Although I have worked on Christian Missions for about ten years I am not a Christian. In fact I feel more sympathy with paganism than I do Christianity, but I cannot believe in any form of God.
Gabriel is a Christian and one of the nicest people I have ever met. A lecturer in Divinity and chaplain to the University, he had inherited both job and the house which had once belonged to Desmond Tutu. I got to know Gabriel when his computer got infected by a virus. To my shame I was unable to recover the book he had written. Gabriel was a firm believer in the ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ commitee, and ‘Truth and Reconcilliation as a method for solving human conflict. But although well meaning he is hopelessly impractical and without the first notion of anything scientific.
Gabriel had seen Philip Morrison in his wheel chair coming into the University. He asked me who he was. I explained as that Dr Morrison was an eminent physicist who had discovered a way that people on other planets might communicate, and was part of an organisation looking for intelligent beings on other planets. He had previously been a leader of the project to make the first atomic bomb.
Of course Gabriel had no inhibitions about approaching a person with a disability. Wearing his dog collar went up to Phil introduced himself and asked about Phil’s inability to walk. Phil replied with one word; “Polio”. Philip Morrison does not like being helped because he cannot walk.
After Phil’s second talk, about SETI (Search for extraterrestrial intelligence). People were invited to discuss. There was very little discussion except that from Gabriel.
Gabriel took the view that if inhabitants of other stars discussed things, they would be bound to get on. He clearly envisaged a sort of inter-stellar ‘Truth and Reconcilliation Council’. Phil pointed ot that it was likely that it would take at least 20 years for a message from our nearest possibly inhabited neighboring planet to reach the earth.
Ex Communist Party member Phil was nonplussed by Gabriels suggestion he should pray for a faster method of sending messages by radio.
Communication between intelligent beings is as likely to succed as communication between some good well-intentioned humans.