BEINGS ON OTHER PLANETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 December 1933, Page 10

BEINGS ON OTHER PLANETS

BOLD THEORIES OF DR. BARNES

That there are superior beings on other planets who may one day be allo to communicate by wireless with a new race of supermen on earth was the fascinating theory advanced by the Bishop of Birmingham in a lecture at University College, Hull, recently. Alter a survey of the latest findings and computations of astronomers, and asking if it was likely that oux 1 earth was the only meixxer of any planetary system on which intelligent life has appeared. Dr. Barnes continued:

“Those who think that the earth alone is the home of intelligent beings usually asunxe that, fox- the origin of terrestrial life, we must postulate some supernatural creative act. “But there are others—and with them 1 range myself—to whom such assumptions and arguments do not appeal. It is surely beyond the limits of probability that a cosmos so vast should have in it but one planet, otherwise in no way exceptional, on which life has appeared. Nature may be wasteful, but. that God has made a cosmos so vast and so meaningless passes belief.”

Discussing the mystery of the origin of life on earth, Dr. Barnes assumed “a gradual change from the non-living to Hie living.” He urged that such “a smooth slide up to life” is in harmony with. God’s action in nature. “Material conditions on the cooling earth must have been paralleled a vast number of times in the history of the universe; and on each occasion we may assume, by the postulate of the uniformity of God’s action, that life has. been created.” ULTIMATE CONTACT. Many such planets, he argued',’must have been formed thousands of millions of years before oux* earth. With successively higher ranges of mental development the mental, moral, ami spiritual attainment of living organisms there must far surpass that reached on earth by men. “We axe aware of other suns because of the light which they send us. Light is a form of radiation: to radiation wireless rays belong. Where light can travel, wireless can travel also.

“Doubtless we are at present incapable of creating ox 1 receiving wireless waves that can cross the depths of space. But need such inability endure for ever?

“Man, so fax' as we can see, has yet many millions of years upon this earth. Oux- own civilisation will vanish, possibly quite soon. But other civilisations, more audacious and powerful, will probably in due course arise.

“And. when man passes from the earth, othex 1 species, if geological history is any guide, will with greater intelligence rule tho earth. In the end. alter thousands of millions of years, the sun’s light and heat will decay ami earth will he no fit place for life.”