In the year 2154 advancing technology made private space travel readily available to everyone on Earth. Pilgrims from all parts of the globe took advantage of the endless possibilities that space travel offered. Seeking fortune and adventure many families set off desiring to escape the normal mundane of Earth. But as fate would have it, one particular family suffered an accident in their travels, completely losing their ability to find their way back to Earth. Furthermore the unexpected event destroyed much of the evidence of Earth’s existence. Retailing their ability to survive by material extraction, the family wondered from planet to planet in the constant hopes of finding planet Earth again. But around the thirtieth generation of sun’s and daughters, the children began to openly question the legend of Earth all together, calling the entire idea of its existence into question.

Is there really a planet earth? The skeptical son question. Is it not more likely a story.?

But why would they make it up? another son answered.

“To give this and endless cycling of travel some meaning. That’s why. Our ancestors made up the story so we wouldn’t drive ourselves into the next burning star we found.”

“But every ancestor record we have, on all sides of the family, all five ships, have some version of Earth.” another responded.

“Yes, the key word is some. There are inconsistencies through out every side of the family, not to mention they all disagree about how to get back there. And just because they all bought into the idea doesn’t mean anything.” The skeptical son responded.

“Well where did we come from then?” Another snapped with indignation.

“We are probably a biological experiment, like one of our uncles numerous back room projects.” The skeptical son answered confidently. “Our ancestors probably got away and have been running ever since. Think about it. What’s more likely? Our ancestors were an escaped experiment, much like every animal on this ship, or mom’s story that says our ancestors were born on a benevolent planet where water stays liquid and the entire planet is filled with breathable oxygen. Have we once come to a planet where the water wasn’t vapor or frozen? Have ever once come to a planet where we could take our helmets off and breathe the air.
Plants growing everywhere. Animals swimming, running, and flying freely amongst endless supplies of oxygen and water. Green grassy lands, flowers of every color, all growing, all living in a perfect ecosystem that doesn’t require any maintenance. It’s a ferry tail.” He asserted confidently, waving a limp wrist and rolling his eyes. “Have we seen any real proof?”

“What about those pictures and all those letters.” Another son interjected defensively.

“Anyone could have written those letters” The skeptical son pointed out. “And how do we know that they are original? It’s not like they were written on paper that we could test. Same with the pictures, how hard is it to super impose and edit pictures with all the different places we have been. And notice the inconsistencies in the pictures. In one place people are swimming and it’s warm, and then in the very same place it’s snowing with ice on the ground. That doesn’t seem odd to you? Think logically! I mean what…the planet’s is suddenly close to the star but not to close, and then it magically turns the other direction and it snows. Ludicrous! And look at the story of the lunar eclipse. The planet’s moon just so happens to be exactly the right size and distance from the star to match its exact position in the sky, and it happens regularly? This doesn’t strike you as far fetched? Do you know what they odds of that are? There are hundreds of holes in the myth and they hate it when you point them out. The conditions to support natural life alone are a near logical impossibility. Do you know how unlikely it is for a planet is to be just close enough to star to actually pull that off? It’s ludicrous and you’re silly for believing it. It’s a ferry tale for adults and unless I see some hard evidence and not just hear say and speculation, I won’t buy it. As far as I’m concerned we should just stop at the next planet and just get on with our existence. Stop it with the ferry tails. Planet Earth does not exist."

I wrote this story because of the common objection that heaven simply sounds too good to be true. I wanted to point out that the world we live in now would probably sound too good to be true had we never experienced a planet like it before. As far as we know now, Earth is very uncommon and had we been born in space surrounded by dry technology we might very well find the idea of Earth incredulous. But I think Earths existence proves that wonderfully amazing places do in fact exist in this universe so we should not discount the idea of heaven based on the assumption that it sounds too good to be true. Especially when so many people have claimed to have visited it for a brief time. These eye witness accounts are not ancient stories but recent reports. The discovery channel just aired a special interviewing people who have reported visiting what they described as heaven. Among these witnesses was a little girl about 6 years old who described “a very beautiful field where you feel really good.” I really don’t think it’s much of a stretch to give these accounts some credibility. At least it allows a second thought concerning the idea. Coupled with the fact that Earth exists and so much incredible life exists in it, I think we should be able to believe that a place people describe as heaven could in fact exist in this amazing universe.

I think the mythology of heaven would be more cleaver creation if the god that embodies it wasn't described as an irrational blood thirsty intolerant narcissistic bigot misogynistic bastard. Making the aspiration of living with that personality for eternity, after living the life that creation makes for us and allows us to choose what it already knows, less than appealing to anyone with a semblance of respect by virtue of quality of life while alive, so as to think it over and ask themselves if they can hold faith in a disembodied entity that is possessed of all the worst characteristics, that are called sins in us.




I am an Atheist. And I have met the people that hold faith in the god that made them what they are and I know I can not believe myself fitting their mold. Nor bowing to a tyrant I would not respect in the flesh, so I shall not worship in the spirit.

Jesus loves you!!!

Actually I read this and thought you had watched to much that.. Battlestar Galactica show. ;P

But it's nice to see the "logical unearth believer" son was painted in such a taintful way. To be a bit more realistic. He would have looked at the pictures and actually came up with a scientific reason why one picture of the same spot was sunny and warm, and the other was icy and cold. Going from planet to planet.. it wouldn't be hard to deduce that planets tilt on their axis which is why they have seasons.

Though given that Christianity only has three different "holy books" and no photographs of say.. Jesus walking on water, or Moses parting the red sea, or uh.. whatever Mohammad did that was on par with those two... This story isn't that good of a comparison.

And Pinocchio saves! Hey, one fictional savior is as good as any. Only Pinocchio can actually do that walk on the water trick. But we call him "Bob" on those occasions. Guess why.

Sounds like Asimov or Clarke to me.

Not overly original. The legend of earth, or planet of origin or Aurora or Terra or the like has been a SciFi Staple for quite a few years now. Probably Since the First Foundation books or even earlier.

Earth exists. All of the planets exist. You might find that the billions of people who have died are inhabiting planets far away. The 6-year old who had her experience, 'saw' a field on her planet and when she actually dies, she will go to that planet.

Earth exists. All of the people that exist have been learning. What they are taught, they will use on their planet.

Each person has about 80 to 100 years to learn. You can learn what you want to. But, when you die, you will use what you know.

This earth is not the end of life, but the beginning.

We are have gone about 2000 years into 10 aeons.

The crucifixion of Jesus ended the prior 13 aeons.

Each aeon is so large, like the size of the sun compared to the size of the moon.

That is how immense God is, but larger.

Jesus is real.

No…I doubt it. You see skepticism is much more often a sociological choice than a scientific disposition. If someone is truly scientific they will not come to such a solid conclusion as our friend in the story. A scientist will simply say “As yet we have not observed a Earth but whether or not one exists we do not know”. People that label themselves skeptics often do so to create an individual niche for themselves. It’s emotional and has self identity ties to it. They want to be different so they will seek out anything that is uncommon and ascribe to it. It’s the uncommon that they like. Should the entire ship decide they all don’t believe in Earth the person will move on to something else.

That's still debatible since not *every* sceptic thinks that way. It's a major over characterization. And a flaw in your story. To think people couldn't tell what's truly going on because they refuse to believe in "earth" or "god" is laughable.

A tru skeptic would find out what's really going on and causeing something to happen instead of saying "Oh it's stupid, I don't believe." Well there's a reason why, and that means there's another path of knowledge to follow to find out why. Even all in all, it might take a skeptic to find earth...

No...I think it would take a believer. Like Troy. For years people said that Troy was a myth. But then Heinrich Schliemann, a man who actually "believed in the myth" went looking for it. He dedicated himself and took the time. He found it. Pulling it back out of the "myth" category.

You could own a backhoe, and the wench of all wenches, and I dare say you'll never pull "god" out of the myths. But when we say god is created by us in our own image and is enlivened throughout the ages by the faith that the words telling of such a being make it true, it sounds absurd. The difference between god and Troy is Troy had a realistic expectation of being found, because whether we knew it or not at the time of our thinking it but a myth, it was actually there in history and as such was waiting to be discovered. God can never be said to have ever left behind any evidence "he" was here in any form save what we contrive as god, in the name, and promote in scriptures, myths and ritual . All dedicated to the faith in their necessity to define, please and worship the unseen that believers believe receives it all as worship.

You can not prove something that does not exist, does not exist. And you can not prove that something claimed to exist does so because thousands of year old legends say it does and give it a name. So if nothing else, in a world where people believe there is only one right way to think about something as immense as what "god" implies, those that don't believe in god are more "right", than those that choose to disagree. What believers hold faith in first, is the men that told them how to do that, by asking them to first trust those men's words there is a thing called god in the first place.

IF, you really are not saying anything. You speculate as much as you accuse others of speculating. You’re trying to convince people that you know for sure that “all” the eye witness accounts were fabrications and delusions. Screaming “Show me the money” all the while knowing no one can conjure GOD. If fact relying on the fact that you know no matter how you fume and steam down here, GOD is not going to answer.

You ask for people to come to their own conclusions but when some one comes to the conclusion that GOD exists you cry “NO..wrong answer.” You have entitled yourself as GoddessWhispers and then berate others for “creating GOD in their own image.” It’s silly and at the risk of encouraging you by this reply I thought you might want to know how these contradictions make you look.

I.. know I posted something about the troy thing...

but why can't I see it..

._o The poltersprites are following me online =( First they took my bandaids and proxide.. now they're taking my posts!!

Jesus loves you!

I dont want you to reply to this with jesus loves you. but do you think that animals go to heaven? and if you don't think so then why not? they are basically the same thing in terms of the universe, just life forces. but then again if you save yes heaven must be pretty big given the fact that BILLIONS of insects die every day. oh and how could god create us in his image when we didnt even evolve until billions of years after the first life forces

People who believe in God don't believe in evolution.

Heaven will never get "full" it isn't a hotel.

I replied to that particular poster with Jesus Loves You, because they said their jesus loved me, right before they attempted to insult me in the name of their god. I'm Atheist actually, so I don't believe in heaven or hell. I believe all that exists can never be defined by the model or box, that is affected when someone tries to define the causative forces for all that exists as the work of a god that we know about because it was defined by and is said to possess the same characteristics as man. I think,as science says, all things are made of moving, changing energies. In the span of time, that for us seems like a moment, years, days, etc... we are alive to contemplate why. But then we die and while it may seem like we were here for long years and are then off in some other world we hold in faith is there waiting for us, what we see in the universal model is other things that die in their own way, their energies rejoin the other universal energies and thereby empower their continuation. I think what bolsters faith in after living, is the imagination we continue to be conscious and in control somewhere else. We simply can not allow ourselves to accept our living is our only chance and when this body consciousness dies, we never exist anywhere the same way , again. Not even as a soul that can recognize golden roads , pearly gates or heavenly mansions.

im gonna quote the late kernel sanders. "im too drunk to taste this chicken" talladega.............oh and me just throwing a joke out there means you win. lol

Nothing to win or lose as far as I can read. It's all good times. But that Colonel Sanders visual will stick with me for awhile.

I for one thought the parable was great. Very much in line with early science-fiction themes, but still a good read. I wonder verax, if you have considered compiling your stories and publishing them? I'd buy it

Considering that the great SciFi writer Isaac Asimov wrote a whole interconnected series of books that started with "I Robot" and covered the next 20,000 years of mankind's existence; came up with an almost exact duplication of this, I would consider it unoriginal, bordering on plagerism. I am sure it was unintentional though. - da Wolf

Sorry, but, in 2029 an asteroid will pass through underneath all orbiting satellites of earth and will have a 'near miss'. It will return in the year 2037 after orbiting the sun. On it's return if it moves even close to a centimeter from it's point from before, it may hit. & we may {may} all will be doomed. ~
~On a good note, the number 319039 backwards looks like the word PEOPLE. So in the belief section I will add this for my belief, well we all did our damndest to survive by the year 319039. If anything.....

As long as I have a great seat for the end of a great life, I'm good with watching an asteroid be the last thing I see in this world. I just hope I've got a telescope strong enough to see her coming, so I can host a going out party and my friends and I can be mashed together. After a good meal and good times, fear and regret for that destiny, only dampen the mood we would have worked so hard to achieve. We all die, but not all of us can say: "WOW! What a rush on the way out!"

Colour me bloody surprized.. ;P

And where the heck is my missing post you!! *shakes fist at*