Federal buraucracies run on budgets. Bureaucrats desire bigger budgets. Even the scientists at NASA fall victim to this temptation…

NASA announced that they detected an ocean beneath the surface of one of Saturn’s moons. If conditions are right, it could mean the existence of life:

NASA announced Thursday that a subsurface ocean has been detected on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, with hydrogen pouring into it from hydrothermal activity on the sea floor. The gas could potentially provide a chemical energy source for life, researchers from the Cassini project to Saturn and the Hubble Space Telescope report. The findings suggest that Enceladus has an ocean below its surface similar to the one believed to exist on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

KEEP THE MONEY FLOWING

In the world of rent-seeking bureaucracy, the game is to turn one Federal grant into another Federal grant. That’s why the mission must never end. There must always be some great discovery that we’ve only just been able to glimpse. More government money is needed to turn that glimpse into something more:

The work shows that humanity should send a mission specifically to Enceladus to hunt for signs of life, researchers said.

Professor Jackman, who worked on the Cassini mission, called the findings a “tantalising result” and called for further work to establish more about the icy moon. Professor Dartnell said that there are “some really profound discoveries awaiting us”.

The basis for this excitement and hope is faith. The Bloomberg article opens with a statement of that faith: “All of us can thank water for helping life emerge from the remnants of the big bang.”

Bloomberg assures us that “Chemicals needed for life formation include carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, phosphorous, and nitrogen.” Of course, nobody has ever observed the formation of life, except in the womb. The idea of abiogenesis — life springing into existence from non-life — remains an elusive myth supported by faith in cosmic impersonalism. It’s a faith contrary to the Christian faith, asserting that there is no divine creator who will hold every person personally accountable for their actions on the day of Final Judgment.

The impersonal heat-death of the universe is a much more pleasant and welcoming thought than eternal suffering in the Lake of Fire.

COLLIDING WORLDVIEWS

Christiaan Huygens was the first to discover that Saturn had moons. He discovered the moon, Titan, in 1655 using an optical telescope. At the same time, he also discovered Saturn’s rings. But this was 45 years after Galileo, in 1610, had discovered the moons of Jupiter.

Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons was big news. That’s because it contradicted the prevailing worldview at the time: that all heavenly bodies must orbit the earth, which was at the center of the universe. This was not a Christian development, but a Greek one: largely Aristotle’s, to be precise.

Celestial objects were said to be made out of divine substance called aether. The perfect shape was a circle, and spheres were glorified circles, so all celestial objects were assumed to be perfect spheres made out of aether. And, to top it off, they even traveled in circles around Earth.

Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons threw a serious wrench in this ancient worldview. It would be less than a hundred years before the Greek view of the universe was finally demolished for good and replaced with the heliocentric theory that placed the sun at the center.

Galileo’s discovery destroyed the prevailing worldview. In much the same way, modern scientists hope to discover life on another planet, or another moon, or in another galaxy — anywhere, just as long as it’s discovered — in hopes that it will destroy Christianity. Atheistic scientists have no qualms with using the coercive power of the federal government to extract wealth from Christians. Then, they turn around and use it to fund the Christians’ own demise.

It’s a little like digging your own grave before falling in after being shot to death by a Nazi soldier.

THE PUNCHLINE

The joke’s on the statists, however. In a universe where there can be no God, the chief and highest authority is the government. Politics becomes religion. But big government relies on fiat money creation and massive debt. The big-government spokesmen have faith that too much government debt does not lead to insolvency like too much personal or business debt.

They are wrong.

At some point, the economic chickens will come home to roost. In that day, people will become more concerned about finding new jobs to replace their dried-up flow of government funds than they will be with hearing about life on a Saturnian moon. The scientists at NASA will be screaming to get their budgets back, but their cries will be drowned out by the much larger special interest groups who won’t care a heap for the famine in the offices of NASA.

They’ll be much more concerned about dealing with their own toothache.