Solar Sailing

[Weltall]

Conservatives like to believe in absolutes...

This is true, but I know you're saying this and implying that liberals do not. I'm shifting, gradually, closer to a true neutral political philosophy anyway. There are a lot of beliefs conservatives view that I no longer believe.

All I'm saying is that just because traveling at speeds approaching those of light is impossible today, does not mean it forever will be. Physics is not ultimately understood. Nobody can deny that. You don't know where it will be in a century.

If that was how you put it at first, I would have said nothing. However, you seem anxious to view, as enemies, those of us who are skeptical about the idea of immediate space colonization, and as such, your attitude is more along the lines of "FTL space travel is inevitable because we can't prove it's impossible." It's a variation of the same argument.

I don't mean to launch into any crusade here, but basically all I know as a self-aware individual is what I can see. I see no deity.

Intellectual honesty should leave you open to the idea that there are possibilities far beyond what you can sense. Atheism is, literally, the belief that no beings fitting the general description of deities exist. I base my agnosticism on the basis that I can't see a deity, either--but, I remain open to the idea that such a concept is possible and we don't (perhaps can't) ever know for sure whether it's possible. I believe FTL space travel is possible on the exact same premise. It's considered impossible now, but this is possibly only because we don't know enough to figure out the trick.

And, if your retort is "well, FTL travel is based on theory", well, I can give you any number of theories that could explain potential 'gods' that may be out there somewhere in the meta-existence, too. The only theories I will ever discount entirely are ones that I can personally test, or that others have personally tested. I do not believe that it is possible for me to punch through an iron wall because I know it's physically impossible.

I don't know if gods are impossible or not. Therefore, I can't be honest if I say "there are no gods". Or, if I take a solid position on the possibility of faster-than-light space travel. I can only know what is possible for me to know.