It was cleanup time in the Hansen kitchen. Marty’s mother, Kat, was in fine form trying to explain where other intelligent life was hiding in the cosmos. It was her latest theory. Marty glanced at her new friend and dinner guest wondering how he might respond to her mother’s unusual philosophies and her family’s weird kitchen conversations.

Kat put the t-towel over her shoulder and with colored chalk drew the earth on the kitchen blackboard while commenting, “Scientists suggest that we find ourselves quite by accident on an earth that supports intelligent life and we find ourselves on one such planet situated 93 million miles from our sun because that’s a planet on which our form of life could evolve.“

Marty’s little sister, Bobby, was hauling dirty dishes from the family room table, just about dropping a plate while asking, “Mom are you saying for other worlds to have humans like us they would’ve to be on an earth like ours?”

“Not only that, it has to be 93 million miles from a sun like ours.” Kat drew a sun and an arrow between the sun and earth.

Marty glanced at Ty. He was still helping with cleanup, not dashing for the door, making up excuses as to why he needed to get home. She decided that had to be a good sign.

Ty even decided to contribute, ” We know that our universe is finely tuned for life to occur and sensitive to fundamental physical constants with values that cannot differ even slightly or we would not exist.” He seemed to be talking directly to Bobby and then to Kat. “It does seem beyond mere chance that our universal home is programed for intelligent life.”

Ty stopped wiping dishes for a second than continued, “But among the millions of trillions of celestial bodies, we haven’t as of yet seen or even heard from other intelligent extraterrestrials.”

Bobby’s identical twin sister Billy had just taken the eraser and box of colored chalk, erasing her mother’s picture. She became busy drawing something new on the now popular board.

Ty worked at the atomic energy plant where Marty had recently started as a secretary. He had a doctorate in physics so she assumed he knew what he was talking about. She first met the tall, amicable guy when he was still in university and dating her high school, also tall, schoolmate Kerry, a beautiful blonde. Ty could still be dating Kerry for all Marty knew but recently he had been spending time with her. They were just friends but she hoped for more.

Billy stood back admiring her trillions of galaxies and stars she had just drawn while Bobby accused her of trying to get out of work, handing her a broom.

Marty’s sixteen year old sister, Jackie, grabbed the box of chalk and eraser and began drawing. “You know, if it hadn’t been for an asteroid 66 million years ago, this is what the earth might be like today.”

Everyone began to laugh at what she was drawing.

Kat stopped what she was doing to see what her daughter had drawn. “Common sense leads me to believe if our universe is programed for intelligent life, we are not the only Goldilocks earth within it. That means people just like us on a earth just like ours.

“Scripture also supports billions of planets containing intelligent beings. The one in Moses tells us, ‘worlds without number have I created, and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them which is mine Only Begotten.'”*

Marty again glanced at Ty. Bringing scripture into the discussion would likely not disturb Ty the way it did her. She had a hard time accepting her mother’s new found religious sentiment.

Marty sent her mother a distressed look but her mother didn’t seem to notice, continuing to quote scripture. “We also know these worlds without number inhabit life created just like ours. ‘That by him and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.”**

Kat continued to make Marty uncomfortable when she added, “Begotten means looks the same, same image, same type of human being. Not a dinosaur with an umbrella.” Kat smiled.

Billy began erasing the walking, talking dinosaurs. Marty thought likely to draw large numbers of galaxies again, about her twelve year old sister’s drawing limit. But instead Ty motioned to Billy to take a turn with the colored chalk. He drew three earths.

“Our alien friends would need to live on a earth with momentum and position and size like ours, 93 million miles from a sun exactly like ours, within a similar solar system the same distance from a galactic center like ours to have intelligent life like ours. But I don’t think they would be clones. Every earth would have its own geography, personality, hopefully more peace and love than ours.” Ty looked somber as he added a solar system to our earth.

Marty was amazed how Ty seemed to fit in with her cosmologically crazy family. Her dad, Howard, just like now, always sat listening while reading his paper, never or at least rarely participating in the speculative conversation.

Marty had a question of her own. “When we look beyond our solar system we measure distance in past light years. Why can’t we look back over 66 million years and see our earth with the roaming dinosaurs?”

Ty was erasing the chalk board, once again drawing. This time it was a girl with a telescope. She assumed it was her since she was the only one there with red hair and green eyes, a teal blue shirt and gray slacks.

She smiled at his playfulness. “Really,” she subconsciously patted her unruly cowlick top her head. “Why can we not see our own past?”

Ty continued his art work. “It’s because of the speed of light. Here let me show you.

“Just as you said, when we look out into the cosmos all we can see is the past, not the present, not the future. Beyond our solar system, the distances to the other stars are measured in past light years.

“Even if we could pinpoint where our earth was in the past with respect to its position now and our galactic center, the light that came from the earth then has long since travelled beyond where the earth is now.” He tapped his chalk on the appropriate object as he drew as if board work was familiar to him.

Bobby looked confused as Ty repeated himself using the board once again to explain. “The light reflected from our earth moves much more quickly than our earth moves. When we point a telescope to a position where the earth was it won’t show us the earth because the light coming from the earth at that time is already gone.”

“Is that why we cannot see other intelligent life?” Marty was intrigued.

Kat responded with an answer that made them all take pause. “The Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago was programmed with purpose. One of the cosmic inflation’s purposes was to eventually create physical human life. That could all come about when planets like our earth evolved to the same momentum and the same position with a sun the right size and distance away, with a galaxy center the right distance away, putting them all in the same space converse to time.”

Ty continued erasing and drawing on the board as Kat explained her theory.

Jackie had a puzzled look on her face, “Does that mean the same momentum and same position of space time would put all these similar earths in same present similar time. We cannot see the present light only past light, so we wouldn’t see them.“

Ty added to Jackie’s thought, “This particular present momentum and time makes it impossible to see our own past, as well as the other Goldilocks earths past, or for them to see us or their own past.”

Kat then said, “This would put all intelligent life planets on the same timeline, some probably in our own Milky Way neighborhood. There could be billions of solar systems containing earths like ours in our universe. Perhaps billions upon billions of fellow human beings are looking for us and and wondering where we are and here we are just living next door looking for them.”

Marty liked Ty’s earthlings waving into the unknown but she had an important question for her mother, “How would you ever prove such a theory?”

“Well, scientists suggest we live in an infinite universe meaning there could be infinite exoplanets with intelligent life just like ours.” Kat took the eraser and a piece of chalk from Ty and began writing on the board.

Scientists know..

1. Our universe is programed to support intelligent life.
2. For human life to evolve the planet has to be like our earth. –same momentum, same position in relation to like sun, same distance from its galaxy center, etc.
3. That would put all earth like worlds in the same present ‘now’.
4. We cannot look into the cosmos and see anything but past light.

“Perhaps there will only be other kinds of life, unlike ours, and we ARE just an accident.” Marty suggested.

Kat erased the board and began again. “I just feel that is not true because—.”

Scripture says …

1. God created worlds without number
2. The inhabitants of these worlds are begotten intelligent humans.

The above story agrees with the same timeline as Chapter 14 in the novel, Marty’s Dark Matter. To learn more about book– click M. KASEY, AUTHOR above.

*Moses 1:33 Pearl of Great Price, ** Doctrine and Covenants 76:24