Roswell, NM by pandameixiang
Roswell, NM by pandameixiang
Roswell, NM by pandameixiang
From flickr.com/photos/26406919@N00/379553132/: Revive Us Again
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Revive Us Again by Unhindered by Talent
Revive Us Again by Unhindered by Talent
Look out, E.T., the earthling astronomers are searching
for you. Though they've found no extraterrestrial life so far, they have confirmed
950 exoplanets, which are planets in
other star systems, and they say some are habitable.
Look
out, creationists. Any life astronomers detect would be life the Bible
neglected to mention. The World Economic Forum cautions in its Global Risks
2013 report, "The discovery of even simple life would fuel speculation about
the existence of other intelligent beings and challenge many assumptions that
underpin human philosophy and religion." Some online commenters go further and
claim creationists would face extinction.
I
disagree. Sure, the news would generate excitement. Count me in; I grew up with
my mind in space. No dome-headed, spindly-bodied astronerds for me--I imagined
sophisticated octopi roaming purple seas and wondered if land creatures could
grow wheels instead of legs. But don't expect vivid images. Astronomers will
not soon see life or know what form it takes. What they could detect would leave
creationism undisturbed.
If
the search comes up empty, that too would settle nothing, but only mean that
rough methods applied at great distances failed to detect life in one tiny
corner of the universe. Astronomers would hone their methods and go on trying.
Contact
with intelligent extraterrestrials would challenge creationism, but few other religious
beliefs. Many Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians have already accepted
the possibility. It would not contradict core beliefs of eastern religions.
Mormons, Scientologists, and Raelians include intelligent extraterrestrials in
their theologies. In any event, the odds of contact anytime soon are very slim.
In 50
years materialists, evolutionists, creationists, and advocates of intelligent
design will be repeating the arguments they make now.
The Meaning
of Slime
Cancellations
of two space telescope projects, the US Terrestrial Planet Finder and Europe's
Darwin, set back the search for extraterrestrial life, but other space
telescopes and improved earth-based telescopes are coming. They will read
temperatures, use spectroscopes to analyze atmospheres, and detect reflected glint
off bodies of water.
Atmospheres could reveal life. An E.T.
astronomer viewing Earth would find low levels of carbon dioxide and high
levels of oxygen and realize that photosynthesizing organisms have transformed
our atmosphere.
Detecting life might stir creationists,
but not shake them. They could deny spectroscopic rainbows or downplay the significance
of life that could be nothing more than a thin film of rudimentary organisms. What
is slime next to humans, God's creation in his own image? Some websites already
make the argument, preemptively, I suppose.
That leaves E.T. to do the shaking.
The Odds of Contact
The
best argument against extraterrestrials contacting us soon is that they have
ignored us so far. Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) projects
have been listening for fifty years and have heard no telltale signals from intelligent
beings.
We will not visit them soon. At one-tenth
the speed of light it would take 43 years to reach the nearest neighbors, the three-star
system known as Alpha Centauri. Before that happens, we have to invent a craft
a thousand times faster than anything we've built so far.
Nor will we spot their cities. Even
through the next generation of telescopes, exoplanet images will remain bright
specks or over-enlarged blurs. A slightly better prospect is that spectroscopic
analysis could reveal a polluted atmosphere, provided the neighbors have our filthy
habits.
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