Searching For Signs Of Life
Astronomers have now identified
thousands of planets in orbit around other stars. At the current rate of discovery, millions more will be found this century.
Having already found the physical planets, astronomers are now
searching for our biological neighbors. Over the next fifty years, they
will begin the tantalizing, detailed study of millions of planets,
looking for evidence of the presence of life on or below the surfaces or
in the atmospheres of those planets.
And it’s very likely that astronomers will find it. Despite the fact
that more than one-third of Americans surveyed believe that
aliens have already visited Earth,
the first evidence of life beyond our planet probably won’t be radio
signals, little green men or flying saucers. Instead, a 21st century
Galileo, using an enormous, 50-meter-diameter telescope, will collect
light from the atmospheres of distant planets, looking for the
signatures of biologically significant molecules.
Astronomers filter that light from far away through spectrometers –
high-tech prisms that tease the light apart into its many distinct
wavelengths. They’re looking for the telltale fingerprints of molecules
that would not exist in abundance in these atmospheres in the absence of
living things. The spectroscopic data will tell whether a planet’s
environment has been altered in ways that point to biological processes
at work.
If We Aren’t Alone, Who Are We?
With the discovery in a distant planet’s light spectrum of a chemical
that could only be produced by living creatures, humankind will have
the opportunity to read a new page in the book of knowledge. We will no
longer be speculating about whether other beings exist in the universe.
We will know that we not alone.
An affirmative answer to the question “Does life exist anywhere else
in the universe beyond Earth?” would raise immediate and profoundly
important cosmotheological questions about our place in the universe. If
extraterrestrial others exist, then my religion and my religious
beliefs and practices might not be universal. If my religion is not
universally applicable to all extraterrestrial others, perhaps my
religion need not be offered to, let alone forced on, all
terrestrial
others. Ultimately, we might learn some important lessons applicable
here at home just from considering the possibility of life beyond our
planet.
In my
book,
I investigated the sacred writings of the world’s most widely practiced
religions, asking what each religion has to say about the uniqueness or
non-uniqueness of life on Earth, and how, or if, a particular religion
would work on other planets in distant parts of the universe.
Extrasolar Sinners?
Let’s examine a seemingly simple yet exceedingly complex theological
question: could extraterrestrials be Christians? If Jesus died in order
to redeem humanity from the state of sin into which humans are born,
does the death and resurrection of Jesus, on Earth, also redeem other
sentient beings from a similar state of sin? If so, why are the
extraterrestrials sinful? Is sin built into the very fabric of the space
and time of the universe? Or can life exist in parts of the universe
without being in a state of sin and therefore without the need of
redemption and thus without the need for Christianity? Many different
solutions to these puzzles involving Christian theology have been put
forward. None of them yet satisfy all Christians.
Mormon Worlds
Mormon scripture clearly teaches that other inhabited worlds exist
and that “the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto
God” (Doctrines and Covenants 76:24). The Earth, however, is a favored
world in Mormonism, because Jesus, as understood by Mormons, lived and
was resurrected only on Earth. In addition, Mormon so-called
intelligences can only achieve their own spiritual goals during their
lives on Earth, not during lifetimes on other worlds. Thus, for Mormons,
the Earth might not be the physical center of the universe but it is
the most favored place in the universe. Such a view implies that all
other worlds are, somehow, lesser worlds than Earth.
This article was originally published on
The Conversation. Read the
original article.
