At some point, the acceptance of the existence of ETs will already have become so wide spread that there will no longer ensue much of a public shock
when it is officially announced or their representatives land on Earth.
I can visualize that we are seen about as we see a primitive tribe … undisciplined, ignorant of basic science facts, volatile and fundamentally unstable, as well as very dangerous
when aroused… a “primitive tribe” with nukes.
To be considered eligible for admission to the Galactic Union we will presumably have to achieve certain milestones.
I am presuming that the star faring races are enlightened, benign but realistic, and have collectively gathered sufficient experience with having ‘ admitted ‘ a few new races prematurely to develop some rigorous admission criteria.
I suggest they will expect:
1. A World Population that is stable, generally well educated and that no longer has billions living hard scrabble lives at a bare subsistence level.
I note that China has raised about 300 million of its people out of poverty in the last 20 years, and India is showing some signs of such progress also.
In both cases reduced procreation rates are an essential element. With Europe and the US, Canada and surprisingly, Russia at or below the break even point on population growth, the World Muslim population and Africa remain the primary problems with that issue. Rather than having to implement the oppressive “one child” policy of China, it seems clear that once a nation becomes sufficiently prosperous, population growth ceases spontaneously.
2. Certain ethical standards and organizational skills that allow conflict resolution in non-destructive fashion.
3. Scientific and technical knowledge that has reached stated milestones, some of which I can try to guess … understanding of some fundamental “laws of nature”, including
mass/energy relations, the nature of “matter”, “time” and “distance”.
4. Psycho-social sophistication levels that have created a dominant … no, a universally accepted recognition of the value of life (No; I’m not referring to the “Abortion Argument”).
5. Deep space travel capability.  I add that because once we achieve that it will presumably no longer be possible to conceal their existence.
One other comment: Why have we not detected their electronic communications? Because  they’ve moved beyond radiated comm, just as we are. Someone has already noted that
more and more of our comm links are now via hard line/cable/fiber optics. Very soon now we will almost cease to send “I Love Lucy” 21st Century episodes out into space, and those we do will be digitally riding on light beams… like the laser that started all this.
6. One more possibility: Suppose that once mature, all intelligence resides in artificial beings that are immortal and can instantly access all the knowledge ever created. Such beings are not hard for us to postulate nor even to visualize.
Comments?

Bill

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On Aug 31, 2009, at 4:34 PM, rmoore63@juno.com wrote:

I did a search and was informed that the article is no longer available.

Here’s the URL I used:

Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues

The copy I have of the paper is dated 8/18/2009, so should be available.
Perhaps they’ve found it to be too controversial.
In any case, I’ll lend you my copy … and Pastor Wollenberg did say he had  a copy he can give you.
Here’s some comments I’ll make in general:
The people who comment on such issues always seem to operate with the tacit assumption that the USA
can decide these issues.
The hubris is just amazing!
Any decision will, at best, be applicable to a fraction (some Lutherans) of the US public, and almost totally ineffective in the rest of the world.
That is not an argument against US sources arriving at ethical conclusions, but only to realize that they are not in control and can only influence by persuasive logic.
More comments:
Stem cell challenges are perhaps the lead issue posted  for the Church by imminent science developments.
Here’s a few more that are looming just over the event horizon:
a. How do we respond to the existence of self aware computers/robots/entities?
1. Once turned on, can we ethically turn them off?
2. Will they accrue “civil rights”?
3. How do we determine whether they have a “soul”?
b. What about an entity that has received the entire contents of a living person’s brain… after that person dies?
1. Is it “that person” in another manifestation?
2. Does that person’s soul still exist in the entity?
3. What legal rights does such a “being” have?
4. What about an exact electronic copy of such an entity. Which is the “primary ‘person’ “, if indeed, it is a “person”?
5. what about the additional capabilities the “person” would enjoy in their new “body”? E.g., total eidetic recall of every memory
held by the original brain, even though the “original” only had imperfect recall of their “human” memories?
6. If such a transferred awareness invented something using only the information in the original brain, who would “own” the patent?
c. What about “in vitro” gestation?
a. I can easily imagine arguments, once it becomes possible, that corporeal (natural) gestation has become unethical because so many vital factors are so much more difficult to detect and control, whereas, in vitro the fetus from the first instant of fertilization is maintained in ideal conditions, development is monitored and immediate intervention occurs before any damage can ensue.
Can you imagine a world in which corporeal gestation is viewed as we now view Medieval Medicine ?

And finally there’s the work done by my friend Sylvain, who has shown the complete sequence by which a genome can arise spontaneously, given only a “water world” and some common natural conditions.
His paper  is posted on the web here:

http://www.innido.com/

My view: That his paper has proven that life can, and very probably will spring spontaneously given the conditions existing naturally on any water world is NOT a contradiction of the existence of God, nor of His being the source of all life.
On the contrary, it is scientific proof of His act of creation in the form of the fundamental laws governing the Big Bang and everything that has ensued therefrom.
But think on this: It does argue extremely powerfully that life exists on every such “water world” right now … given only that it is in the several billion year period between its cooling from original formation and the inevitable death of the star that is its sun.
The Christian Church, and all of Humanity are about to face questions that will make current discussions about stem cells seem like medieval arguments about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Bill

Congress claims it requires 1000 pages of new law to “fix” Health Care.
(I’ve attached the draft House Bill below…. note that this must be a work of months by a team of medical and legal “experts” who have remained anonymous. Why are they hiding? Who hired them? What’s their background? And note how many issues are referred to other legal sources/authorities. The actual jurisdictional spread of this draft bill is just incalculable!)
This guy has done it in 16 lines of type.
I would add competition by requiring medical service providers to post “standard” costs in advance for all scheduled, non-emergency procedures/treatments… not a couple months later when you find out how much the insurance did not cover.
Post-facto cost increases would require specific reasons for the deviation, and approval by a consumer committee.
All decreases below initially estimated costs will be accrued, and the care provider will receive a bonus at the end of the year consisting of 50% of the total amount saved… with funds provided from a 5% surcharge on all services.
Because a potential patient will know estimated costs beforehand, they will be able to shop around for a lower price… so padding the costs to accrue a bonus will not work.
If this sounds strange, realize that we buy every other significant service or commodity knowing costs in advance … a house, car, even a TV we know exactly what it will cost and can decide whether the cost is reasonable or whether we want to shop around some more before deciding.
The tradition of “buying” medical services without knowing costs in advance is a residue of when Dr.s had standard, reasonable charges and we simply relied upon that.
Back then the “Family Physician” was a personal friend, who had probably treated your Dad and Mom before you were even born. And most problems saw him driving to your house, checking you out in your sick bed and prescribing the remedy there and then. No $400/day hospital room costs and no $10 aspirin tablets.
Yes, I know, there were no MRIs nor CatScans and many died who would live today. But these new capabilities are not being invented every year … yet costs go up yearly as though the expensive devices all just arrived on the scene last month.

Bill
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Here’s the House Draft Bill:

Dear Congress Persons,

Our present health care system does have some problems. What we need
to do is fix those problems, not scrap the entire system for
something new and untested.

1.) Our present system does not have enough competition. The
President uses the lack of competition as a reason for advocating a
public option. But there are over 1000 health insurance companies in
the country. Most of them cannot compete because politicians do not
allow them to offer their services across state lines. Remove the
artificial political barriers that prevent competition. Problem #1
solved.

2.) Our present system is too expensive. One of several reasons for
this is because politicians force insurance companies to include
services in their policies which most people do not need or want,
but are forced to pay for. Allow insurance companies to tailor their
products to the wants/needs of each individual client, and pay for
only those services, and costs will come down. Most people
don’t want coverage from dollar one of health care expenses,
but only for catastrophic occurrences. Solving problem one also
brings down costs.

3.) The cost of malpractice insurance is too high. Doctors are
forced to pay exorbitant amounts for malpractice insurance because
jury awards are, in many cases, wildly excessive. The need for tort
reform has been recognized for many years, but politicians have
failed to act. Revise tort law to eliminate frivolous law suits and
control awards for true malpractice to reasonable amounts based on
actual costs plus sensible “pain and suffering”
amounts. This will bring down costs at every level of the system.

4.) What’s with the attempt to force health insurers to sell
policies to people with pre-existing conditions? That is like
forcing homeowner insurers to sell a policy to someone whose house
has already burned down, or a life insurer to sell to someone who is
already dead. It completely ignores the basic concept of insurance.
Get real!

Name , based on the governments track record of managing such
entities as social security (broke), Medicare/Medicaid (broke), the
Post Office (broke), Amtrak (broke) – you get the idea – it is
almost insane to contemplate the government getting more involved in
health care than they already are. You may have noticed that in all
the examples above it is politicians intruding into the free
enterprise system that has caused the problem. Just leave us alone.
I would sincerely appreciate it if you would do everything you can
to remove government involvement in all areas except those
specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

Sincerely,

Charles M. Billman, Jr.
1791 Hwy A1A #1406
Indian Harbour Beach, FL 32937