Many Worlds Session Notes

1. Origins and Evolution of Life

   • Theme: Life is an expression of God's love. God's love permeates the universe. Therefore, life must permeate the universe. So eventually, we will either find life on the planets or plant it there.
     1. What is being done now: Astrobiology
     2. The evidence in biology for ET
        • biogenesis
        • biological determinism
        • biological convergence
     3. The evidence in theology for ET
        • Life from Love
   • Astrobiology: The Search for Life Beyond the Earth; Christopher P. McKay
     • Questions asked:
       1. Is life everywhere like Earthlife? Or are there myriad patterns for life?
       2. Is self-awareness a common property of life and does it follow the same physical, social, cultural, religious patterns?
       3. Do intelligent life forms elsewhere construct symbolic models of the universe that are consistent with ours (supporting the notion of Platonic forms)?
       4. How did life on Earth originate?
       5. What aspects of biochemistry are invariant?
       6. Is there life on other planets?
       7. Are there other intelligent life forms in the cosmos?
       8. What is the future role of life in the evolution of the cosmos?
     • life as we know it:
       1. Only One Example of Life on Earth: "All organisms examined to date have the same basic biochemical and genetic makeup and are related by common descent [p. 46]."
       2. Life on Earth Is a Material System: "This material system undergoes the Darwinian evolution of reproduction, mutation, and selection [p. 47]."
       3. Minimal Requirements for Life: "the list of requirements include energy, mostly supplied by sunlight; carbon; liquid water; and a few other elements, notably N[itrogen], P[hosphorous], and S[ulfur] [p. 48]."
       4. Life Appeared Rapidly after [the] Formation of the Earth [p. 49]
       5. Microscopic Life on Earth until High Levels of Oxygen: "... the buildup of oxygen was the key variable in the evolution of complex multicellular life on Earth and could vary considerably on other habitable planets [p. 51]."
     • Three programs to search for second type of life [p. 53]:
       1. laboratory synthesis of self-replicating systems
       2. the search for life on Mars and Europa
       3. SETI: Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence
     • Mars: The Search for a Second Genesis [p. 53]
       • Follow the Water
       • liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars in the past
       • Mars must have had a thicker warmer atmosphere in the past
       • Mars and Earth may have been comparable worlds
       • "... one specimen [meteorite] known as ALH84001 is old, having formed on Mars about 4.5 Gyr ago under warm, reducing conditions. There are even indications that it contains Martian organic material. This rock formed during the time period when Mars is thought to have had a warm, wet climate capable of supporting life -- even if the fossil evidence in the meteorite remains debatable [p. 53]."
       • potential origins of Martian life approached by analogy to Earth, since the two planets similar.
       • Assume development of life is fundamental and reproducible process (biological determinism).
       • focus on microfossils and stromatolites
       • possible life on Earth and Mars have a common origin (Panspermia)
       • only analyzing a Martian will we know for sure
     • Humans, Ethics, and Expansion of Life Beyond Earth [p. 55]
       • "... what is the potential for survival and biological evolution beyond the planet of origin?"
       • "Could humans play a role in restoring Mars to life, and restoring lift to Mars? If it is possible, should such a thing be done?" Terraforming or Arieforming
       • Is ecosynthesis on Mars ethical? How do we extend our principles of environmental ethics from Earth to Mars?
         e.g., A. Leopold's "Land Ethic": It's right if it preserves the integrity, stability, and beauty of it. preserve? develop?
       • Earth's nature => biotic community
         Mars' nature => no biotic community -- do we preserve this?
       • Deep Ecology:
         1. well-being of nonhuman life on Earth has value in and of itself
         2. richness and diversity in life forms contribute to this value
       • Would a rich and diverse biosphere on Mars have more value than the current "dead" world?
       • We humans are part of the web of being
         • We have a role on mars or any other planet
         • We need to be grounded in God's love (oar we risk being abusive)
         • All of Creation, including "dead" Mars are part of the web of being
         • We who are self-conscious and capable of being other-centered, are obligated to "intrude" in love
         • From this ground, we can address McKay's questions
         • If life is an expression of love with diversity, then to "resurrect" Mars, if indeed its dead, would be a holy calling
         • If there is life on Mars, then our call is to join and partner with it, not dominate it.
   • Biogenesis:
     Lessons of Life; Christian de Duve
     1. The nature of life: "... life is explainable in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry [p. 4]."
     2. The unity of life: "... all known living organisms, be they bacteria, protists, plants, fungi, or animals, including humans, descend from a single ancestral form of life from which they have inherited a number of shared key properties [p. 4]."
     3. The origin of life: "... the origin of life is not known [p.5]."
        however; "Some of the steps whereby such substances can arise spontaneously and interact to form more complex compounds under plausible 'prebiotic' conditions have been reproduced in the laboratory [p. 5]."
     4. A corollary of the "naturalistic explanation of life's origin is that life was bound to arise in a form basically similar to its form on Earth, under the physical-chemical conditions that prevailed where and when it was born ... [p. 5]."
        s. Biological Determinism (next)
     5. "A deterministic view of the origin of life does not necessarily imply that life is widespread in the universe. It only means that life is frequent -- or as rare -- as the physical-chemical conditions under which it must obligatorily arise [p. 6]."
     6. Evolution: "evolution is bound to lead to increasing complexity ... Thus, if life exists elsewhere in the universe, the likelihood that it may produce intelligent forms ... is far from negligible [p. 8]."
     7. Brain-mind (spirit) dualism falls to biological advances: "What monism truly means is not that we must somehow squeeze spirit into our traditional concept of matter, but that we must enlarge the definition of matter to include those properties that used to be attributed to spirit [pp.9-10]."
     8. "evolution is far from over ... toward greater complexity ... [pp 10-11]."
     9. Lessons [pp. 11-12]:
        1. "... we belong to a universe capable of giving rise to life and mind."
           the universe is pregnant with life as a "natural" occurrence, not "supernatural".
        2. we are not the "paragon of animals", but one link along an ever - complexifying evolution
   • Biological Determinism
     Biological Determinism, Information Theory, and the Origin of Life; Paul C. W. Davies
     • "If life is widespread in the universe, it gives us more, not less, reason to believe in cosmic design [p. 15]."
     • "biological determinism: given the right conditions, life inevitably will form after a sufficiently long time, and once life gets started, it will very probably progress toward intelligence [p. 15]."
     • Two hypothesis for the origin of life
       1. Panspermia: life travels from one planet to another.
          • Ultimate origin of life unanswered
          • 1872: Lord Kelvin: world collisions
            (this is quite possible with Earth and Mars via meteorites)
          • Arrhenius: microbes travel space via starlight
          • Crick and Orgel: life spread by an intelligent advanced civilization
       2. Biological Determinism
          (what we will be most interested in in this series)
     • "Strong determinism is captured by the oft-repeated phrase that life is written into the laws of physics. In other words, in a suitable chemical mixture under appropriate physical conditions, the laws of physics favor the production of molecules that are biologically relevant [p. 17-18]."
       • "Molecules like DNA and RNA can be considered a genetic databank, and reproduction viewed as the copying and propagation of information ... a gene is a set of instructions, e.g., for the assembly of a protein [p. 18]."
       • "The living cell thus resembles a digital computer in its logical architecture [p. 18]."
       • The more random, the more information, the more complex
       • The genome sequences on a DNA molecule are essentially random, and therefore have high information content and complexity.
       • From a physics and chemistry prospective, one sequence is as good as another -- hence non-deterministic.
       • "The laws of physics merely map input states into output states: they cannot add information on the way... Therefore, they cannot alone inject the complexity necessary for a structure like a random genome."
       • "The trick is to connect the building blocks together in the very, very specific sequences that represent biological relevance. That step is not explained by chemistry [p. 22]."
     • Weak determinism: "life emerges with a high degree of predictability, not because of the operation of explicitly biofriendly laws, but as a result of a general propensity for matter and energy to self-organize and self-complexify [p. 18]."
       • "... the key question confronting weak biological determinists ... what is the probability that a functioning replicator, possessing enough complexity to satisfy the [below] three conditions. will form by chance [p. 23]?"
         1. Not only must a replicator molecule form, it is also necessary for a significant subset of variations of the replicator to also be replicators,
         2. avoid Eigen's error catastrophe (copying fidelity falls too low).
         3. form by chance with a reasonable probability in a plausible prebiotic medium
     • Thus, assuming weak determinism, design becomes probable, if not necessary, by giving the propensity for life and improving the probabilities of complex molecules forming.
     • "... to perceive bleak atheism in the scenario that life and intelligence are freak accidents, unique in the cosmos. But the flip side is also true. If it turns out that life does emerge as an automatic and natural part of an ingeniously biofriendly universe, then atheism would seem less compelling and something like design more plausible [p. 27]."
     • If God is love and life is an expression of love, then it is probable that the cosmos and the laws governing it, would be designed to foster life.
     • But God's love also gives life/the cosmos free will. Thus, to make life 100% deterministic would be a violation of this covenant.
     • Hence, weak determinism, that has built into it the possibly that life would not arise is consistent with that covenant.
   • Bio-convergence
     s. The Challenge and Stimulus of the Epic of Evolution To Theology; Arthur Peacocke
     • "... in independent lines and places similar solutions are found to the same kind of environmental challenges [p. 105]."
     • eminent role of convergence in evolution
     • sabre-toothed tiger of the Northern Hemisphere (relative of the tiger and panther)
       vs.
       sabre-toothed "cat" of South America (a marsupial, related to kangaroos and opossums)
     • hence, intelligence will surely emerge
     • propensities and inbuilt trends in biological evolution
     • Hence, alien humanoids, independently evolved, are a possibility
   • Life from Love
     1. Biblical love ethic
        • "everything ... was very good [Gen 1:31]"
        • "for the sake of ten, I will not destroy it [Gen 18:32]"
        • Ps 8:3-5
        • "The meek shall inherit the earth [planets] [Mt 5:5]"
        • 1 Cor 13
     2. Love ethic
        • incarnation and Emmanuel
        • understanding and wisdom
        • other-centeredness
        • diversity and celebration
        • interconnectedness
        • patience
        • forgiveness
        • ...
     3. Biological Determinism: Affirmation of God's love for the cosmos.
        • recognize all life as sacred
        • Panentheism: God shines through all life
        • Cosmic interconnectedness: a web of love
     4. Panspermia: Our call to spread God's love.
        • If we are unique:
          • Our call to spread God's love throughout
          • Not conquest or occupation
          • Ecojustice and stewardship
          • Non-coerciveness: free-willed colonies
        • If we are the product of Panspermia:
          • ?????
     5. Both
        • Prime Directive (?)
        • Mutual understanding and exploration (?)

2. Humanity's Place in Cosmic Evolution

   • Theme: The Universe is Moral and therefore, the Christ Event in one form or another has or will occur on other planets: The Universality and Particularity of the Christ Event
   • see Christ On Other Worlds (unpublished)
     1. Christ-Event
        1. Incarnation
        2. Baptism
        3. Temptation
        4. Ministry
        5. Passion
        6. Crucifixion
        7. Resurrection
        8. Ascension
        9. Pentecost
     2. Plan: Reinterpreting the Christ-Event
        1. Epic of Evolution
        2. Christ-Event concerns
        3. Moral Universe
        4. Pluralism
        5. Cosmic Christ
     3. Christ Event unique in the Cosmos
        • We are called to spread the Good News (cosmic Jews -- a chosen people: a traditional view)
        • We alone (or one of a very few) NEEDED it
     4. Christ Event recurs for each ETI in their context -- pluralism
     5. Christ process: there is no event, but a process intrinsic to the Universe
        • salvation (liberation)
        • forgiveness
        • redemption
   • The Challenge and Stimulus of the Epic of Evolution To Theology; Arthur Peacocke
     • Ecotheology [p. 95]
       1. "Is it permissible to regard these myriads of species, other than homo sapiens, most of then now extinct, as simply byproducts in a process aimed at producing human persons?"
       2. "Or do they have value in themselves and for themselves to God as Creator?"
       3. The creation is rich and fecund in diversity. Surely God delights in all of it:
          "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good [Genesis]."
       4. ecotheology: "grounds the value of all living creatures in their distinctive value to God for their own sake, and not just as stages en route to humanity and for human exploitation and use."
       5. not just individuals of value, but web of being is valued: both/and
     • Evolution [pp. 97-99] and the Fall
       • "In evolution we are witnessing new life through death of the old, and believers in God as creating through this process have to accept that the biological death of the individual is the means whereby God has been creating new species, including ourselves."
       • St. Paul: "the wages of sin is death" can no longer mean that our biological death is attributable to human sin (atonement theology)
       • "... the believer in God as Creator has to view biological evolution through natural selection (and possibly through the other naturalistic processes ...) as simply the means whereby God has been and is creating."
       • "... there is no past period for which there is reason to affirm that human beings possessed moral perfection existing in a paradisal situation from which there has been only a subsequent decline."
       • Therefore no "Fall" from past perfection
       • No past golden age,
       • No Adam or Eve perfect in their relationships
       • classical Fall conceptions must be rethought
       • Is the Fall recoverable?
       • Not "original sin", but "historical sin"
       • Free-will misused and we rebel against God (hence Fall).
       • Not a time or place, but a process of self-awareness and self-consciousness
       • Eden (other-centeredness) is a goal
       • The Fall (self-centeredness) is the beginning
     • The Paradox of Human Nonadaptiveness [pp. 101ff]
       1. misfit between humans and their environment; unique to humans
       2. e.g., quests of self-realization and personal growth
       3. our misguided notion that we are separate from nature and eternally alienated from it.
       4. when we finally adapt to God's environment, we will find wholeness with God's creation
       5. dis-ease and dissatisfaction
       6. "This alienation of human beings from nonhuman nature and from each other appears as a kind of anomaly within the organic world."
       7. "Does not the human condition raise the profound question of what humanity's true environment really is and of the nature of that reality to which it must relate?"
          • Might it be the entire universe?
          • And might other ETI have similar alienation?
          • Indeed, might this restlessness be the root of self-awareness?
          • Are WE (humans and other ETI) a single, cosmic, spiritual species?
     • Chance and Law in Evolution [p. 103-104]
       1. "This interplay of chance and law is the basis of the inherent creativity of the natural order, its ability to generate new forms, patterns, and organizations of matter and energy."
       2. "This combination, for a theist, can only be regarded as an aspect of the God-endowed features of the world."
       3. "One might say that the potential of the 'being' of the world is made manifest in the 'becoming' that the operation of chance makes actual. God is the ultimate ground and source of both law (necessity) and chance."
       4. chance is the portal of free-will: ours and God's stand on equal footing
       5. the universe is ordered, but not predetermined
     • Is God implementing a purpose in biological evolution?
       1. The propensities (effects of the context on the outcomes of random events) point to YES
       2. For example, biological convergence
     • The ubiquity of pain and suffering [pp. 107-108]
       1. biological death a prerequisite for new life and new chances
       2. God not impassible; but suffers with the creation
       3. God's purpose: the Kingdom of God
     • A Theology of and for Evolution [pp. 108ff]
       1. Immanence of God [p. 109]
          • "God as Creator in, with, and under the natural processes of the world ... the seamless character of the web that has been spun on the loom of time."
          • "continuous and incessant change and its process without ceasing"
          • God continuously creates
          • "God is the immanent Creator creating in and through the processes of the natural order."
       2. Panentheism
          • Being of God includes and penetrates the whole universe
       3. Wisdom and Word [p. 111-112]
          • Wisdom: unites divine activity of creation, human experience, and the processes of the natural world.
          • Word: will of God in creative activity; rationality
       4. A sacramental universe
          • The universe as an instrument and sign of God's purposes
     • Humanity and Jesus the Christ in an Evolutionary Perspective [pp. 113-114]
       1. Mis-fit or dis-ease: we are unfinished
       2. we have not yet become fully adapted to God's "environment"
       3. Jesus Christ was fully adapted to God's "environment"
       4. "Jesus the Christ (the whole Christ event) has ... shown us what is possible for humanity. The actualization of this potentiality can properly be regarded as the consummation of the purposes of God already manifested incompletely in evolving humanity."
       5. "But because it [the Word] is .... a manifestation of this eternal and perennial mode of God's interaction in, with, and under the created order, what was revealed in Jesus the Christ could also, in principle, be manifest both in other human beings and indeed also on other planets, in any sentient, self-conscious, non-human persons ... inhabiting them that are capable of relating to God [p. 114]."
   • The Christ Event in Many Worlds
     • Peacocke [p. 103]
       1. "What can the cosmic significance possibly be of the localized, terrestrial event of the existence of the historical Jesus?"
       2. "Does not the mere possibility of extraterrestrial life render nonsensical all the superlative claims made by the Christian church about his significance?"
       3. Would aliens need it?
       4. "Jesus the Christ (the whole Christ event) has ... shown us what is possible for humanity. The actualization of this potentiality can properly be regarded as the consummation of the purposes of God already manifested incompletely in evolving humanity [p. 114]."
       5. "But because it [the Word] is .... a manifestation of this eternal and perennial mode of God's interaction in, with, and under the created order, what was revealed in Jesus the Christ could also, in principle, be manifest both in other human beings and indeed also on other planets, in any sentient, self-conscious, non-human persons ... inhabiting them that are capable of relating to God [p. 114]."
     • Life and Intelligence Far From Earth ...; McMullin [pp 151-173]
       1. "Independently, then, of the questions raised by ETI, the religions of the Book have always had to face the difficult issue of particularity. It was inherent in the very idea of God's choosing particular individuals through whom to communicate and a content of that communications that would mark off one human group in a way that seemed to privilege it in God's sight. Is salvation possible outside the chosen group [p. 161]?"
       2. Thomas Paine: Christians must believe that all the worlds must come to us, or ... All the worlds had a Christ
       3. When humans thought they were central to the cosmos, it was easier to believe the Incarnation
       4. "Since the Incarnation is central to Christian belief Puccetti [Roland Puccetti in Persons: A Study of Possible Moral Agents in the Universe] concludes that the discovery of this vast plurality of inhabited worlds undermines the Christian religion decisively [p. 166]."
       5. "Do these distant agents have a divided nature like ours? What sort of balance did their evolutionary ancestry leave them between reason and passion? How far does their intelligence carry them in an understanding of the sources and sanctions of morality [p. 168]?"
       6. "What manner of creature will these intelligent aliens be? How will they relate to their Creator? Will there be an analog of our very evident sinfulness [p. 169]?"
       7. "By taking on human nature, God raised up that nature; the life and death of God as man revealed the depth of the Creator's love for his human creatures, errant though they are [p. 171]."
       8. God has and will forever love us.
       9. Jesus died to change us, not God.
       10. Incarnation: God's love for us or expiation for human sin?
       11. If the Incarnation a response to human sin, what of ETI?
       12. Did ETI fall? If not, no need for an Incarnation
       13. If Christ's death on Earth a cosmically unique event and sufficient to restore the creation for all of the cosmos, then unnecessary elsewhere
       14. Does, then ETI, share in human nature to also be redeemed?
       15. But if the Incarnation, a revelation of God's goodness, then it is repeatable and by grace given to ETI
     • The Evolution of Intelligent Life on Earth and Possibly Elsewhere ...; George V. Coyne, S. J.
       1. Did God freely chose to redeem extraterrestrials?
       2. If God is good and compassionate, then "YES" (if we can speak for God!)
       3. We would expect a good God to save ETI
       4. God may have "saved them" in a variety of ways, not with just an Incarnation
       5. "Could Jesus Christ, fully a human being, exist on more than one planet at more than one time [p. 187]?"
     • Cosmotheology: Theological Implications of the New Universe; Steven J. Dick
       1. In 15th century it was asked, Whether Christ by dying on this earth could redeem the inhabitants of another world [p. 197].
       2. The standard answer was YES, because Christ couldn't die on another world.
   • From On the Moral Nature of the Universe; see notes:
     1. Kenotic nature of nature --
        hard-core of ethical theory:
        Self-renunciation for the sake of the other is humankind's highest good no matter the cost to one's self
     2. Consequences:
        • detachment from material possessions
        • renounce our rights as rewards
        • choosing not to harm another when we have been harmed
        • nonviolence
        • acceptance of suffering
        • submission to God (Islam)
     3. Cosmology
        • Assumption: universe created to allow development of moral (intelligent) life, i.e., purpose of universe is to make possible an uncoerced, moral response to the Creator
          • lawlike character of the universe
          • anthropic universe and free will
          • undetermined actions must be permitted (to exercise free will)
          • provident universe
          • hidden nature of ultimate reality
     4. Biology
        • central feature of biological life is the recycling of materials through many generations.
        • we are only lent the materials of our body to use for a while and then to return them to nature
        • similarly for the stars
        • great chain of being
        • death, therefore, necessary
        • giving of one's life is, therefore, redemptive
     5. QM and noncoerciveness
        • noncoercive divine action at the q level permitted; God need not violate the laws of science to act (noninterventionist)
        • q indeterminacy allows revelation: visions of ultimate reality to those open to them
          at the q level within the human nervous system, the divine can make itself known
     6. Why the kenotic nature binding on us? Resurrection
        • Jesus descended before he ascended
        • Jesus plundered Hell, freeing its inhabitants
        • Jesus's death is freeing: do not accept death, rather engage death
        • Jesus's death rejects the power of domination: do not just appear to suffer death, rather actually did and engaged death
   • No Other Name?: Pluralism
     Look at our own experience with "aliens"
     1. Raimundo Panikkar [pp. 152ff]
        • Roman Catholic priest, science, theology, philosophy
        • Mother Spanish Roman Catholic
        • Father Indian Hindu
     2. unity without harming diversity
     3. shared Mystery (the "fundamental religious fact"): present everywhere and in every religion
     4. understood only partially, never completely
     5. each belief sees only partially
     6. diversity of religions essential
     7. each one adds to our understanding of the Mystery
     8. "... the mystery within all religions is both more than and yet has its being within the diverse experiences and beliefs of the religions [p. 153]."
     9. no religion has a monopoly
     10. no religion is superior, including Christianity
     11. distinguish between universal Christ and particular Jesus
     12. Christ is a symbol for the totality of reality
     13. total reality: "cosmotheandric reality": intimate and complete unity between the divine and the profane
     14. God and humans [creation!] are in close constitutive collaboration for the building up of reality, unfolding of history, continuing creation -- co-creation
     15. God, the Father = apophatic dimension of the godhead: the creative silence beyond knowing
     16. Christ, the son = Logos, the external expression of the godhead
     17. God is the ground of divinity within all [ETI]
     18. Incarnation of Christ in Jesus is not final, normative, or definitive
     19. also Rama, Krishna, Isvara, Purusha, Tathagata
     20. No historical form can fully be Christ
     21. Jesus saving is not only in his historical presence, but in the cosmic Christ
     22. Christ can become real only through some particular, historical form
         therefore, occurs among ETI independently
     23. Jesus Is the Christ not= the Christ is Jesus
     24. "Christ-principle capable of self-realization in a plurality of Christ-events [p. 157]."
   • The Cosmic Christ
     1. Essence of Christ-event = universal
     2. Manifestation of Christ-event = particular
     3. traditionally Christ-event was restoration to Eden because of the Fall
     4. evolutionally, the Christ-event represents a crisis in evolutionary progress: from self-centeredness to other-centeredness
     5. The Universe is innately moral-capable
     6. re. Prime Directive: NO! Our role is not to not interfere (all evolutionary process is "interference"), but to do God's will when we encounter ETI; hence it is very important to know God in ETI.

3. Extraterrestrial Life and Our World View

   • Theme: Any encounter with ET must be mutual, open, and dialectic
   • See also On Evangelizing Mars: A Response To Jesus and life on Mars (unpublished)
   • The Many Worlds of Neurology; Freeman J. Dyson
     • "God for me is a mystery, and will remain a mystery after we know the answers to these questions [p.135]."
     • "new universes of neurology ... By studying the perceptions and beliefs of people who live in universes different from ours, we may better understand our own [p. 137]."
     • "Each of the four neurological impairments is congenital, each deprives the affected people of an important human faculty, and each of them is ameliorated by the amazing ability of the human brain to work around obstacles [p. 136]."
       1. achromatopsia: color-sensing cones in the retina are missing; only the rods remain.
          • excellent night vision; almost blind in daylight.
          • learn to live nocturnally
          • such a community in the South Pacific
          • night fishing: turning the disability into a productive occupation
       2. Usher's syndrome: born totally deaf; in middle age become gradually blind
          • need to live in a supportive community
          • fluent in sign language
          • in middle age, sign language by touch
          • learn Braille
       3. Williams' syndrome: a genetic defect wherein people have all their five senses, but cannot integrate "their sensory universe into a quantitative framework [p. 137]."
          • difficulty in forming concepts of shape, size, and number
          • cannot draw pictures of things
          • no mathematics!!
          • characteristic facial appearance
          • in compensation, many are verbally and musically gifted
          • socially gifted: childlike spontaneity and cheerful temperaments
       4. Autism: cannot attach meaning to things that they see, hear and feel
          • senses unimpaired
          • no difficulty with abstract concepts of shape and number
          • difficulty learning to talk
          • child: used "heptagon" correctly, before using the word "yes"!
          • "I" and "you" used interchangeably
          • Can grow developmentally and socially, but with great effort
     • Each of the groups live in a different universe from "normal" people (so we have described 4 universes + the typical one)
     • They are aliens living among us
     • s. H. G. Wells' The Country of the Blind
     • If we lived in a universe of achromatopes, we would be "day owls" while everyone slept!
     • If we lived in an Usher's universe, our spoken language would be for our private use; not for public discourse
     • If we lived in a William's universe, we would be strange and handicap if we were scientists and mathematicians
       • "The glories of the natural world are enjoyed but not analyzed [p. 138]."
       • "Our conceptions of God, like our conceptions of the universe, are rooted in an exact awareness of the passage of time. These conceptions are alien to the Williams universe. A Williams theology would more likely resemble the theogony of the ancient Greeks, with gods riding in chariots across the sky and demigods hiding in bushes and caves on the earth [pp 138-139]."
     • If we live in an autistic universe, there is no sin.
       • no lying; absolutely trustworthy
       • cannot conceive other people's thoughts and feelings
       • not malicious
       • therefore, no fall from grace (no sin) and no need of redemption
       • since the suffering of others is unimaginable, a suffering God is unimaginable
       • autistic theology: simple, transparent, concerned only with innocent joys and sorrows
     • most important lesson for us: humility
       • their religion and theology deeply flawed, because they are based on partial information -- but is not ours also based on partial information?
       • there could be huge and essential pieces of reality missing
   • ETI As Savior
     1. See also Religious Evolution: Technological or Mystical? A critique of SETI and the Religions of the Universe (unpublished)
     2. ETI as savior in popular imagination
        • 2001: A Space Odyssey
        • The Day The Earth Stood Still
        • Independence Day
        • Contact: Ellie is modeled after Dr. Tarter
        • UFO Encounters (Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
     3. ETI as savior in Cosmotheology; Theological Implications of the New Universe; Steven J. Dick
        • "... indeed, in some ways SETI may be seen as a religious quest. This is not a characterization that SETI proponents favor, but SETI is, after all, a search for a superior intelligence, or knowledge (omniscience?), for wisdom, and perhaps for power (omnipotence?) [p. 201]".
        • "... the point is that advanced extraterrestrial intelligence could possess many of the same characteristics now attributed to the supernatural God of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic Traditions. Such advanced intelligence could have fine tuned the physical constants, thus explaining the conundrum of the anthropic principle. in principle, it could even 'intervene in human history,' the touchstone principle of the Christian faith, not to mention of the UFO and alien abductee advocates [p. 204]."
     4. Thesis of SETI and the Religions of the Universe; Jill Cornell Tarter
        • "How might the detection of ETI inform, disrupt, or consolidate religious belief systems [p. 144]?"
        • Assumption: given religious intolerance and the resulting destruction, a civilization advanced enough to contact us must have a single (if any) religion, universal and compatible with science & technology
        • Therefore, contact that is intentional with information on the ET's belief system would result in our mass conversion to this discovered, superior religion, or ...
        • contact that is not intentional (i.e., no information re. ET's belief system) would result in
          • either new infidels resulting in uniting religions to fight them,
          • or religions becoming more inclusive and so uniting
        • "This is not an appeal for extraterrestrial salvation, but an acknowledgment that a mediated paradigm shift is less likely to have negative consequences than if it is left in our inexperienced human hands [p. 148]."
     5. Tarter's Implicit Assumptions
        • our world view increasingly circumscribed by science & technology
        • God (an invention of humans [p. 143]), therefore, is circumscribed by science & technology
        • universal religion is a program of science & technology
        • revealed religion is "made up" [p. 143]
        • revelation is superstitious or invented
        • as we advance evolutionarily, God is discovered through science & technology
        • evolutionary advance => technological advance
     6. Flaws
        • "techno-alatry": technology will save us
          • idolatry: believing that a created thing or activity will save you
          • money & riches (mammon)
          • science will solve every problem
        • ETI/technology as savior
        • consider the Puritans:
          • more technological advanced than the American Indians
          • saw the American Indians as less than human
          • demonized their belief systems
          • American Indians overwhelmed with the technological advancements
          • mass conversion was attempted and generally failed
          • today liberal Christians are trying to recover American Indian spirituality
        • Our Relationship to the Universe; Lee Smolin, "But the object of our adoration will then be nothing outside and apart from the reality in which we live. For we will understand that an even greater possibility exists than that our world was created by a being that stands eternally outside of its creation. It is that the creative being, and the world itself are one and the same thing. And our understanding of our relation to it then begins with the realization that we are of it and that we, and all our knowledge, and all our wondering are also creations of it [p. 85]."
   • Mysticism views the cosmos as [Fox 1988, p. 47ff, Tamburello]:
     1. interconnected and interdependent.
        all things are touched by and interpenetrated by all other things;
     2. nondualistic
        creation is not either-or, but and-both; it is both empty and full, one and diverse.
     3. wondrous
        God and creation are amazing and surprising; God is ineffable and can never be entirely known. So it is with God's image, the creation. It is open-ended, ever new.
     4. panentheistic
        God permeates everything. The utterly other is in, around, and through everything.
     5. nothingness
        creation is full of emptiness, emptiness soaks up creation.
     6. plethora
        creation is always birthing new images; its interconnectedness are endless.
   • The Mystical and ETI
     • mysticism is valid
     • universality of mystical experience
     • revelation is a mystical experience
     • Bio-convergence => ETI experiences the mystical
   • Mutual Evangelization of shared revelation and experience
     • if we and ETI are open-hearted and open-minded
     • vision of the whole expanded
     • ubiquity of diversity
     • Tarter's universal religion attained, but by integration, not coercion
     • universal religion evolves
     • spirituality and technology merge
   • Cosmotheology: Theological Implications of the New Universe; Steven J. Dick
     • "This new world view of a universe full of life, produced by cosmic evolution, I call 'the biological universe.' The central assumptions of the biological universe are the planetary systems are common, that life originates wherever conditions are favorable, and that evolution culminates with intelligence [p. 191]."
     • multiverse
     • "Cosmotheology: using our ever-growing knowledge of the universe to modify, expand, or change entirely our current theologies, whatever they may be [p. 200]."
     • Principles of Cosmotheology [pp200-202]:
       1. "... humanity is in no way physically central in the universe"
       2. "... humanity probably is not central biologically..." and therefore, not "... the special object of attention of any deity"
       3. "... humanity is most likely somewhere near the bottom, or at best midway, in the great chain of intelligent beings in the universe"
       4. "Cosmotheology must be open to radically new conceptions of God."
       5. "Cosmotheology must have a moral dimension, extended to include all species in the universe."
     • "Moreover, considering the divergence of human ideas of God, there is no basis for expecting convergence of theistic ideas by intelligences on other planets throughout the universe. Unless, that is, there is some scientific basis for it [p. 203]." is science the only criteria of commonality? what about mysticism?
     • "Our natural God is compatible with the concept of Einstein, for whom God 'does not play dice' nor concern himself with the fate and actions of men [sic!]. But Einstein's God 'appears as the physical world itself, with its infinitely marvelous structure operation at atomic level with the beauty of a craftsman's wristwatch, and a stellar level with the majesty of a massive cyclotron.' [p. 203]"
       • Naturalistic or even Pagan Deism:
       • Deism => A remote, disinterested God who wound up the clock and just watches.
       • Pagan => nature is God
       • Pagan Deism => a disinterested nature as God
     • "God may be a superior but worldly intelligence ... the God of nature is, by definition, not supernatural, not transcendent in the sense of being outside the world [p. 203]."
     • "A major effect of the concept of a natural God is that it has the capacity to reconcile science and religion [p. 204]." Mysticism can also do this. A nature God is reconciled by reduction; a mystical God by inclusion.
     • "... it may be that religion in a universal sense is defined as the never-ending search of each civilization for others more superior than itself [p.205]."
     • "The moral dimension -- a reverence and respect for extraterrestrial intelligence that may be morphologically very different from terrestrial life forms -- will surely challenge a species that has come to blows over superficial racial and national differences [p. 205]."

References

1. Many Worlds: the New Universe, Extraterrestrial LIfe & the Theological Implications; Steven Dick, ed; ©2000, Templeton Foundation Press.
2. Knitter, Paul F.; No Other Name? A critical Survey of Christian Attitudes Toward the World Religions; ©1985, Orbis Books.
3. Murphy, Nancey and George F. R. Ellis; On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Theology, Cosmology, and Ethics; Fortress Press ©1996.
4. Tamburello; Ordinary Mysticism
5. Matthew Fox; The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; Harper & Row, Publishers; San Francisco ©1988.