Dear JudgeNot and Tom
Of course I am happy with the suggestion that we help one another to use scientific topics to gain access for the Gospel. Indeed that was my motive for posting the little note about Mars on the E-T Life on Mars board! Maybe that site can be broadened to one which helps us all to think positively about scientific topics, and give insights into what sort of contribution the Christian mind can make in these live hot topical discussions. We need to be prepared, so weknow what we can usefully say. I really love what Peter says aout exactly this in 1Pet.1:13.

I agree with Tom's sentiment that we need to avoid the temptation to set up yet another debating site for evolution/creation as this particular battle is like a shark fighting a tiger - each has its proper domain. My own position is that we should focus any discussion of this on the ground of agreement e.g. variation within species and adaptation to environment, which are both so well supported with observations that there can be no rational disagreement. Then we can contribute our view that both these show good design by an intelligent Designer, rather than simply being part of a random process.

However we should always seek to give a good account of our faith, showing others that we have an active and well-informed mind which supports our faith. Simply declaring that something cannot be right because it's anti-scriptural is OK for those of us "on the inside", but doesn't cut much ice or gain us a hearing from those "on the outside" whom we are seeking to win for Jesus. What I hope we can do is help one another in this forum to be able to give good reasons for our hope, but with "gentleness and respect" 1Peter 3:15.

What do you think?

One of my goals is to try to correct the incorrect view that non-Christians often have about Christians is that we are
a) always negative and disapproving
b) always spoiling everyone's fun
c) in need of "getting a life"
d) lacking a working brain

I always try to find common ground and get off to a positive start with anyone with whom I have the pleasure and privilege of an intelligent conversation. So we might begin a discussion of space exploration by praising the tremedous achievements of NASA - and all the other space agencies for that matter. As a human race, we have much much to be proud of, and technological advances are amazing and valuable. It really is a huge privilege to live in the 21st century West.

Then, without slamming home heavy moral objections, we might turn the conversation to what drives mankind to explore. The search for knowledge is a high moral pursuit, so we should not knock it. But we can raise questions about priorities, and indeed question the whole notion of seeking to know more. What are we searching for? Of all our searches, what might be of greatest value? What is the most important sort of knowledge? For Paul, it was quite simply "that I might know Jesus..." This is the objective towards which we need to steer our conversations. This is the main thing.

Maybe the biggest problem with the western mindset is that we are pre-occupied with the material, tangible, temporal, and have lost sight of the geatest quest available to mankind - the spiritual, intangible, eternal. Let's help people to find their way through the fog, and make the main thing the main thing.
Hope that helps. Let me know if it works in practice!

Hello from the UK. Is it OK for a "Brit" (actually a Scot to be precise) to join in?
I will declare an interest right at the outset: I am a scientist and a theologian i.e. hold research degree in both fields, which just means I realise how much there is to now, and how little of it I know! However, I hope I would not be described as an ape in a lab coat. Such a derogatory description would not have been made by Jesus.

Prof. Dawkins was appointed to a post which had the purpose of popularising science - quite a good idea - but apparently also the hidden agenda of promoting atheism. In other words science had been subsumed under the umbrella of atheistic philosophy. This is entirely false, and easily demonstrated to be so by referring to the history of science, where a good number of great scientists were also Christians , and to the many scientist theologians today, of whom I am a minor member.

My field is cosmogony - the study of that part of cosmology dealing with the origin of the Universe. Prof. Dawkins would begin his philosophical reasoning with the premise: "In the beginning, nothing." Christian scientist theologians take the starting point to be, "In the beginning God." Which foundation provides a more reasonable origin for the laws of physics, the genetic code, all information, all intelligence, beauty, love, life itself?

So let's not insult our fellow human beings, made in the image of God, but confidently, gently and respectfully, lead them forward into a greater understanding of reality, and a better Way.

The really exciting thing about space travel is that it gives us a huge opportunity to show what a great book the Bible is! This Mars topic is a wonderful opportunity to get involved in discussions and show we have brains and a valid point of view.

We have a tremendous message of hope, and heaps of reasons why we are delighted to be followers of the Way, which leads not just to the planets, but way beyond into eternity and infinity.

When Peter wrote "Always be prepared to give an anwer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope you have", I guess he'd be thrilled to hear us talking with our friends about life on Mars, and how the best life in the Universe is here on Earth, following the One who is Himself the Truth.
Let's be positive and get out there with the Good News!

Any ideas on good ways to seize this God-given "Mars opportunity"?

I like JUDGE NOT's reply - a very pertinent question!
If we ignore the map and guide Book down here, with oceans of water, why should staring at a puddle on Mars transform us?
Of course anyone who expects life to spantaneously arise, complete with DNA encoded, from a puddle of water can be forgiven for hoping that utopia will sprout wings with a change of planet.

Life on Mars

Finding water on Mars is exactly what I expect from Genesis ch.1 which states clearly right at the start in verse 2 that the entire Universe was water in the beginning, so there should be evidence of water throughout the present Universe, just as ripples in microwave cosmic background radiation is evidence of the Big Bang.

Life on Mars? On balance - though I am not completely convinced -  I think not, for again Genesis 1 seems to imply that the Universe was designed with mankind specifically in mind as the focus of God's loving care and creative plan. If primitive material carbon-based life has existed/ does exist anywhere in the Universe outside Earth, this would also be fine with me, for the Bible does not say that there is no life elsewhere. But such extra-terrestrial life does not in any way detract from the central issue. This is that mankind is unique, having been created specially by God in His own likeness - moral, spiritual, eternal - and that God wants us to have a unique loving relationship with Him through Jesus His Son.

Certainly all Christians should hold that extra-terrestrial life abounds throughout the Universe, for the Bible states clearly that there is a vast multitude of angels, demons, and of course Almighty God. The atheistic agenda to prove that carbon-based extra-terrestrial life existed/exists, therefore mankind is not unique, therefore the salvation story is not unique, so there would have to be many Christs, therefore there are many ways to be saved - if indeed we need saving at all - is a chain of speculation and non-sequiturs. The fallacy of this logic lies in the very fact that other life forms exist in abundance here on Earth. Yet, despite every attempt by atheists to use various evolutionary theories and speculation to undermine our uniqueness, it is clear that there is more to us than just organic tissue made from atoms. Removing this enquiry to Mars or anywhere else may cloud the issue, but cannot avoid the same logic: if we are unique amongst the life forms on Earth, we are just as unique amongst all life forms everywhere.

Human life in all its rich diversity and our identity as individuals cannot be fully explained within by the material boundaries which limit the enquiries and theories of science, and indeed define its legitimate activities. Everyone with an open rationally active mind knows this is self-evident. The human spirit with its love, generosity, kindness, cruelty, sadness, envy, hatred, appreciation of beauty and sense wonder, and desire for meaningful relationship with the Creator, transcends material existence and scientific theory which is limited to the physical dimensions.

Science - in its proper realm and sphere of work - can and does complement theology by adding the flesh of understanding how, to the theological skeleton of understanding why. As someone once said, "Theology is not the Queen of the Sciences, but neither is science the King of the Theologies."