| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The idea that we might find the Barsoom from the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs was impossibly seductive. Or maybe we would see traces of the Ancient Mars from the books of Robert Heinlein- that would be equally marvelous.
Also, there were
the folk stories and
myths to ponder- the Hopi tradition said their ancestors came to
Earth from “the Red Star”, and there were other such references from
other parts of the world. Also, why was Mars the God of War to the
Romans (Ares to the Greeks)? This sort of speculation was typically
reserved for writers and mythologists, but in that summer it suddenly
became something more. Somewhere in the soul of Man, a yearning that had
lain dormant found a voice. What if, what if, what if…?
When you purchase a lottery ticket, the best part of the
experience is the time between the purchase and the announcement of the
winning numbers. For that time at least, you are a winner. Heisenberg
again- until you lose, you have (potentially) “Already Won!”
Say what you will about the supposed danger
inherent in a paradigm-shattering discovery; none of that is truly valid
when the deepest of all questions is in the equation. People do not
want to believe we are alone. Atheists are angry because they
think we are. Deists are afraid the answer might be complicated, and
don’t want to have to function with insufficient data, so they choose
a religion, or accept one thrust upon them- but the important need is
satisfied, the yearning to not be Alone, to believe in a purpose and
continuity to the Universe. Only in the Modern Era has there even arisen
such a concern- we have all been cheated by Progress, by an abandonment
of Wonder. The older civilizations did not consider Life to be a mere
scientific definition, nor an accident, but an integral part of all
existence. Whether the gods came from other worlds or other planes of
existence, or God was manifest in all things, the distinctions were all side issues. Fairies, Angels, demons, Elementals,
spirits, these were all evidence of Life beyond the mundane world, and
the Soul of Man was comforted thereby in spite of any mystery and terror
which might be included in the package. An announcement made in one of
those cultures that a civilization had been found on another world, that
those lights in the night sky were surrounded by places like Earth,
would not have incited panic. In fact, most of those cultures seem to
have known that already. If that discovery included the news that we were
related, well that would have been wonderful. Is that not a core message
in all religions, that Man was in some fashion Created in the image of
God? Hope and Promise fulfilled. Of course, that does make the political
job of convincing people to kill each other in pursuit of the supremacy
of one viewpoint over
another a bit more difficult. It is easier to do that with people who
believe they have an ultimately pointless and localized
existence. Is this why we were steered away from that
understanding? The desire is undeniably still there.
On to this stage, came the Face. Someone at NASA was looking at copies of photos taken by the Viking orbiters and saw something so anomalous he drew an arrow to it with the remark, “Face?” It sure looked like a human face- it had eyes, a mouth, a nose, even indication of either long hair or a helmet. No one at NASA would ever officially describe it as anything but a “trick of light and shadow”, but that detail from that image found its way into the pages of a European magazine, and the controversy began. Or is that truly where it started? |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
