When real life imitates Wing Commander

Originally posted by Ijuin
That quote could be taken the opposite way. God punished the builders of the Tower of Babel for their arrogance in trying to build a tower to the heavens. Some would take this to mean that Man is NOT meant to reach for the stars.

Actually, 'twere not for their arrogance per se, but for their disobedience. And disobedience, in the end, is a form of idolatry, because it sez to God "We don't need you, we'll do whatever the heck WE want; whatever WE think is best. To wit:

They were commanded to go forth and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. By all hanging out in one place like that, they were expressing their intent to flagrantly disobey 3 of those 4 mandates. This tower building effort was a monument to their OWN power and strength, not to God's, and to THEIR unity of purpose against God's mandates. That is why they were confused and scattered by Him.

The fact that we have now achieved atmospheric, and more recently, interstellar space flight (though the latter only by umanned means thus far) might well be understood to be God's blessing on our abilities to reach to the stars. After all, we've now achieved (a little too well) those same 3 mandates the Babel folks spurned, so mebbe God is saying :

"Oookay. Time now for the NEXT level..."

Food for thought. Chew amongst yourselves...
 
Originally posted by Preacher
The fact that we have now achieved atmospheric, and more recently, interstellar space flight (though the latter only by umanned means thus far)
Hehe, we most certainly have not achieved interstellar flight. The Voyager probes may have left the solar system, but it will be a heck of a long time before they reach another star - if they do.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
If you don't like it, you should look for someplace else to live. :/

If he can scrape together a few million bucks, maybe the Russians will build him a little shack on the moon.
 
Wow, what's wrong with all you people? Since when did I become a target?

First: there's nothing wrong with building towers, spaceships, or wanting to go to other stars, etc, etc, etc. I just felt offended when Ripper called our home a "stinking rock". I don't believe we are 'destined' to stay on Earth, or 'destined' to spread out into the stars, but I'm fine where we are right now. I also feel that there are better uses for our strained and limited resources for the people of Earth here, not out there. And not for blowing ourselves up either.

Regarding the Tower of Babel, as I said, there's nothing wrong with building towers. The problem was that the people undertaking that project wanted to "make a name" for themselves, they were being selfish and wanted to leave God out of their lives. They were working together, communicating in a common language, so God moved to confuse scatter them because of their arrogance and self-centredness.

But enough of that, I just wanted to clarify that there's nothing wrong with wanting to explore the stars, if your motives are not misplaced.
 
Back to the topic....

So... back to real life imitating WC. I think when I die, I want to be ejected into space. Funny, it was the topic of discussion in a college class today. What do you think? 21 laser salute and all. I think that would be something. :D
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
Wow, what's wrong with all you people? Since when did I become a target?

First: there's nothing wrong with building towers, spaceships, or wanting to go to other stars, etc, etc, etc. I just felt offended when Ripper called our home a "stinking rock". I don't believe we are 'destined' to stay on Earth, or 'destined' to spread out into the stars, but I'm fine where we are right now. I also feel that there are better uses for our strained and limited resources for the people of Earth here, not out there. And not for blowing ourselves up either.

Regarding the Tower of Babel, as I said, there's nothing wrong with building towers. The problem was that the people undertaking that project wanted to "make a name" for themselves, they were being selfish and wanted to leave God out of their lives. They were working together, communicating in a common language, so God moved to confuse scatter them because of their arrogance and self-centredness.


Whoa, there Wedgie! Surely you know by now that all's required to be a target here is to post an opinion... :(

Sorry yer feelin' the heat. If it's any consolation, I'm witcha on much of what you said (actually, even if it's NOT a consolation...). I appreciate yer bringing the Word into things as well. Hang tough. :cool:
 
There are a few different theories regarding the Tower of Babel, so I don't think anyone here should use it as an excuse to not get involved in space flight. I've seen primarily three different reasons for the tower and what happened, and any and all of them could easily be the correct one.
1.) They wanted an easy way to get to heaven, and God punished their arrogance.
2.) They were all clustering together, while God wanted them to fill the Earth.
3.) They were looking for a way to avoid God's punishment, should he decide to send another flood. In their arrogance, they believed that a tower would allow them to get above the water, and sit it out. Obviously, while the tower would be little trouble for an omnipotent being, it was a direct challenge to God, similar to #1.

Take your pick.
 
Obviously my first "get back on track" post didn't work as well as I would've liked. So here I go again.
Wing Commander is neither a wing nor a commander. Discuss.
 
Originally posted by Preacher
Whoa, there Wedgie! Surely you know by now that all's required to be a target here is to post an opinion... :(

Sorry yer feelin' the heat. If it's any consolation, I'm witcha on much of what you said (actually, even if it's NOT a consolation...). I appreciate yer bringing the Word into things as well. Hang tough. :cool:


Who is against Wedge?
WTF are you talking?
 
Originally posted by Ghost
Who is against Wedge?
WTF are you talking?

1) Not me, as I thought I made pretty clear

2) I simply quoted Wedgie's own surprise at the opposition he seems to be encountering based on those comments. I have no idea why folks are givin' him a hard time. Reactionaries, I guess...
 
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