I have had one thought bouncing around in my head for a few days now and a recent article in the New York Times (“Gauging a Collider’s Odds of Creating a Black Hole”) prompts me to post it and other thought.
First
What is the ethical or religious response to the prayer at the beginning of this essay? What do you say to a person whose creation or invention can, if used one way, benefit mankind but, if used in an entirely different manner, destroy mankind?
And yes, this is the question that we faced in 1945 with the development of the first atomic weapons? My father was one of those who knew that his life was spared because we dropped the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the likelihood is that your father might have been one as well.
So how do we respond?
Second
Whether you think that our first encounter with other life forms is a derivation of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Independence Day”, or “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, what should be our response? How do we relate the Good News to another intelligent/extra-terrestrial life form?
Just some things to think about today.
Thoughts From The Heart On The Left 
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The first two sentences are laudable. The final sentence sadly reflects a mentality not unknown in our materialistic culture.
There is not hardly any advance in science that can not and has not been used both for good and evil. The imagination that produces progress can also produce destruction. Just as chemical advances produced insecticides so later this same technology was used by Nazi Germany to kill millions of innocent people.
I have had church members who, having survived front line combat in the ETO were being prepared for similar duty in the PTO. They were thankful that the atom bombs were used as it made needless an invasion of the Japanese mainland. Such an invasion would have been devastating for Japan.
How should we respond to another life form? Exactly as we would with any other human being, ie., with wisdom, reserve and common sense. In the same way we should present the Gospel to another life form, ie., exactly as we would to any other human being.
How do we relate the Good News to another life form?
Is this other life form human?
I think we can’t answer your second question until/unless it happens.
After further reflection, I modified my last question to include intelligent/extra-terrestrial life forms.