Ben Pearce: Space Trilogy 1 Post 1

Space Trilogy and Theology

            “No moon could really be that size; and he realized now that he had known this from the first but had repressed the knowledge through terror”. On Ransom’s journey up into space, he can see from out the window, Earth. In his mind, he kept telling himself that he was only seeing the moon, that he was on Earth, and the moon was far away in the sky above. Through all of this fear, Ransom began to realize that he had known this was not the moon all along. I suspect he may have even known already that it was Earth, but he was far too afraid to say anything other than what was comfortable for him. It was something that would calm him and would be rational to him.

            How often do we do this sort of thing in our lives? How often do we try to rationalize the wonders that we may be seeing or hearing or smelling or touching or tasting? Do we only want what seems comfortable, or are we ready to experience something new? This is similar in Christianity; in Romans 1, God tells us through Paul about people who repress God,

²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

(Romans 1: 20-23)

We can see here, even God can be repressed in people’s mind because of what is comfortable or “rational”. Likewise, Ransom refused at first to believe an irrational fact, that he was seeing the Earth from outer space rather than the moon.