TERRAFORM MARS OR BEAT THE DEVIL - TAKE YOUR PICK

Further to our previous discussions on this topic, this popped up on msn.com this morning:

Here's What It Would Take To Make Mars A Livable Landscape (msn.com)

Terraforming Mars?

From the piece linked to above: "Terraforming Mars would likely take centuries."  

Add to that the unimaginable cost and great stretches of time it would realistically likely take to get our technology and resources scaled up to a level where such an ambitious task would be even remotely possible and then moving all that stuff from Earth to Mars. 

Say, for example, the giant space mirrors proposed to be placed in orbit around Mars to heat the planet up (current average Mars temperature - minus 80 degrees F). Where would they be built and how could they be transported to Mars? How many would be required? How long would they last? How would you fix or replace them if they broke? How much would just that one project cost, and who would pay for it? 

Reality checks like that prove the silliness and utter impracticality of such ideas - other than as fodder for good sci-fi entertainment and expanding the human imagination. Rational cost/benefit analysis spells the doom of all such flights of fancy - especially when one considers the magnitude of the cost and what otherwise could be done with those massive resources to benefit human beings right here on Earth. 

The most telling question, of course - the one I've asked previously - is WHY? Why would we want to terraform Mars? Even if such a project was dazzlingly successful, the result could never compare with the luxuriant environment provided us right here on Mother Earth. 

As LDS scripture makes clear:

"For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I [God] prepared all things and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves." - Doctrine & Covenants, 104:17

All things prepared - everything necessary to the unfolding of God's purposes for his human family has been amply provided for us right here on Earth - "enough and to spare". 

Ah, but, as the British say, there's a rub... that sticky business about free agency. God has given us to be agents unto ourselves - with the attendant inexorable reality that we must bear the consequences of our free choices. We are free to muck things up and have done an impressive job of it. A scan of recorded history from the beginning leads to the sad conclusion that we have not done a sterling job with the gift of free agency. 

Accordingly, the greatest challenge mankind faces is not getting to the stars (or even to Mars) but confronting and overcoming the reality of human evil - the suicidal corruption that so broadly permeates the souls of mankind - the corruption that has wrought misery, blood and horror on the face of the earth from the beginning. If "the evil that lurks in the hearts of men" (the Shadow knows) were to be put down, the brilliance of collective human intelligence could be used to turn Mother Earth into a paradise. Everyone would be blessed and happy. We would be walking on streets paved with gold. No war, no famine, no disease - a virtual heaven on Earth. 

Sadly, overcoming evil has throughout history proven to be entirely beyond the reach of unregenerate mortal man - but, happily, not beyond the reach of God. Our Father in Heaven, who "loved us first" before we knew him, has prepared for his human family, through the atoning sacrifice of his Son, and declared to the world the means - the only means - whereby man can be freed from the power of evil:

"Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God."

- Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:20-21 

"...there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness."

- Book of Mormon, Alma 38:9

The reality most likely is that mankind's fate will be determined right here on Mother Earth and long before we are anywhere near being technologically capable of undertaking a task so hubristic and frivolous as terraforming a distant planet. By far the greater and more worthy task is the transforming - the "divinizing" - of the corrupt human soul, the overcoming of the Natural Man. This is God’s work:

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." - 

- Admonition of Jesus Christ - Matthew 5:48

If we have been so admonished by Jesus, then becoming perfect “even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” must be possible - but how? (BTW, if A=B, and B = C, then C=A. With reference to the above scripture, can anyone tell me what that equation implies?) 

The Natural Man stands as a virtually impenetrable barrier separating each of us from the perfection God requires - except under certain specific conditions.

Here's how the Natural Man can be put down:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:19

Let me suggest that this challenge - confronting and overcoming the evil of the human heart - is the greatest any one of us will ever face - greater by far than the relatively paltry nickel-and-dime business of terraforming a dead, distant planet or building a FTL engine to take us to the stars. 

The greatest battles ever fought or yet to be fought by mankind - and the greatest achievements - will take place on the quiet inner battlefield of the human soul.

Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, order vs. chaos, law vs. lawlessness, justice vs. injustice, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, happiness vs. misery, God vs. the Godless...

No more complicated than that.

Torquemada