DARPA hosted a starship symposium last week. That's right, they want to build a starship, and they are bringing together scientists and engineers to discuss how to develop the necessary technology. While DARPA designs plasma shields and interstellar light bulbs for its ship, I'm contemplating the doctrinal implications for the crew who will be worshiping the Creator within an unnatural environment.
Reflecting on God's works was one of the ways that Christians exercised stewardship over the soul's capacity for understanding Wesley argued in his doctrinal sermon on the Last Judgment, Sermon 51, par. III.3. This includes striving to know that God providentially gives us Life and Breath.
How does the crew of a submarine understand this aspect of providence when for them each breath depends upon technology designed by people? And how much more dependent on human ingenuity will those on the starship feel? What does a work of Providence look like in space?
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