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Enterprise, Falcon, or Galactica?

What’ll it be?

Yeah, I’m serious. And yeah, this is a big deal. (I will explain later; please hang in there and humor me ’til then.)

Now, back to the important question: If you were living in a place and a time where things like space travel and space traveling ships were pretty much normal, and you could be on board one of ’em en route to some supercool, fantastic, inter-stellar adventure, would you be inclined toward a ship like one of the icons of modern sci-fi? Would you be jonesing for a seat on the bridge of a Captain Kirk style Enterprise? Or would you prefer a place in the cockpit of a Star Wars-esque Millennium Falcon? Or would you perhaps opt for a cabin on a Galactica-like Battlestar type of ride? (A quick note to all hard core fans reading this: These ships were assigned their original order of appearance alphabetically, so please, no hate.)

Or maybe you’re thinking of something else, like a Japanese Yamato or a Jupiter 2 retro kind of a deal?

Or perhaps a…TARDIS?

Whatever your preference, it’s fun to think about.

It’s also important to think about.

As Christians we know – or oughta know – that our future involves ruling and reigning in real physical bodies in a real physically restored cosmos with real physical places to go, see, explore and cultivate.

That’s the future.

That’s our future.

It’s our adventure to come.

It’s very physical. It’s very real. And it covers all of God’s material creation.

Anybody else out there incredibly jazzed about this besides me?!

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Our Lost Vision of Eternal (Physical) Adventure

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We are well served to grab on to and savor this biblically revealed and redundantly confirmed truth from time to time…especially as we fight the good fight here and now in this fleeting, temporal chapter of our eternal adventure. The best sci-fi and fantasy points toward a more vivid and fantastic future physical reality of eternal adventure and ever-expanding experience by God’s people in His creation. Put another way: Gnosticism makes for terrible sci-fi.

Yet we’ve gone all (or mostly) Gnostic and thus lost much of that visceral sense of fantasy and sci-fi appreciation in the modern professing Christian subculture, and that loss has been great. In the place of a vivid, detailed, hopeful understanding of our real physical roles in a restored  physical creation, we’ve been left open to any number of supremely lame and even depressingly sterile, uninteresting, non-physical, and unbiblical views of the future for God’s people.

The typical Christian these days is far more likely to be surprised by the physicality of the future world in which Christians are to ultimately reign than he is to happily embrace or passionately anticipate it.

It is this ignorance-fueled apathy that has left the door to fantasy and sci-fi dominance open to those with the least basis or reason for real hope or promise in the future. As such, the “best” or most impactful works in fantasy and sci-fi tend to be riddled with the fundamental worldview poisons that one would expect from the unbelieving (aka “foolish”) minds that have crafted them.

This is why things like the Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, and Galactica are important.

They inspire.

They motivate.

They move…and not just fictional people from fictional points in fictional universes.

They move – and shape – worldviews.

Right here and now.

Just as they should.

[Tweet “The Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, and Galactica are important because they move people and worldviews.”]

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To Boldly Go Where No Unbeliever Can 

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Last month in Why All Christians Should Own Robots, I tried to encourage fellow Christians to grab hold of and celebrate many present and looming advances through technology with a renewed (or perhaps first time) emphasis on the glory of God. Specifically, I am hopeful that His people will seize the beautiful opportunity that He is providing even now for us to lead and mold technology and approaches to technology in a bold, confident, and, most importantly, Christ-centered manner.

It is in this spirit that I encourage my fellow Believers to consider and answer the beginning question here: Enterprise, Falcon, or Galactica?

Or TARDIS? Or Jupiter 2? Or…whatever you’d like to provide as an answer – but please, only serious answers.

We should be taking our fantasy seriously, since it molds so much of our understanding of and hope for both the present and future.

Let’s consider these things seriously, and enjoy doing it.

So which ship is for you?

And why?

And what else comes to your mind as you think along these lines?

Please feel free (and encouraged, even) to share in the comment section…I’m really looking forward to seeing what Christ-centered imaginations and hopes can come up with…

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Please see also:

Why All Christians Should Own Robots

The Beginning of Learning: Christ as the Essential Core of Children’s Education

The (church built) Zombie Apocalypse is upon us…

© 2014 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.

 

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