The final frontier.

Ive been asked my thoughts on religion. Which is not normally something I would speculate on because its a very personal issue to some people, and something people hold dear to them. However it has been asked for my specfic beliefs, so Ill humour it with a go.

I am of catholic baptisim, raised by my father who is catholic, and of my mother whom I believe is christian of some election. Religion was not pressed upon me in the home, and to this day I thank my parents for allowing me to choose my own path without influence.

Prior to my deployment to Afghanistan, I was a christian. I believed in god and Jesus, and the holy spirit. As I worked with the Afghan people and persons from other countries from around the globe, I was fascinated by each society's beliefs and was marveled how much, or how little they changed between faiths. Everyone's faith, made sense in a method, when I put myself into their shoes.

I remember when I was sitting on the back of my armoured vehicle, in the Afghan town of sarobi, on a crisp March evening looking up at the stars and having a conversation with our interpreter as I wanted to know more about his faith. His words changed me forever.

"We cannot prove that we are right, and we cannot prove that we are wrong. I have a feeling that we are not alone in the universe, and we simply haven't reached the point in the path where we confirm this, and carry on the search for the truth to our beliefs."

2 years have passed since my deployment, and after my marridge, I found myself spending more time to think of the subject. Can we indeed be alone in the universe?

Thinking of it, less then 100 years ago, my ancestors had landed on the new frontier known as north america, to settle. 50 years after that, society had left the earths surface, and launched ourselves into space. Shortly after, mankind made it to the moon.

SETI radio systems had been created specifically for the hunt to see if we were indeed, alone. The space telescope had began to bring images of far away galaxies to indicate to us, that we are not the only solar system out there. Far from it. In our galaxy alone, there are millions of suns, which we know as stars, and most likely, other planets, and the possibility of them holding some kind of life form quickly becomes infinte.

I believe the question will be answered within my lifetime. In the past century, we have almost mastered our own planet, and have taken baby steps in leaving this planet behind.

I believe that we may have been discovered already by another race of peoples who are more advanced then our own. They may be studying us from above, but have technologies that allow us to not know that they do so. They may have decided we are not ready for such an advancement yet.

To think that the human race may be only 1 species in a galaxy that could hold millions of different races, puts back into perspective that we are small in comparison to what has been made.

I believe there is a supreme being, that caused all of this, but I believe it to be in a scale which we have not yet been able to accept. We as a race cannot seem to accept our own beliefs that we have based on earth, leave alone, the rest of the galaxy.

Someday the signal shall come. That we are not alone in the universe, and this is what I believe.