Watch SpaceX and Russia launch a Valentine’s Day rocket doubleheader tonight

The dual rocket launches begin at 11:21 p.m. EST (0421 Feb. 15 GMT).

Posted 2 hours ago by By Amy Thompson on Space.com

In my book, Extraterrestrial Communication Code, I go through an unprecedented process of discovery and proposition regarding a new approach to establishing communication with extraterrestrials. It’s all very eye-opening and original with the exception of one thing. At the end of the day, it still boils down to the interpretation and transmission of radio signals as the tool to execute the communication codes. So, I started to put some thought into that un-original common thread that handcuffs us from “thinking differently” which my book leans on quite a bit.

 So, much like what I propose in my book with respect to “going back to basics” and “thinking differently”, I decided to zoom in closer on two things. What exactly is radio and what exactly are we pointing to as arguable evidence that extraterrestrials have communicated with humans over the course of history (them with us not us with them).  Let’s start with radio”. What exactly is radio? It’s all around us and at our fingertips every day and most of us (not in the radio business) never really think about what it actually is very much, if at all.

The “highlights” of radio goes something like this:

The concept of electromagnetic (radio) waves was first theorized by a physicist named James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell was a Scottish physicist born in 1831. He attended high school in Edinburgh Scotland. A summary of his more notable beliefs, achievements and contributions to science are:

• He published his first scientific paper, Oval Curvesat the age of 14.
• By age 14, he had completely memorized the Bible. Maxwell was an evangelical Protestant, who believed his religion was a private affair. Like Isaac Newton, he saw no disagreements between his science and his religion. (I will note here that my first-born child and only son of by blood is named Maxwell).
• Maxwell is credited with proving that light is an electromagnetic wave and so linked electricity, magnetism, and optics.
• Maxwell’s equations (circa 1864)are the mathematical model for electric, optical, and radio technologies, such as power generation, electric motors, wireless communication, lenses, and radar. 
• Maxwell showed that electric and magnetic fields travel through empty space, in the form of waves, at a constant velocity of 3.0 × 10⁸m/s (which accurately predicted the speed of light, “c”). He also proposed that light was a form of electromagnetic radiation.
• Maxwell calculated that the speed of propagation of an electromagnetic field is approximately that of the speed of light. He proposed that the phenomenon of light is therefore an electromagnetic phenomenon. Because charges can oscillate with any frequency, Maxwell concluded that visible light forms only a small part of the entire spectrum of possible electromagnetic radiation.
• His kinetic theory of gases accurately explained the origin of temperature.
• He introduced probability into the physics of the very small and this laid the foundation for quantum theory.
• He was the first person to produce a color photograph.
• He used mathematics to explain Saturn’s rings over 100 years before the Voyager satellite was able to verify that Maxwell was correct.

In addition to his great discoveries, in his personal life, he was known for his capacity for hard work, his friendliness, personal kindness and generosity. “Maxwell’s Equations” are very complex and difficult to understand. Perhaps that is why he is a much less well-known household name than Einstein or Newton. Maxwell’s (4) partial differential equations first appeared in 1873 and are considered one of the great achievements of 19th-century physics. He is a very prominent figure in the astrophysics community. The concept of radio communication started with James Clerk Maxwell.

 Next in the chronology of the development of radio communication comes Hertz.

Heinrich Hertz was the first to send and receive radio waves. He was a professor of physics at Karlsruhe Polytechnic between 1885 and 1889, where he generated electromagnetic waves in a laboratory and was able to measure their wavelength and velocity. Hertz was able to demonstrate that the nature of their reflection and refraction was the same as those of light. This verified that light waves are in fact electromagnetic radiation obeying the Maxwell equations.

His findings were first published in the journal Annalen der Physik (Annals of Physics) in 1887. This is one of the oldest scientific journals on physics  and has been published since 1799, and is still published to this day. This journal publishes original papers in the areas of experimental, theoretical, applied, and mathematical physics and related areas. Some of its more notable articles include:

• on stretched exponential relaxationby Rudolf Kohlrausch (1854) 
• on stretched exponential relaxationby Friedrich Kohlrausch (1863,1876)
• on the photoelectric effectby Heinrich Hertz (1887)
• on the theory of blackbody radiationby Max Planck (1901)
• on capillarityby Albert Einstein (1901)
• the Annus Mirabilis papersby Albert Einstein on photons
• on Brownian motion, on mass–energy equivalence, and on the special theory of relativity by Albert Einstein (1905)
• on the heat capacitiesof solids with quantized energy levels by Albert Einstein (1907)
• on molecular motion near absolute zeroby Einstein and Otto Stern (1913)
• on the general theory of relativityby Albert Einstein (1916)

His findings were again published in Hertz’s first book, Untersuchungen Ueber Die Ausbreitung Der Elektrischen Kraft (Investigations on the Propagation of Electrical Energy) in 1892.  His book is considered to be one of the most important works of science ever written where he first describes his confirmation of the existence of electromagnetic waves. 

It was Guglielmo Marconi who first successfully achieved a wireless radio send and received communication.  He successfully made the first transatlantic radio transmission on December 12, 1901.

Marconi moved from Italy to England in 1896 at age 22 with his mother. He was able to get financial backing to support his development of Hertz’s work to advance radio technology. He was soon actually broadcasting up to twelve miles and had applied for his first patents. Soon after his initial success, he constructed a wireless station on the Isle of Wight which was used by Queen Victoria to send messages to her son Prince Edward aboard the royal yacht. By 1899, he was sending radio signals across the English Channel.

Marconi traveled to the United States in 1899, where he gained publicity offering wireless coverage of the America’s Cup yacht race from off the coast of New Jersey.

The first trans-Atlantic message was transmitted on December 12^th, 1901.  Marconi was successful in sending a signal across the Atlantic and that was a big deal. The message was Morse Code for the letter “S” (•••). The world’s first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America occurred on 17 December 1902. The transmission was from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada.

In December of 1906, the first wireless voice and music signals heard over radio waves were transmitted from Brant Rock, Massachusetts (just south of Boston) by Canadian Reginald Fessenden. He produced approximately one hour of talk and music for technical observers and any radio amateres who might be listening. 

Radio was rapidly growing mostly as a hobby during the decade before World War I.  The ability to “listen in” with earphones and occasionally hear voices and music seemed almost unreal. During that time, very few people heard these early broadcasts. Most people only heard about these transmissions. The early receivers were handmade by radio hobbyists that were mostly men and boys.  The successful and important use of radio during World War I launched radio into the private, commercial, military, and industrial arenas and the technology grew quickly from there.

As radio use was beginning to grow, world government regulation and control of radio transmissions seemed inevitable. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt organized the Interdepartmental Board of Wireless Telegraphy. In 1910 the Wireless Ship Act was passed. It was mandated that radio was to be a regulated industry was decided in 1912, when Congress passed a Radio Act that required people to obtain a license from the government in order to operate a radio transmitter. In 1924, Herbert Hoover, who was secretary of the Commerce Department, said that the radio industry was probably the only industry in the nation that was unanimously in favor of having itself regulated. This was probably due both to the industry’s desire to put a stop to stations interfering with each other’s broadcasts and to limit the number of stations to a small enough number to keep it profitable. The Radio Act of 1927 solved the problem of broadcasting stations using the same frequency and the more powerful ones drowning out less powerful ones. This Act also established that radio waves are public property; therefore, radio stations must be licensed by the government. It was decided, however, not to charge (no pun intended) stations for the use of this property.

 In 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act, which replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The Communications Act also put telephone communications under the FCC’s control, which was a major change from the previous regulating structure that was in place. The FCC was also created to help break up some of the communications monopolies that had developed by 1934. The most notable monopoly that was broken up by the FCC was the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which eventually morphed into the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

 During its history, the FCC has been involved in some very controversial decisions. As communications expanded and television became more prominent, the FCC’s duties were expanded to include regulating all forms of communication in the United States. The FCC helps to regulate content, award station charters, and monitor innovation to make sure that all forms of communication can co-exist. The FCC is also involved in regulating the Internet in the United States, and it has created regulations that have become the center of debate for the telecommunications industry, corporate users, and the millions of people in the United States who utilize the Internet every day. It is all about the First Amendment of the Constitution and freedom of speech. In this modern era, the issue is now bleeding into the regulation and use of all of the various “social media” platforms.

So here we are today. We have come from our first tans-Atlantic wireless radio communications approximately 120 years ago to sending and receiving radio signals lightyears into the universe trying to communicate with extraterrestrials and now to the controversy over the use of social media platforms at everybody’s fingertips including very young children, often without parental supervision. This is similar to the advancement of transportation technology in that it took less than 100 years for us to go from riding horses as our primary mode of transportation to parking manned spaceships on the moon.

Now getting back to where this story started – what does the radio story mean with respect to establishing extraterrestrial communication and “thinking differently” to achieve that goal. We are still using radio to send our messages (and listen for ET messages) because we understand it, we can calculate it, it is (mostly) regulated, and it is all astrophysical science knows with respect to long range communication other than the use of microwaves, but waves are waves. Maybe extraterrestrials have advanced way beyond radio communications, and it is something their children learn about in their ancient history books.

My book discusses the need to hit the wormhole with our radio message so it can cover the lightyears of distance to its intended extraterrestrial target audience. That makes sense if radio is the driver. But what if it is not about just radio signals? Extraterrestrial radio may not even exist anymore. Maybe its ancient technology to them.

We are now exiting the world of conventional radio communication and quantum physics and entering the world of religious text references and the universal dimensions of consciousness and the possibility of communication by direct thought through time and space. Pretty heavy stuff.

Long before radio communication was invented, communication with God or his messenger’s is well documented in the Holy Bible and the religious texts from every religion and faith all over the world. You can’t say that it did not ever happen. Visual images, direct conversations and voice messages through “dreams” were being delivered from the heavens and / or the deep universe and received and understood and vice versa. Communication was happening and I consider that a fact.

Now also consider the thousands of more recent history’s UFO sightings that can be considered real including eyewitness accounts of extraterrestrial beings by credible and educated people. We could see the ship and sometimes see the beings but there was no communication. There were some exceptions where the people involved claimed to be receiving a message and / or instructions but not with directly spoken words or on a radio listening device. It was all done by the connection of thoughts.

I spend a lot of time researching the conventional scientific and religious wisdoms while also trying to “think differently” and figure out how to establish communication (versus just contact) with extraterrestrials. It’s going to happen (again) eventually. The trail often circles me around to consideration of the “Third Eye” concept. I have brushed upon this concept in my book and in one of my blog posts (I think). Let’s look a little closer.

The Pineal Gland, also known as the “Third Eye”. In many cultures all over the world and throughout centuries of history, it is believed to be the window to the soul, our connection to the spirit world, and the window that connects us through prayer to God. 

The Pineal Gland is about the size of a pea, shaped like a pinecone and located in the exact geometric center of the brain in a tiny cavity behind and above the pituitary gland which is located a little behind the root of the nose. It is located directly behind the eyes and attached to the third ventricle. The pineal gland is not isolated from the body by the blood-brain barrier system. With the exception of the kidneys, it receives the highest blood flow percentage compared to any other area of the body. It produces melatonin and is linked to our body’s perception of light, affecting the regulation of our sleep and wake patterns and seasonal functions. Everyone’s third eye is already active, but most people do not know how to control it. It can be activated by anyone through deep meditation and energy healing techniques. 

In Sanskrit, the word “chakra” means “disk” or “wheel” and refers to the energy centers in your body. These wheels or disks of spinning energy each correspond to certain nerve bundles and major organs. To function at their best, your chakras need to stay open, or balanced. If they get blocked, you may experience physical or emotional symptoms related to a particular chakra.

There are seven main chakras that run along your spine. They start at the root, or base, of your spine and extend to the crown of your head. The third eye chakra is the Ajna chakra. Wikipedia defines Ajna as follows:

 It is a part of the brain which can be made more powerful through meditation, yoga and other spiritual practices just as a muscle is. In Hindu tradition, it signifies the subconscious mind, the direct link to the brahman. While a person’s two eyes see the physical world, the third eye is believed to reveal insights about the future. The third eye chakra is said to connect people to their intuition, give them the ability to communicate with the world, or help them receive messages from the past and the future.

The third eye chakra is said to be the driver of strong principles, openness, imagination, gut instinct, and intuition. It’s also linked to imagination. The third eye chakra is said to be the source of taking energy. It takes energy from the universe and it is in the upper part of the body whereas the sex center is the Sacral chakra in the lower part of the body, and it expels energy.

The point in all of this is that:

1. Direct radio communication with extraterrestrials has not been successful to date. There are possible reasons for this that are cited in my book.
2. Communication with the Christian God and / or his messengers has occurred but only when God and / or his messengers choose. The initial opening of that channel is not by humans (except through the answering of prayers).
3. Numerous religious faiths have had the same or similar communication experiences with their god(s) as did Christians.
4. It is believed that the human body holds a mechanism (third eye) that can open a channel for a higher conciseness and is believed to be the conduit from which prayers are delivered.

So, maybe some form of the joining of these communication tools should be considered for establishing communication with extraterrestrials.  Maybe we need to find the path to that “dimension” that does not have the limitations of conventional physics, time, or space. Perhaps we need to get better connected with the dimension that connects all the forces and “beings” of the universe together. Maybe the “Force” in the Star Wars movies has some foundation in reality. Perhaps that is where my next blog will go. Think about all that.

I look forward to any comments and opinions you might like to share with us here at the Extraterrestrial Communication Group. Thanks for dropping by.

Stephen J. Silva

In my on-going quest for answers about “intelligent” extraterrestrial life, faith, the true nature of the universe and our place within that universe, I came across the following article from Christianity today’s website ( https://www.christianitytoday.org) That I thought was quite interesting. The article is as follows:

Love Thy Extraterrestrial Neighbor

The burgeoning field of astrobiology and what it tells us about the meaning of life.

DOUGLAS ESTES: Nov.20, 2019

Every week that somber gatekeeper of human knowledge and wisdom—the internet—is abuzz with UFO sightings and strange alien encounters, all in an effort to bring the truth that is out there to the rest of us. Although these world-changing images are often more fizzle than flash, they serve as a testament to the fascination people have for the possibility of life that is out of this world.

Popular speculations like these, coupled with pronouncements every few years that scientists have found new evidence of alien life, lead us to believe that we are on the cusp of great discovery.

One of the recent advances making the news and fueling our interest in alien life is the recent discovery of exoplanets in the “Goldilocks,” or habitable, zone. As of this month, out of the 4,118 exoplanets now confirmed, 55 exist in the habitable zone. As new astronomical technology comes online in the next decade, this number is expected to rapidly increase.

As our focus on these extrasolar worlds become sharper, finding life—of any sort—on any one of them becomes more credible with each passing year. As a result, there has been an explosion of interest in a new field of research, astrobiology, the study of alien life and its origins and occurrences in our universe.

But there is one thing you need to know about astrobiology: it is the only science that has no subject for study. Internet aside, we have no aliens.

This fact hasn’t dissuaded astrobiologists in the least. Instead, what makes astrobiology one of the most interesting fields of study is that it is in some ways a new kind of science—one that links physics with ethics, astronomy with philosophy, and biology with theology in a unique new way.

Some of these links are most apparent when we stop to consider what “life” is. On Earth, we tend to think of life as anything that crawls around. Alien life may be quite different, necessitating a new look on seemingly settled ideas.

The interest in extraterrestrial life is not new. Its origins lie not in the Space Age but in the Iron Age. Starting as early as the fifth century BC, Greek philosophers and mathematicians looked at the movement of the stars and understood there was something out there, even if they did not have the vocabulary to describe it the way modern science does today.

While ancient theories about the universe—such as its composition of earth, air, fire, and water—seem mythological by modern sensibilities, there is one important area of agreement: ancients didn’t imagine the universe as merely a flat Earth as modern people often assume. Instead, they viewed the Earth as one part of a greater universal system, teeming with life.

Who Is My Neighbor?

“As an astrobiologist I’m always asking, ‘Who is my neighbor?’” says Lucas J. Mix, a Harvard astrobiologist and Episcopal priest. “We want to talk about aliens as though there were ‘us’ and ‘them.’ I really think it’s a question of understanding more broadly and more deeply. Who is my neighbor? Astrobiology is part of this process of reaching out and understanding that even familiar life is more alien than we realize—and therefore alien life might be more familiar than we realize.”

It is not just astronomical discoveries such as exoplanets that powers the ongoing astrobiological renaissance. It is the discoveries of life that is occurring right in our own little world.

For example, even as we find ourselves in the 21st century, scientists estimate they still discover on average one new animal species every day. Our own understanding of “the meaning of life” is constantly being adjusted.

Perhaps the most exciting—and cutest—example of these recent life discoveries is the newfound resilience of tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets. First discovered in 1773 by the German pastor Johann August Ephraim, these creatures were known to be hardy, but recent advances in biology show them to be as indestructible as anything on Earth. Or perhaps, the moon, as thousands of little water bears likely survived the crash of Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander in April 2019.

“We are entering a renaissance of life discovery, for a number of reasons,” notes Mix. “We have discovered life a mile down in the earth, and floating in the atmosphere, and in the middle of the desert, and living in nuclear reactors, and surviving in spacecraft. What we’ve discovered is that the same basic kind of life is living in a much richer and broader way than we previously understood.”

It’s as though the palette of life is never exhausted, even here on Earth. Just when we think we understand life and have an it-can’t-get-any-better-than-this moment, we discover something even more amazing than the last. The richer and broader we discover life to be, the richer and broader we discover our Creator to be.

What Are the Odds?

Around every tree, under every rock, and in every Martian lava tube there is new form or variation of life just waiting to be discovered. Discovered by people; already known by God.

Even as we extol God for the fascinating and colorful diversity of life on Earth, are we ready to find life on other worlds? Last month, NASA’s Chief Scientist Jim Green suggested we are close to finding life, perhaps even evidence on Mars, but far from being able to accept it.

If we send a robotic lander to Europa, moon of Jupiter, we may discover evidence of life. Then again, if we send a robotic lander to Europa, we may discover no evidence of life. Either way, it has profound implications for what life means for us. The stakes are high. Enter astrobiology—perhaps the only scientific field where philosophy, ethics, and even theology are trying to get ahead of the science.

If we find life out there, the chemistry must suggest it is life, the biology must confirm that it is life, the philosophy must decide if it is life, the ethics must adopt expectations for its life, and theology must consider its relationship to other life. And if we don’t find life out there, the same questions still remain, yet in reverse.

Green’s point is well-taken. This is happening faster than we may be ready for. And surprisingly, the best place we may soon find neighbors may actually be Mars. Yes—life on Mars.

According to Roger Wiens, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and principal investigator for the Mars Curiosity rover’s ChemCam, terrestrial scientists have already found more than one hundred and fifty Martian rocks on Earth. In times past, when Mars was hit by a meteor, the impact catapulted rocks from the Martian surface into space to take a short 30-million-mile hop, skip, and jump over to our planet. Because life is so abundant on Earth, when large meteors make a similar impact on our planet, any rocks skipping their way to Mars could carry with them bacteria or archaea. These rocks would likely introduce life onto an alien planet—much in the same way we may have accidentally seeded the moon with water bears.

When we ask, “Who is my neighbor?” we may not imagine the Earth-born, Mars-raised kind. Or the Europa born-and-bred kind. What we do know is that our imagination of life on Earth keeps expanding. God wasn’t satisfied with just a few makes and models of species. His creation could have been simple, yet it was engineered for so much more.

We may see alien life as strange—from our human perspective—but from God’s perspective it is just another part of his creation.

Life Redux

The study of what “life” means, and therefore the meaning of life, is an idea recently found in the province of theology and philosophy. But the possibility of life on other worlds stirs the thoughts of astrobiologists, so while biologists study life as it occurs, astrobiologists imagine life, pushing the boundaries of their parent discipline.

Surfing that somber gatekeeper of human knowledge and wisdom—the internet—might lead one to assume that the discovery of life on another world would become its own religion. If we have ET, we can dispense with Jesus. It would only be a matter of time before humanity moved on to something much more … universal.

But what if the opposite is true? Life on other worlds may actually stir our Christian faith. Just as many early biologists such as Ephraim were people of faith, amazed at what our world revealed about God, so too are many astrobiologists today asking the hard questions—not just about what life is but what life could be. Their work will open the lander’s hatch for future generations of Christians to see the signs of God’s created endeavors spread not just across our world but others.

The heavens declare the glory of God. So too do exoplanets and alien life. God’s creation extends not just to the plants and rocks on Earth but to the amino acids and methane waves of alien worlds.

When and if we discover alien life, humans will call it “alien.” Though maybe Christians should call it “our neighbor.” But of course, God will simply call it “good.”

Douglas Estes is associate professor of New Testament and practical theology at South University. He is the editor of Didaktikos, and his latest book is Braving the Future: Christian Faith in a World of Limitless Tech.

The existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life is a subject that varies much between religious groups but the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of the world population believes there is intelligent extraterrestrial life out there – how it began and evolved seems to be the issue where there are disagreements.

You can believe that life on earth is a purely Divine creation or that life on earth began organically when some sort of amino acid hooked-up with another and a single cell organism was created that started a natural evolution process through cellular mitosis.  There are also many that believe extraterrestrials had a hand in human evolution as well.

This is discussed in my book: Extraterrestrial Communication Code described on the Home page of this blog. The bottom line is that people are going to believe what they are going to believe about the origins of life on earth. Perhaps the only way the people of earth will come to a common consensus will be when extraterrestrial communication is established, and we can compare notes with them.

For decades, some of the top PhD level astrophysics and scientific minds in the world have been full-time focused on establishing contact and communication with intelligent alien life beyond earth. This represents hundreds of thousands of PhD person-hours and billions of dollars in sophisticated search equipment and satellites etc.  So far as we know – communication has not been established but they can’t all be wrong about the prospect of it one day inevitably happening.

There are many unanswered questions, but the question of the day is not if intelligent extraterrestrial life is out there; it is what intelligent extraterrestrial life might look like and what might be their demeanor and intentions? Is it possible to at least make an intelligent educated guess as to what an alien might look like and how they will interact with us? As I thought about this question and tried to do some research on it; I quickly found the term “Convergent Evolution”. The concept has been around for a very long time, but I have never heard of it before. Engineers and evolutionists or paleontologists don’t usually hang out in the same bars I suppose. Convergent evolution is however, a very interesting and real concept.

Convergent evolution is the process where plants and animals that are not related evolve similar features independently. This includes things like body parts, wings, internal organs, and colors etc. The concept is not new and is said to be first developed by a British biologist named Richard Owen (1804-1892) in the mid 1800’s. (picture below).

He was somewhat of a critic of the natural selection evolution concept presented by Charles Darwin.

One example that is commonly used to describe the concept of convergent evolution is the comparison between sharks and dolphins. Sharks and dolphins have evolved specific traits that are the same. They have streamlined bodies, dorsal fins, pectoral fins, and flippers.

They use these features to achieve the same goal, which is to swim quickly and catch food or escape danger. They live in the same environment but are unrelated animals biologically. One is a fish and the other is a mammal and yet they developed similar features to thrive in that environment. Goal achievement is pretty much the driving force behind the concept of convergent evolution. There are hundreds of examples and the concept is well documented.

Maybe convergent evolution is the approach that we need to lean on when we consider what extraterrestrials might look like and more importantly, how they might interact with us. At least the extraterrestrials that come from planets that are similar to earth. It does make some sense – whatever your beliefs are about the creation of life in the universe.

University of Cambridge professor, Simon Conway Morris has taken Owen’s work a step further with the subject of what extraterrestrials might look like and convergent evolution. He published a book about it in 2015 called The Runes of Evolution.

It is Morris’s belief, and I agree, that if extraterrestrials have been living and evolving over millions of years on an earth-like planet, we would be evolving along a similar track. Morris further believes that all plant and all animal life from other earth-like planets will also follow similar evolutionary tracks as the creatures of earth.

Of course, there are a whole lot of people that believe convergent evolution is not reliable if not completely invalid. Professor Tristan Slaton of Bucknell University’s Department of Biology in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania wrote a very good article on this subject entitled: “What does convergent evolution mean? The interpretation of convergence and its implications in the search for limits to evolution.” The last paragraph of the article’s conclusion is as follows:

Such quantification and significance testing need not be exclusively destructive of researchers’ intuitions regarding the ‘astounding’ nature of some convergent events—it may be that such instances of convergence are even more surprising than our intuition implies! In any case, a more rigorous approach would not only help to provide support for currently subjective assessments of convergence, but it would allow researchers to determine just how unlikely certain instances of convergence are. Only then can convergent evolution provide strong substantial evidence concerning the nature, if any, of limits to evolution.

At the end of the day, it always seems to come back to be the same sort of creation versus evolution debate. The middle ground is the “theistic evolution” concept. Theistic evolution generally blends evolutionary theories with belief in God and creation. It is all about the idea that religious teachings about God and creation and scientific theories of evolution do not necessarily need to contradict each other. It is not all one or all the other.  The theistic view claims that creation and evolution concepts can and do coexist, depending on one’s point of view of course.

Personally, and as a faithful Christian, I believe there is truth in both arguments. I think there must be truth in both views. The whole point is that it seems to be very reasonable to make some assumptions about what extraterrestrials might look like and act like be they humanoid, plants, fish or birds all created by God and then evolving, under Gods design, through convergent evolution for millions of years on an earth-like planet. I published a blog on this exact topic on November 7, 2020 (see archives).

I also think this is true with respect to how intelligent extraterrestrials and humans act, think and live.  It is more than just bones, biology, and physical features.  It is also about beliefs, faith, and common instincts. This concept is also discussed in my book.

Whether the truth is a purely Divine creation or purely some form of evolution or buried in the middle ground of the theistic concept is a matter of a person’s faith and conscience until science can prove otherwise.  We can (and probably will) re-write the history and science books and we can modify our physics equations and we can modify our interpretation of ancient religious texts if necessary, as new truths are discovered (if any).

What matters right now – is what are we going to do when extraterrestrials come out from behind the “dark side of the moon” and engage in meaningful communication with us.  We need to be prepared for that very real possibility. Preparation for extraterrestrial communication and visitation begins with doing the best we can to plan for what these extraterrestrial beings might be all about physically, intellectually, instinctively, and spiritually.  Establishing contact with extraterrestrials that may have been in existence for hundreds or even thousands of years longer than humans may very well be a look into a fair approximation of our future.

I look forward to any comments and opinions you might like to share with us here at the Extraterrestrial Communication Group. Thanks for dropping by.

Stephen Silva

Approximately two hours before sunrise at 0430 hours on Sunday November 8, 2020; I had my first unmistakable naked-eye UFO sighting and it was a “blow my mind” incredible thing to see. I am so excited and now, I am even more motivated to find some answers to the extraterrestrial communication question(s). The UFO sightings lasted for approximately 30 minutes before the visible activity slowed down and then stopped. I am convinced that there can be no other plausible explanation for what I saw other than UFO activity.

Ironically, the “About” page of this blog site which I first published 2 weeks ago, lead off by saying I have never seen a UFO. I have to change that now for sure. I am also definitely going to report an official sighting at the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS)

I had been lying awake in bed for a couple hours thinking about all sorts of things and could not sleep. I finally decided to get up and do a little research on some extraterrestrial topic ideas that were in my head. This sort of thing happens to me a lot. It is not unusual. When I do this, standard procedure is to make a pot of coffee, sit out on the back deck and have a smoke, clear my head, organize my thoughts and write some notes etc. It was a beautiful clear night with only a few random clouds over head. The sky was full of stars.

I was watching the sky thinking and admiring how pretty it all was. I saw a couple of what I presumed to be satellites go by which is a fairly common occurrence. Nothing to get overly excited about. I then saw a cluster of approximately twenty very “dim” stars located between two very bright stars I was using as reference points. Then I saw something incredible.

With my eyes now well adjusted so I could see these dim stars very clearly, I noticed that one of these stars (a UFO) just took off like a rocket to the left, stopped on a dime and started darting all over the place making sharp ninety-degree maneuvers (or sharper) over huge distances at incredible speeds. It would stop then instantly reverse directions also. It was nothing less than amazing. Nothing we know of, or at least that I have ever heard of, in heaven or from earth moves like that.

As I continued to watch, several of the other UFOs in this star group started darting around in the same way as the first. Then they would move more slowly (but still quickly), over huge distances, as a group in various formations like a single line side by side, single file one behind the other, in a “V” formation like a flock of geese or in a circular ball cluster. The larger initial group of approximately 15 individuals would break up into groups of three to five or so. They would dart around in these smaller groups and then come back together as a single group. Sometimes a single object would dart up to another so they looked like one object for a few seconds then peel off again. This happened several times. If I had to describe the activity, I would say it looked like either some sort of training exercise or an engagement between enemies. Whatever the purpose; these UFO maneuvers were clearly under intelligent command.

In the middle of all this, I ran to the bedroom and forced my wife to get up and see this incredible event. She was instantly and clearly able to see all of the things I am describing to you as well. I’m telling you right now that if she was not able to verify what I was seeing; she would have hit me over the head with an iron skillet for waking her up at that hour for no good reason. That is a fact I promise you.

There was no way we were going to get a picture of the UFO activity from a cell phone but my wife cleverly busted out the star gazer app on her phone.  We wanted to at least try to identify a reference star or something to document this sighting as best we could. Wouldn’t you know it – all of this activity was happening within the constellation Orion and right over Orion’s belt. Orion is visible in the northern hemisphere from November through February so it is just now becoming visible from my back deck looking south. I know what Orion’s belt looks like but I did not pick up on it because it was just below the tree tops and not immediately obvious. I created a diagram to show this (see below). Orion’s belt being in play with this UFO sighting is a huge extraterrestrial event. There has been so much documentation about the significance of Orion’s belt being linked to ancient cultures and their relationships to the stars of Orion’s belt and extraterrestrial visitors for thousands of years. In addition; I have found more and previously undiscovered evidence of its importance that is a big part of my book (Extraterrestrial Communication Code). The book will be coming available very soon. This UFO sighting occurring right over Orion’s belt just before dawn and just as Orion’s belt has become visible again in the northern hemisphere has never been documented before as far as I know.

I can tell you that these UFOs were moving from one side of Orion’s belt to the other in approximately one to two seconds. From my point of reference, it seemed like they were moving up and down much faster than they were left to right across Orion’s belt. Not sure if that means anything.

I am wondering if anybody else out there saw what my wife and I saw. I will definitely be hawking the usual space news sites to see if anything pops up.  I will tell you that I have seen many videos and interviews with people that have seen UFOs but until you see one for yourself, there is always at least a thread of skepticism in what you take away from these things. Now that I have seen one, I am so thrilled. Plus, it was not just a single streak across the sky for a couple minutes. Our UFO sighting was a whopper in my opinion. Many vessels for a long time making incredible maneuvers. Any lingering skepticism I may have been harboring is gone without question.

I look forward to any comments and opinions you might like to share with us here at the Extraterrestrial Communication Group. Thanks for dropping by.

Stephen J. Silva

The following was authored by a person named “Dr. Murray” and published by the St. Lawrence Institute for Faith and Culture in April of 2020. The article in its entirety is as follows:

What would the discovery of intelligent life mean for Christianity? Is there anything in the Bible or Church teaching that would support or reject their existence?

One of the joys of working with college students is that I often get exposed to questions that I wouldn’t normally hear. With our culture so immersed in superhero movies and shows on the paranormal, the topic of alien life seems to be a real area of interest for people today, more so than in the past. I think this is a fascinating question and I am grateful for the students who recently brought up this topic. Here are five thoughts on the subject.

1) The role of wonder. The first thing that comes to mind is how pastimes like stargazing, or thinking about the universe and what might be in it, has been a privileged path to experiencing wonder. Why is wonder important? Well, wonder is what takes us out of our everyday affairs and humdrum routines and inspire us to ask questions and think more deeply. It can potentially open us up to God and his grace. If thinking about aliens takes us away from our boredom and leads us to ponder reality in a new way, that’s a good thing!

2) Not to be afraid. Christians should not be afraid of the questions of aliens (or of science more generally). Many people mistakenly believe science to be against faith or that faith somehow requires one to go against science, but as Catholics we believe that faith and science do not contradict each other. Why is this? Because God is the creator of the universe (or multiverse if it exists) and the author of our faith. We should trust that God expects us to use our reason and to actively engage in learning, whether that means studying slugs or pondering the origins of the cosmos. If Christianity is true, and we believe it is, then there should not be any contradiction between what it reveals and what we discover to be true with science, because God is the source of both the ‘book’ of nature and the ‘book’ of revelation. If there happens to be some discrepancy, then either our understanding or interpretation of Revelation is wrong, or our science is wrong.

3) Nothing is incompatible. In my judgement, nothing in Christianity is incompatible with the existence of other intelligent life forms. In fact, Christians already believe in the existence of intelligent life forms in (immaterial) Angels (which technically are their own ‘species’ so we shouldn’t label them with one term), so it wouldn’t be a huge leap to believe that God could make physical intelligent life forms. Here, some people might object that there are passages in Scripture which encourage a ‘human-centric’ view of the universe. A classic example is from Psalm 8:3-8.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

At first glance, this might make you think that everything God created, all of the universe, is geared toward, and exclusively for, humanity; that we are ‘little lower than God’ and that there are no other intelligent beings with a similar dominion over the works of God’s hands. However, a closer reading actually suggests a humility of spirit and the recognition of our smallness in the grand scheme of things. In the author’s mind, all that he sees (earth, sky, stars) does point to the uniqueness of humanity from a phenomenological point of view (like a god) but it doesn’t exclude the possibility that there might be others who could know God in a rational way.

The only real difficulty with Aliens, theologically speaking, is the degree to which our rejection of God (Original Sin) extends beyond earth. For there are passages of Scripture which speak of ‘all creation’ being negatively impacted by our sin and awaiting the final redemption of humanity or the final coming of Christ (Rom 8.19). However, the question is whether this phrase of St. Paul’s referred to all of earth or the universe. It is a real question but I don’t think it would present a contradiction or serious problem either way. It would just make it a bit awkward if Aliens were negatively impacted by our sin.

4) God’s character does not change. How God acts reveals who He is. For example, the deeds and actions recounted in Scripture reveal to us the character of God. Once we know something about God’s character (such as his faithfulness and love of Israel), we naturally expect Him to act in a certain way in the future (such as His desire to save them from their enemies and from sin). In the context of aliens, this means we would expect God to act in a way consistent with how he has acted with Israel in the past and to us in the present. We would expect the same God who, by his nature, is ‘over-flowing’ with goodness, to want to share his goodness with aliens as well as us.

Side note: One of the difficulties many people have with Christianity is that it appears that God’s nature does change. In contrast to the God of the New Testament (often seen as a more loving God), many interpret God through Old Testament passages as being angry and even vengeful, filled with emotion and unstable, changing on a whim; surely not evidence of an eternal and immutable God. This is an important topic that should be taken seriously. God’s nature and his loving provision does not change. God deals differently with people depending on where they are at, but always out of love. For example, I may shout at my one year old to stop playing by the stove’s flame to get her attention immediately and stop her from hurting herself. However, with an older child, I would explain why they should not play with fire (the flame will burn them). But with an adult visitor, who perhaps is unfamiliar with a gas stove, I would explain the mechanics of the stove and how to properly use it (the gas line, the knobs, perhaps how to turn it off and what to do if they smelled a gas leak). In this case, my actions are different with each person depending on their age and abilities, but my good intention is the same: to teach them about the stove and keep them from harming themselves and others. It is the same with God. In the Old Testament, God is essentially dealing with a stubborn and hard-hearted people (like children). After Christ, Christians believe we have come to maturity through the Holy Spirit and so God treats us differently, he expects more of us and he treats us like adults. Another example comes from the Old Testament book, Deuteronomy. Divorce was allowed because Israelite men would presumably have killed their wives if that was the only way out of a marriage. But for Christians, God expects more of us and calls us to not even look at another woman with lust. Different actions, the same loving God.

5) The unique human nature of Jesus. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this question is pondering how Jesus would relate to aliens. As Christians, we believe that ‘God’ is a mysterious tri-unity of Father-Son-Holy Spirit (aka The Trinity). We believe that the Son, Jesus, assumed a human nature by uniting it to his person for our redemption and that he continues to exist with both a human and divine nature forever. Since Jesus will always have a human nature, he would presumably appear as human to aliens (if they exist). Yet his physical body would not be bound by the normal laws of nature as evidenced after his resurrection when crashes the Apostles’ party, walking through walls and locked doors. Jesus’ miraculous human nature is also why we believe he can be physically present in the Eucharist around the world, all at the same time (Aquinas says he is present via his substance and not via the accident of location or place). Therefore, if God did create other intelligent beings with the presumed intention of sharing his love with them, one could believe that Jesus might appear as human looking like, well, an alien! On the other hand, the Holy Spirit could communicate directly to them, either as love or as the voice of conscience; or perhaps with certain shapes such as we see in ‘tongues of fire’ that resulted in the ‘speaking in tongues’ in Acts. It’s hard to conceive of the Father communicating directly to aliens since we believe that the Son is the Father’s act of communicating, just as the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son. Of course, the Father could certainly communicate via the Son and Holy Spirit in a way that we just simply can’t imagine, which reminds us of the speculative nature of this question, and we haven’t even considered how God might ‘redeem’ such aliens. Who knows, if they severed their relationship with God by sinning, perhaps God could redeem their nature without uniting it to the Son’s divine person?

One of the most fascinating attempts to imagine what such an encounter might look like comes from C.S. Lewis in his famous Space Trilogy. Not only does Lewis imagine the creation of new worlds and the interaction between God and the other rational beings, (and even different alien species), but he also displays the interaction between fallen (and redeemed) human beings with aliens. One of the highlights is that Lewis allows us to ponder what an ‘unfallen’ rational species might look like and contrast it with our current state. For example, in his book Perelandra, the female alien seems to communicate directly with God via some sort of telepathy, or better yet, through the clear voice of conscience untainted by sin and distrust of God. Lewis portrays the incarnation of Jesus as a unique and eternally present reality that the other aliens come to know of, and that knowledge actually helps them reject the temptations of the Nietzschean scientist /devil who tempts the aliens to reject God. I don’t want to give too much away, but I would highly encourage those interested in this question to read Lewis’ books; they are fascinating and thought provoking.

End Article –

I look forward to any comments and opinions you might like to share with us here at the Extraterrestrial Communication Group. Thanks for dropping by.

Stephen J. Silva

Today is an exciting day and I am very excited to post up my first ever blog about extraterrestrials for my Extraterrestrial Communication blog site. We call ourselves the Extraterrestrial Communication Group.

As we begin to discuss this topic, I think it’s appropriate to first get our heads around what an extraterrestrial might look like and what their behavior and demeanor might be like. What can we expect? The answer is that we can expect anything and everything a person’s imagination can cook-up. The possibilities are without bounds.

My guess is that communication with an extraterrestrial species will be from a planet that will have a diversity of cultures within that planet that may look similar but with regional differences much like the diversity of humans on earth. I would also expect that these aliens live on a planet that has many different creatures and plant types much as we do on earth. They surely must have homes where they raise their children, prepare meals and sleep. They probably go to school and have jobs. They will have a societal structure, system of government, play games, laugh, cry and have and do all of the types of things we do here on earth. This not to imply that they will be like the human animal. I would expect they survive in a different planetary ecological environment and as such; the diversity of plants and animals would be there but would probably be very different than the plants and animals of earth.

The day is coming soon when contact and communication will be established and perhaps even become common. I hope that happens while I’m still alive to be part of that very exciting possibility coming true. In the same way humans, and all animals really, are threatened and afraid of things that they do not understand – extraterrestrials probably have those same survival instincts.

When the day of communication with extraterrestrials happens, I’m sure we will be afraid and will take a cautiously optimistic approach to growing a relationship with them. They will probably do the same thing.

My favorite president has always been Theodore Roosevelt. There are many reasons for this but one of the most important is his “big stick” foreign diplomacy policy – “speak softly and carry a big stick”. He coined the phrase “Big Stick diplomacy” at a State fair in Minnesota in 1901. He then demonstrated to the world what USA’s big stick looked like by showcasing America’s naval fleet (the “great white fleet”) all over the globe. Roosevelt applied his “big stick” diplomacy tactics in numerous important foreign diplomacy situations including:

1. Making a USA favorable agreement for the construction of the Panama Canal
2. Increased American influence over Cuba
3. The creation of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan. This effort won Roosevelt a 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

Big Stick is a fairly self-explanatory policy and has been proven to be an effective approach to international diplomacy for the U.S. Government (and others) over the years. What that means in the context of extraterrestrial communication is that we will need to have an open mind when we finally communicate with extraterrestrials but we must also be prepared to defend ourselves if our new found friends are not so friendly.

Humans would seem to be at a serious disadvantage in the Big Stick game. If the extraterrestrials are not friendly there is probably not much, if anything, we can effectively do about it. Hopefully they will take a “big stick” approach with us. I imagine their stick will be bigger than ours. That being said; I choose to be optimistic about the inevitable encounter. We are probably not much of a threat to extraterrestrials coming to earth so maybe they will work with us in a peaceful way for the betterment and preservation of humanity and our fragile earth environment. An optimist designed the airplane but a pessimist invented the parachute.

What would I do if I actually met an alien and we could talk to each other? I think that after all the weirdness settled down; the first question I would ask my new alien friend is if he (or she or it) or any of their kind believe in God. The overwhelming majority human cultures that exist now or have existed in the ancient past all over the earth believe or believed that their ancestry and culture began with some level of assistance or the full creation of their people by a deity or multiple deities. Humans have historically gone to war and persecuted people in a most horrible and painful manner over disagreements on the subject of religious beliefs. We still do that to this day. I wonder what “people” from other planets and galaxies think about that concept.

Can you imagine the implications if the alien told a story of religious belief that was consistent with that of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu or any other earthly religious faith? Maybe they have something completely different or perhaps nothing at all.

Extraterrestrial communication impact on religious philosophies will be the subject of my next blog – unless I change my mind first.

I look forward to any comments and opinions you might like to share with us here at the Extraterrestrial Communication Group. Thanks for dropping by.

Stephen J. Silva