By first contact I mean the ability to communicate with a planet that has intelligent life. By intelligent life I mean life that is capable of establishing bidirectional communication with our World using some form of technology compatible with ours. It does not mean visiting that planet which could only happen much later. Bidirectional communications could be very slow. Depending on distance a single message could take tens of years to be received, if not much, much longer.
Will first contact come after travelling to distant stars? I think first contact will happen after we have traveled to a handful of distant stars without intelligent life. This would be in keeping with the second vision. I think we need to learn to love our planet and distant planets with beings of a lesser love before we make contact with intelligent beings on other planets. Such an achievement likely requires further progression after the second vision is achieved.
When we make contact with intelligent life how can we determine how progressed their love is? Judging a civilization’s love is the domain of only The Greatest Love. But we can tread bravely based on their values and laws and how they are respected. It is these aspects of a civilization which are of greatest import for they will indicate how much they value love and recognize its primacy.
We must also be open to the possibility that there are nearby civilizations in the cosmos that have a higher form of love than we. We must always remain humble in our search.
And what prevents an alien civilization of a higher love from treating us like we treat cattle today? Because at that level of progression, I believe, as discussed earlier, higher forms of love will protect, not subjugate, lower forms of love.
What about an alien civilization of a lesser love, but technological superiority? What prevents them from treating us like we treat cattle? I do not believe this will be possible. I believe the resources, time, and technological advancement required for star travel is so vast that any such civilization reaching that pinnacle of technological achievement will have needed to come together in love and cooperation on their home planet(s) first. They would have needed to progress their love far enough to protect many of the other forms of loving life they share their home with before they turned their gaze in earnest towards contact with other intelligent life. Their progressed love will set the bar for species requiring their care and consideration to be low and humanity will easily exceed it when our paths cross.
This is also why, I believe, humanity is not yet morally equipped to visit distant planets today even if it were technologically possible. The vastness of interstellar space acts as a necessary barrier, constructed by The Greatest Love, to ensure our technical capabilities cannot make the leap before our ethical advancements have prepared us for what we will find.
Will their god(s) be the same as ours? Their beliefs I think will be very different and an artifact of the One god revealing Themselves differently to different beings and/or those beings then interpreting and communicating those revelations differently based on culture, history, social evolution, etc. But these different definitions of god(s) must all have a foundation in love in order to flourish. Our civilization can accommodate multiple gods and religions, alien or otherwise, so long as such a foundation is established in each. Despite having different beliefs I believe when such a World is found, love will be the shared aspiration and the common thread that will unite our distant planets. Not gods, religions, or beliefs. Like Earth I believe the Universe will have numerous examples of those.
Love however will be universal and eternal.
If every World has numerous god(s), religions, and beliefs which one is right? I do not believe that any of them can be viewed as completely right because no set of beliefs in the Universe can capture the infinite wonder that is love and the One god. And believing one religion is more right than another can quickly lead to religious intolerance including only recently. So long as followers consider love a central article of their faith, then their religion is compatible with other loving religions and as such should be considered great. The days of one loving religion believing they are superior to another must end. Instead the supremacy of love over all else is what we must now embrace.
What happens if we assess a civilization and determine it is incompatible with ours? A civilization that, for example, practices widespread slavery, institutionalized racism, religious intolerance, or even genocide? What then? We must not judge them. We must instead talk to them. We tell them our history. We teach them our lessons. For we were no better earlier in our progression. Dialogue on a distant scale in an effort to extend our love to a faraway civilization. That is what, I believe, The Greatest Love would want us to do. Not turn our backs on them. Help them.
Which is why I do not believe aliens have visited our planet: because our people have suffered too much already. Too much war. Too much hate. Too much intolerance. If an alien civilization is sufficiently advanced to travel to our World, to see our compassion, our love, and then turn their backs when they see us turn on each other then their inaction is not noble. It is cowardly.
And love is not cowardly.
Love does not refuse to help when it can. Love does not turn its back on suffering when it knows its voice alone could be enough to alleviate the pain. And any alien civilization that would turn its back on us, could not have grown their love enough to travel to distant stars. Instead they would be expending the bulk of their time and resources combating each other and the calamities they have inflicted upon themselves on their home planet(s). Star travel would remain a distant afterthought until such time as their love progresses.
Aliens are not among us. All we have today is each other and The Greatest Love.
I believe, however, that is enough for something wonderful.
A Love Story 