AI Google on the Fermi Paradox: https://share.google/aimode/il1JI5wlbQf1DuMxn
Queridos,
The Fermi Hypothesis (see link below) is an intriguing “thought experiment”, although I must emphasize that it is only a hypothesis. (The alternative is just too bleak.)
For years, I have harbored an “interactive hypothesis” that many Christian fundamentalists (and an indeterminate number of Christian evangelicals), are so attached to (what I consider) their ill-informed view of Christianity, wherein the only important thing is the essential selfishness of individual “salvation” (and secondarily, the salvation of loved ones and fellow church members) that these folks create the political circumstances that only permit the development of Science to the point where they can still rationalize its coexistence with their simple-minded “reduction” of Christianity with the discoveries of science. (“If you love only those who love you, what good is there in that? Do not the pagans do this too?”)
And then, when/if the simple-minded Christians get to the point where the “gathering” discoveries of science become so overwhelmingly convincing that they can no longer keep their addled faith alive, they make a collective “decision” (albeit unconsciously) to snuff all life on earth rather than admit that their view of Christianity was “two sizes too small” to accommodate a larger domain of Truth.
And so, confronting definitive loss of their faith because their “Christian” worldview was too constrictively straight-jacketing, they decide (in some exceedingly weird matrix of consciousness) that it’s better to “end at all” than to relinquish their narrow-minded faith, and … well … “grow up” into mature educated people who believe that The General Welfare and The Common Good trump their goddamn rugged individualism.
I think it was Fyodor Dostoyevsky, or the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (???) who observed that “Humankind cannot bear much reality.”
An extraordinary science fiction novel is waiting to be written about this self-terminating culmination to the Fermi Hypothesis… a novel whose heroes set about short-circuiting it.
In the storyline I envision, “The Resistance” would go about the business of trying to convince the pseudo-Christian dimwits that their worldview is fundamentally flawed…while simultaneously working to deprive them of the the political power that gives them access to the nuclear button as is happening before our very eyes with Christian Nationalism totally in bed with His Malignancy.
Since very early in Trump’s first term, it has been clear to me that if Lingering Orange Fart were forced to confront his failure as a father, brother, husband, politician, (honest, non-grifting) businessman, and human being, he would rather destroy it all than let his abject failure — across the whole spectrum of human endeavour — become apparent to posterity.
PS If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to watch the newly-released documentary about American poet, Mary Oliver. Its title says it all: “Saved by the beauty of the world.” Salvation by Truth or Beauty means precious little - or, effectively, nothing - to Christian fundamentalists who, like Trump, are such transactional people that “they MUST get something out of the deal” or it’s just not worth living.
Kaboom!
Poof!
Poo-tee-weet.
Poo-tee-weet.
*****
The following is a reply from physician friend, Ed Myer M.D.
|  Sep 9, 2026, 7:10 PM (2 days ago) | |||
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What has me most perplexed is how educated folks (a Navy engineer married to an old college friend; a military doctor in my med. sch. class) can be SO sucked in to trump & MAGA—
They won’t even answer simple questions. . . w/o blowing a fuse.
*****
Alan: My reply to Ed:
Dear Ed,
Until recently, I too was most perplexed.
But I now realize that the cumulative weight of Science is catching up on "the dimwits" which is to say on people whose bizarre "literalist" religious beliefs are so fragile - and so achingly, indispensably necessary if they are to "carry on" - that we find ourselves on the brink of Science overwhelming their simple-minded beliefs, and whether unconsciously or quasi-consciously, will live in a state of continual terror at the ever more present prospect of "losing their religion."
I believe Christian nationalists are increasingly aware that Science requires all of us to acknowledge the validity of most scientific discovery, or at least obliges the acknowledgement that any backwater Congolese clinic works more miracles in a day -- by the administration of antibiotics and vaccines -- than Jesus worked in his lifetime.
It is true that "The Ultimate Questions are beyond the reach of Science - starting with the unknowability of whether there is "life after death."
But as Science performs more and more amazing feats, most of them characterized by profoundly-impressive "predictability," without having to resort to the apparent randomness of "miracles" which have always been Catholic Christianity and Fundamentalism's "go-to proofs" for the inscrutable Majesty of their all-powerful God, all humans are less and less able to maintain the medieval artifice of "miraculousness uber alles."
Every day - and ever more quickly with Artificial Intelligence realizing inconceivably marvelous achievements with each passing day - nearly all human beings realize that Science represents a fundamental alternative (an existential menace really) to conservative Christian epistemology.
And so, conservative Christians follow Trump's lead of doubling down, trebling down, quadrupling down, quintupling down on "Old Time Religion" to avoid Truth as it now manifests in increasingly astonishing ways.
The upshot is that -- albeit unconsciously -- conservative Christians (like Trump himself I think would rather unleash Armageddon than recognize that their "Old Time Religion" has been supplanted, and - by God! - they're not going to admit the supplantation even if it means destroying intelligent life on planet Earth, thus "proving" the Fermi Paradox.
As you know, there are intelligent, Science-accommodating approaches to Christianity, and folks can explore them by googling G.K. Chesterton, Rev. Ivan Illich, Pere Teilhard de Chardin, Trappist monk Thomas Merton, Erasmus and recently-deceased Wendell Berry who for several decades was America's closest approximation to a "living prophet."
But in the end, it is about MEANING.
Compendium: Christian Conservatism, Biblical Literalism And The Unique Hatred Of Yahweh's Command That ALL Men In Any Town Where Rebellious Children Live, MUST Stone Them To Death
"All" My Blog Posts Containing The Word "Jesus," Or The Word "Christ" -- Plus "A Theology In Memes"
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2025/09/all-my-blog-posts-containing-word-jesus.html
Many Christian Conservatives - and all Christian Nationalists - are still trying to find meaning here:
The Normalization Of Cruelty During Donald Trump's Administration: A Compendium (Updated July 6, 2025)
Compendium: Christian Conservatism, Biblical Literalism And The Unique Hatred Of Yahweh's Command That ALL Men In Any Town Where Rebellious Children Live, MUST Stone Them To Death
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