Many of my columns focused on the likelihood of extraterrestrial life. Not necessarily intelligent aliens, but more likely microbial life. I’ve covered such topics as the discovery of planets around other stars, the chemistry necessary to support life, and where we have found it. I’ve talked about Earth creatures that can survive long stretches of time in space, like the hardy tardigrades.
The detection of life elsewhere,
intelligent or not, would go down as one of the most profound discoveries in
human history. I’ve always discussed this in scientific terms. That’s my
background and the point of these columns.
Recently, NASA co-sponsored a study
at Princeton University's Center for Theological Inquiry with two dozen
theologians from many religions who discussed how humans might respond to the
discovery of extraterrestrial life.
For centuries, the Catholic Church
said that extraterrestrial life, at least intelligent life, couldn’t exist
because the Son of God only came to Earth to save God’s creatures. In their
minds, that meant only Earth possessed life. In the eyes of the early Church,
no planets existed beyond our solar system
Those individuals who disputed the
Church’s stance, like Giordano Bruno, faced strong retaliation. Among other
“heretical” statements, Bruno said, “In space, there are countless
constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light;
the planets remain invisible, for they are small and dark. There are also
numberless earths circling around their suns...” For this, among other
heresies, Bruno was condemned to death in 1600.
We now know of many thousands of
planets beyond our solar system, and astronomers believe that number likely
exceeds one hundred billion. So how might religions react to the discovery of
life out there? Study participant Rev. Dr. Andrew Davison of the University of
Cambridge stated wrote in his forthcoming book on the study “Astrobiology and
Christian Doctrine,” “The headline findings are that adherents of a range of
religious traditions report that they can take the idea in their stride."
Davison also states the nonreligious community tended to "overestimate the challenges that religious people" might face if extraterrestrial life were discovered. A "large number of people would turn to their religious traditions for guidance."
How might you react to such a
discovery? At least according to this study, religious folks might have an
easier philosophical time digesting it.
The element carbon is ubiquitous on
Earth. And, it is the basis of all life on our planet. Carbon, like many
elements, comes in multiple forms called isotopes. Carbon has two stable
isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-13. Carbon-12 is by far the more common isotope,
but all life on Earth prefers carbon-12, and the ratio of carbon-12 to
carbon-13 is higher in biological molecules than in non-biological molecules.
Recently, the Curiosity Rover
drilled a hole into the Martian surface and found an enrichment of carbon-12
over carbon-13. Does this mean there’s life on Mars? Not necessarily, but if a
scientist found such a discovery in any dirt on Earth, she would certainly assume
so.
Each month, I write an astronomy-related column piece for
the Oklahoman newspaper. On the
following day, I post that same column to my blog page.
