This page was created on February 1, 2004
This page was last updated on January 4, 2005

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged

I appreciate Jenn's column on man's desire to explore. It made me think of my own desire for adventure, intrigue -- and the desire to accomplish something with my life. I'm sure not everyone expresses the desire in the same way. After all, some are excited about a couple-week journey up the side of a mountain dangling by a rope, while others cringe at the idea of subjecting themselves to such an egregious experience. But maybe those same people, who would shun such a vigorous adventure, may enjoy curling up with a good book or movie and experience the adventures of someone else.

No matter how we seem to approach it, it does at least appear at a cursory glance that humans are searching for something larger than themselves, and that technological and geographic exploration is our bent. Whether it's Ayn Rand's "heroic being," or Nietzsche's "Superman," the idea has been proposed that when we set out to discover, we evolve as humans through that discovery. I remember watching the TV program Cosmos, hosted by Carl Sagan, and listening to his theories about life beginning in space, being whisked to earth through solar wind or possibly even alien beings. Sagan, who most certainly eschewed any belief in a literal god, had no problem looking to space for his hope, and for the answers that humanistic utopianism and religion have failed to provide.

The problem with these human outlooks on discovery is that they have left us with more questions than answers, and more anxiety than hope. I'm a pretty firm believer that when man sets out to explore, even while denying God, the eternal search that resides so readily in all of us is unavoidable. We're all looking for answers to co-existence, and to living lives that are generally pretty happy -- and much of our hope is focused out of this world, whether in space travel or religious mythology. Either way, man continues to search, invent, and explore, and I do not think that our thirst will ever be quenched or that our minds will ever be satisfied. Why? Because we constantly look to ourselves to solve a problem that only eternity can solve.

Is the spending for space exploration a waste of money? Maybe, but it is inevitable, because man continues in his search for an immortality and an eternity that would make it all worthwhile.

"My people have committed two evils: they have rejected me, the fountain of living waters, and made for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." (Jeremiah 2:13)

Jenn and Mike make some interesting points, and I can't say I outright disagree with them. However, there are several points I'd like to make in response, that, while not conclusions in-and-of themselves, open up the doors a bit wider than perhaps our two columnists have already.

First, it seems a mite egocentric to postulate that the Ultimate Frontier is somehow within ourselves. Do we really think that God is totally focused on us -- the homo sapiens found crawling over the measly little planet Earth? Isn't it possible -- even probable -- that the dominion of an all-powerful God extends just a little bit further than you and I?

Second, if we go back just thirty years or so, we find that Science Then wasn't the same as Science Now. In Science Then (as evidenced in the science fiction of the period), the metaphysical was part and parcel of the search beyond our own borders. The Final Frontier was definitely "outer space," but the spiritual/metaphysical world of God and the soul were inextricably linked to that exploration. Remember the Star Trek movie where they find God? That wasn't an accident -- it was a fundamental component of space exploration just three decades ago: farther from Earth meant closer to God. It's only recently that "absolute science" (read technology) has finally seemed to crowd the metaphysical out of the picture.

Finally, I'd like to propose that in our drive to explore and discover all things, we should take caution not to look at this journey as an 'all-or-nothing' proposition. Rather, perhaps the Ultimate Frontier is a balanced exploration of both the inner and the outer -- an exploration of ourselves as part of what is outside ourselves. From my perspective, I'm not so absolutely certain we're not spending $5 billion to explore the nature of the human soul...

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of Christianity as "the ministry of reconciliation."⁴ By this, he means that the central story of the faith is the reconciliation of Man to God through the blood of His Son, Jesus. Christianity, then, is the ministry of reconciliation because all who claim the name of Christ are ministers -- literally, servants in the Greek -- of God's specific conciliatory purpose.

But Christianity is not only the ministry of reconciliation -- it is the ministry of all things godly. One of the other theological terms applied to the act of Jesus' death on the cross is redemption. In conceiving Hollywood Jesus, David Bruce understood that Christianity is also the ministry of redemption -- and in particular, it is the redemptive hope for our culture: not through legislation, stone-throwing or critical negativity, but through showing us the godly things already embedded in our culture. For God reveals Himself through all that He has created, even the things that we may not particularly like.

After Eden is dedicated to this redemptive vision. We believe, as G.K. Chesteron put it, that "humanity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the gutter and diamonds into the sea."⁵ That's not a reality we endorse. We'd like to help salvage the gold from the gutter, and rescue the diamonds from the sea.

Mike Gunn is a pastor at Harambee Church in Tukwila, Washington, and was cofounder of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Regina Doman is a writer, the author of the young adult novel The Shadow of the Bear and other modern stories based on fairy tales; she was also an editor for the late journal Caelum et Terra.

Editor Greg Wright is a writer and ordained minister of the dramatic arts. He is a contributing editor for Hollywood Jesus, and is author of Tolkien in Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter.

Editor Jenn Wright is a writer with degrees in literature and theology. She will be co-writing the Narnia coverage for Hollywood Jesus, which will be debuting the summer of 2004 in anticipation of the first movie's 2005 release.

The Devil's Advocate is a composite personality of our consultants and editorial staff. He may look like someone you know -- and probably thinks like a lot of them.

Annie Smith Peck
On Challenge

The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow. ¹

Heraclitus
On The Universe

It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys at the cost of soul.²

Shakespeare
On Nobility

How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!³

Chesterton
On Perception

It is a strange thing that many truly spiritual men... have actually spent some hours in speculating upon the precise location of the Garden of Eden. Most probably we are in Eden still. It is only our eyes that have changed.⁶