The late scientist and author Carl Sagan was optimistic that there is life elsewhere in the universe. In a moment of wit he said, “It’s nice to think that there is someone out there that can help us.”

A funny statement, but Sagan was secondarily implying that there is no God. He knew that a hope of help from other beings was unlikely. It assumes first that other beings exist and second that their race will not be affected with the same depravity that is so evident in all human endeavor. It also assumes that they would be interested in helping us. It assumes a few other things, but what it is, in a final analysis is a desire for Salvation. An admission that we are lost. It is a hope but it is a blind hope.