Why do scriptures seem concerned with only this world?

[weed_eater_guy]

Why do scriptures seem concerned with only this world?
What I mean by "this world" is when scripture talks about god creating the universe, he creates the world, etc etc. right up to man. Please understand i'm much more familiar with Christian ways of thinking and am currently studying (out of curiosity) Islamic belief, so I'm not familiar with far eastern philosophies such as hinduism or buddism. But, it's written in a few religions at least various ways the world and thus humanity will end.

I have to wonder why this is so geocentric. It is a very real posibility that mankind may begin to project itself off this planet sometime in the next few centuries. So why do scriptures seem to talk as if mankind will only be on this planet and that this planet is our only realm? It makes sence that man would only think in those terms up to a century or so ago, but things have changed. We're no longer concerned only with the affairs of this world, but of many stellar presences.

I wonder if this mean's the end is destined to come months before some colony ship gives humanity a foothold on another fertile world. I guess what I'm asking is, would my God wish to see humanity end just before we can achieve such evolution as to be able to civilize other worlds? Or would mankind end in the sence that traditional man would end, and we would somehow have evolved to a new stage in evolution, where a better sence of coexistance exists between us all.

It's difficult for me to grasp how our tinkering could very well alter the definition of the apocalypse, and I welcome any commentary or criticism, no matter how profound.

 

[S.A.M.]

It's not the same in Islam where creation is an ongoing process and is not restricted to this planet.

The Arabic words used are As-Samaawaate (skies/space) and Al-arde (earths/worlds).

 

[Oxygen]

This world was all that mankind knew at the time they wrote the scriptures. When they talk about the deluge that flooded the whole world, they meant the only place they knew of, that was their immediate area, which was their "whole world". People didn't travel very far in those days, so a flood that wiped out an area for miles might be all that they knew of the world. Though some philosophers believed that there were other worlds "without end", it was mostly conjecture, and the only life they knew was what was on this world. So the authors of the scriptures did what all good authors do; they wrote what they knew, based on the popular mythology of the day.

As far as how far back people began to take seriously the idea of life on other worlds, the American Revolution's own Ethan Allen was among a group of thinkers who were certain that there was life on other worlds and that they had their own gods and political beliefs that didn't parallel our own. He never considered if we would meet them, only when. Apparently he wasn't alone in these beliefs, as the matter was discussed with other Rebel officers from time to time, with the semi-whimsical fear that extraterrestrial beings might make contact during the war and come down on the side of the British and bring higher technology. That particular prospect was viewed as unlikely, but some nights, after bit of grog, it became a good campfire topic.

Off the subject of scripture, I think it would be neat to go back in time and see what their imaginations would crop up as high-tech gadgetry just to see how their view of the future stacked up to what actually became. Cars and crude robots (called automatons) were proven to be physically possible, although impractical due to various diffculties. I'm not sure right now what other common devices we have today got their very first start in the 18th century.

 

[Adstar]

Hello weed_eater_guy

I am a Christian by the way.

While much of the scriptures deal with Gods will on how we should interact with each other on this planet, It also talks about How we should interact with God. God is not an earth centric being but the Creator of all physical existence. Therefore it can be said that the most profound messages of scripture are not earth centric at all.

I have to wonder why this is so geocentric. It is a very real posibility that mankind may begin to project itself off this planet sometime in the next few centuries. So why do scriptures seem to talk as if mankind will only be on this planet and that this planet is our only realm? It makes sence that man would only think in those terms up to a century or so ago, but things have changed. We're no longer concerned only with the affairs of this world, but of many stellar presences.

A large part of scripture deals with prophecy. That prophecy details the ultimate outcome of the self destructive tendencies of mankind amplified by the increase of knowledge. We have always been flawed in the sense that we engage in warfare. But in times past this warfare although terrible has not destroyed the life supporting ability of this planet. Also the human flaw of greed in times past has not polluted and destroyed the earths life supporting system. But today while we remain the same the destructive tools at your disposal has amplified our self destructive abilities to the point where the end of human life on this planet is achievable through either damage caused by Greed and or damaged caused by war. Greed and War seem to go and in hand in most cases.

So although it would be technically possible that avoiding ecological or military disaster we could one day have the necessary technological ability and resources to colonize other worlds, practically our inbuilt flaws would prevent us reaching that level of knowledge. Bible prophecy talks of such calamitous wars. These wars will lead to destruction on a scale so great that if not for the intervention of God all human beings would perish. Jesus talked of these future times.

Matthew 22
21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

So in short because of our flaws we are doomed to self destruct upon reaching a critical mass of technology sufficient to make recovery of our planets life supporting ability unrecoverable.

I wonder if this mean's the end is destined to come months before some colony ship gives humanity a foothold on another fertile world. I guess what I'm asking is, would my God wish to see humanity end just before we can achieve such evolution as to be able to civilize other worlds? Or would mankind end in the sence that traditional man would end, and we would somehow have evolved to a new stage in evolution, where a better sence of coexistance exists between us all.

In the Bible the concept of evolution of mankind is replaced by the concept of the transformation of mankind. The Bible teaches that mankind upon the intervention of God will be transformed into the kind of being that has these before mention flaws removed. This transformation will give us the wisdom and the ability to live in peaceful coexistence with our fellow man.

I hope this has given you something to ponder weed_eater_guy.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

The Abrahamic scriptures, and most of the others with recent exceptions such as those of the Mormons and Scientologists, were written by people who believed that what we call "the world" was a plane of indeterminate dimensions. They had no idea how far away the stars were so they assumed they were just tiny points of light. Even the moon was not known to be so far away that due to the effect of optical perspective it actually had a surface area comparable to all of the known land on earth and could, at least gravitationally, support life.

So when people talked about "the world," they meant it. There was only one.

 

[VitalOne]

Eastern scriptures mention many planets or worlds (lokams), Earth is still significant, in Hinduism for example it is said that birth as a human is superior to birth as devas, and other beings in the universe. But sometimes Earth seems like a primitive insignificant planet in some stories (which take place on other planets). Also in Hinduism God incarnates in many different worlds other than Earth whenever the balance has been broken

 

[lightgigantic]

In the vedas there are whole descriptions of the different planetary systems (14 to be exact) but they are all considered mundane because they innvolve temporary material hells and heavens - in otherwords these details are often also immersed in normative descriptions (descriptions of what one should do, as opposed todescriptions of what people do do) to assist discrimination on right and wrong behaviour, nature of illusion etc

But, beyond all this there is an eternal spiritual realm full of variety - the descriptions innvolved here are not normative - in otherwords the material realm is not accepted as our constitutional position (hence the normative descriptions)