthy, and are as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:18ff). This is not healthy; it is a pathology that has no place on a starship.

3.   We cannot leave this journey to godless atheists. We must have God's blessing.

   This is my point. The proponents of earth bound religions do not believe humanity can survive without their religion. All of them see it as their role to continue the battle against the unbelievers, for the sake of humankind. On a starship, can there be two competing ideologies one of which must dominate the other because it is the will of God that all submit, or accept their doctrine for the good of all? Us, vs. them, the hidden holy war. I laugh when I see a Christian debate an atheist; I laugh because the Christian shakes the hand of the atheist, smiles and is kind and generous but I know that the Christian believes, and teaches others, that that atheist, along with all others like him/her, is going to burn in hell for all eternity. Which of the two, the atheist or the Christian, is disingenuous? Again, history and current events, underscore that fact of inherent exclusiveness earth religions. It is always us vs. them.

4.   We are different. The actions you point out are those of extremists.

   No, moderates are as dangerous as the extremists they condemn. All extremists carry the same holy books the moderates carry and it is these "writings from God' that provide the basis for extreme behavior. The moderates condemn the extreme but they never repudiate their holy books from which extreme behavior arises. On a starship, a space colony, an interstellar community, all it takes is one charismatic fundamentalist who believes these same books to be the authoritative Word of God to destroy the entire community! Remember, the earth is large and can bear the blows of fundamentalist religion, not so on a ship of ten thousand, much less two religions, or three.

5.  That was then this is now, we have changed, we are better.

   First let it be pointed out there is no one that speaks for religion! This is very important as many talk about how religion is going to be different but there is absolutely no single voice of the church. In fact the church, as well as all other religions, have been divided many times over through conflict because there is no single unifying voice. This spirit of divisiveness and intolerance is the heart and soul of religion. Religionists' view their world as divided between sinners and saints and what constitute a sinner is different from group to group and from year to year. This makes religions a very unstable and unpredictable. Therefore when I hear the justification being made that religion has changed and we are getting better and better I think, "you may have changed and you may be getting better and better but not so for your religion."

   In addition, the bible still contains those same verses that advocate the practice of slavery, the subornation of women, and advocates death for homosexuality and adultery. The argument that slavery is "Sanctioned in the Old Testament and permitted in the New Testament," still stand true. Those verses that damn homosexuality, teaches that a woman is saved through bearing children, that she is to remain silent and to always be under the authority to a man for she is second in creation and first to sin, never cut her hair, never speak in a church service, those verses are still in the bible. In Egypt I read of a religion crucifying those of another branch of the same religion. There is very little change. The denomination I am apart of has a lobbying office in Washington D.C. whose purpose is to subvert government to their liking. It is my opinion the greatest work I can do, as a minister, is to be a minster. Not take over governments, persecute homosexuals and women, not become wealthy off the poor, not rage against science and scientists. In fact, when I left my church my greatest concern is for a elderly woman in a nursing home I visit every week. I know you would feel the same.

   Arguments for exclusion:

1.   Earth bound religions have a long history of being anti-science and anti-   scientists.

   Without question, in another time and place many reading this paper would suffer the most horrible deaths, torture and then the fiery stake. Your property would be seized, your children taken from your homes to be raised in damnable institutions to serve the church. Women would be executed as witches if they had any inkling of strength of independence. In some countries, they still execute the apostates, adulterers, pagans, homosexuals, non-submissive women, and any of those who blaspheme. Few reading this paper would have been left untouched by the foul hand of religion. I have been warned not to blaspheme a certain religion and if I do I will suffer the penalty of death; such is the beauty of religion.

   Religion is anti science because it is science that has torn the mantle off the shoulders off religious leaders and revealed them as frauds. Evolution, deep time, the vast time/distance of the universe, geological record, the universal deluge, the Ark, Adam and Eve, the fact the earth is not the center of the universe and that man is not the height of creation"it is science that has disabused us of our treasures and because of this there is no greater enemy. How dare you tell us the earth is older than six thousand years old then dare to prove it! Worst of all, it is science that has revealed our holy books"are flawed, there are errors, more than can be counted"and for that science will not be forgiven.
 

   It is because of science that we have developed a field called "Apologetics." A bulwark against science. We call it a "defense of the Christian religion" but it is in fact a defense against science. Should we not be suspect of any system of thought that has a field called apologetics? Science already has that which is superior to apologetics and it is called "peer review," and all statements of fact must be "subject to falsification." Among the practitioners of religion nothing is subject to falsification. In other words we can claim anything to be true without a shred of evidence and these claims are outside the test of falsification. Religion suffers greatly from this madness.

   Scientists are naïve to think religion even discusses evolution or the age of the earth. The reverse is true! We would never discuss evolution were it not put on the table by the claims of science. Many years ago I preached in a mining town far in the desert of Nevada. I was asked to address the young people of the town. They had two questions: have I ever seen the Golden Gate Bridge and where do dinosaurs come from? I could only answer one of those questions. I held seven years of theological training and I had no answer as to where dinosaurs came from. Many evangelical believe the dinosaurs were preserved in the Ark with all the other animals. Because this seems absurd we never discuss these issues at all and never would were it not for science. In fact, we remove our children from schools where science might be taught, and we build our own creation museums to protect against the attack of science against religion. The Creation Museum in Petersburg Kentucky is an assault of science. On their website they state: "The state of the art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in their familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden's rivers.  The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

   I think it odd to have an image in our culture of the "mad scientist." The scientist, who has brought us so much good, so much promise, so much wonder is vilified; but, there is no "mad preacher," in our lexicon. Of the two whom do we owe the most?

   In an interstellar community whose very existence depends on science, can it be even remotely possible a powerful anti science, anti scientist presence be beneficial to the success of its mission? Religion has a long history of hindering science at every step and in every field, why would we expect anything different in the future? Because they say they will be good? When has religion not retarded every advance in science?

2.   Competing authority.

   Christianity will bring its Bible; Islam will bring the Koran, Mormons their Book of Mormon and their Pearl of Great Price, and others their sacred texts. These Holy Books constitute an authority that supersedes all other authority because God has written these books. There are no books equal to these sacred texts. They are unchangeable, without error and authoritative. Where science disagrees with theses books, science is in error. These holy books all claim divine origins, some claim God has dictated them word for word. One fundamentalist told me, "I believe not only every letter in the bible is from God but even the spaces between the letters are of God."  Interstellar pilgrims who leave earth bound religions behind will outstrip their earth counter parts in every way and survive into the future. Should they bring these religions with them, as they are today, they will perish like the rest of us here on earth as these religions with their conflicting holy books and competing vision destroy us all.

3.   Homosexuality

   All three Abrahamic religions consider homosexuality a "sin" that is hated by God and thus its followers. The same passage that calls homosexuality a abomination also calls for their execution, (Leviticus 20:13, known as the "holiness code."). This one doctrine alone will be very destructive to the interstellar community. Think, if there were a scientist who was very vocal about his/her hatred of gays and wrote extensively about it, spoke often against it, and was convinced his/her Deity hated homosexuals, such a person would never be welcomed on a starship. If this is true how could we even consider accepting an entire religion that embraces such a belief? Some of our greatest scientific minds have been homosexuals and continue to be so. Intolerance cannot be allowed in such a small society without grave consequences. When it is found out I speak in defense of homosexuality I will be refused representation at the next Southern Baptist Convention, per Article Three of their Constitution. I can think of no greater hatred of evangelical Christianity than that of homosexuals"unless it is a homosexual scientist.

Anyone that has as a component of their religious faith the idea that God only accepts heterosexuality as THE norm, and any and all other orientations are sinful and evil is not worthy to be on a starship that might be humanity's' last hope.

4.   Faith vs. Knowledge

   Again, many in naïvetivity believe faith is different way of "knowing" but in fact it is a method of "not knowing" any thing at all. Originally, faith meant belief.  However, it came to mean "belief in the absence of evidence," then later it became "belief despite evidence to the contrary." Faith is considered to be superior to knowledge. "Lean not unto thy own understanding," (Proverbs 3:5) is a favorite verse Christians use to demonstrate that knowledge is misleading and we must have faith.  Faith is antithetical to knowing. Faith disappears in the face of fact. What happens when scientific fact contravenes doctrine? Faith must win out at all costs!!!! There is no middle ground between science and faith! Faith is not another way of thinking ".it is not thinking at all. How much thought does faith require? Facts are the enemy of faith. Faith does not claim equality but superiority!

   On a starship can faith, belief regardless of facts to the contrary, be accepted as a legitimate form of knowing without suffering dangerous and unnecessary consequences? An example: A powerful religious leader, along with his/her adherents, demands a change of course due to a vision, or that "God spoke to his/her heart." When challenged on what scientific basis would such a course alteration be beneficial to the mission, the legate from the earth religion says, "By faith we obey like we always must even though we do not understand His mysterious ways." Faith, to believers, is not equal to scientific fact, it supersedes it.

   Religionist's know how life began and how it will end, they know why humans are conscience, there is nothing they do not know. Just ask them. There can be no new things because they are tied to their unchangeable holy books. On a starship looking ahead to the future will be essential and everyday must be a day of discovery. Old knowledge must be superseded. Religions create "creeds," based on the old ways, and these old ways become cherished and establish themselves as religious tradition. Once established they become nearly irrevocable! Science, ever changing, religion never changing.

5.   Birth control.

   The surest way to add adherents to a religion is through opposing all forms of birth control. Biological expansion. Many religions oppose birth control. All forms of birth control are sin of the highest degree to Roman Catholics among other religions. We are to "be fruitful and replenish the earth." On a starship where the balance between birth and resources must be maintained at all times for the sake of the whole, what place would there be for those who claim it is the will of God that a woman will have as many children as possible? Even if the representatives of these earth religions say they understand today, how long before the temptation to begin the process of biological growth to increase their numbers before the other religions out number them? How could they be stopped?

   Conclusion

These are but some of the many reasons why earth born religions are unsuitable for a colonized interstellar starship any of which should disabuse of the idea earth religions would be beneficial. Earth bound religions have a long history of intolerance, violence, anti scientific views, a powerful desire to rule in the name of their God, and to control every aspect of life from birth to the grave and even beyond. These religions barley function on earth and will function more poorly once firmly established in the starship population.

   However, as spaceflight grows closer to reality the religions of the world will begin to use their formidable power and wealth to insure their representatives are on board. It looks like a conundrum of you cannot take them with you but they will make it impossible to leave them behind.

   This program needs funding, political support and public will and all three of these can be provided by religion, but at a cost. If this ship allows Christian missionaries, Jewish Rabbi's and Islamic Imams admission how long before the ship faces its first religious war. How long before the fist scientist are brought up on charges of heresy? How long before legitimate authority is overthrown by a vision of God received by a religious authority? How long before the ship changes course because "God spoke to the heart" of a reverend? How long before the name of the ship is changed to reflect the new directive"it began as a research mission and now it is a missionary ship. The most feared ship on the sea"was the ship that brought the missionaries, for these ships always brought destruction. Perhaps another colony ship is heading our way as I speak, bringing their planets religion with them, it will be very bad for us when they arrive.

   It is my opinion, there is no greater problem facing this project than that presented by religion. No doubt, religion will use every means possible to either be on board or to insure it never occurs. What are we to do? What is the answer?

   It has always been thought humans will always need religion. Maybe not. At one time we needed religion to explain the world around us and perhaps we have outgrown that need. Perhaps we can have faith without religion. If we bring our toxic earth religions with us on our starships we will never have the answer to that question. If we do need religion to survive, then I am sure that just as God has spoken to us once He is capable of speaking to us again.

   I shudder to think there may a distant planet that has taken to the stars and failed to leave their religions on their planet. There may be a missionary ship headed our way. As indigenous people know from around our globe, there was nothing more fearful that to see the missionary ship appearing on the horizon. When the missionaries arrived from Europe they stripped the natives of their religion and culture and forced a new religion upon them. Perhaps"we will find out what that feels like firsthand.

Authors Website: http://alvincarpenter.com

Authors Bio:
Pastor, First Southern Baptist Church West Sacramento