Fr. Ruiz-Sanchez ponders his dealings with the
As reported throughout the wire services recently, the Vatican has just concluded a 5-day confab with leading exobiologists and astronomers, other scientists, to consider "the possibility of extra-terrestrial life and its implication for the Catholic Church".
According to one of the attendees, a Prof. Chris Impey from the University of Arizona:
"Both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe. There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe."
Impey also added, perhaps even more significantly:
"If biology is not unique to the Earth, or life elsewhere differs biochemically from our version, or we ever make contact with an intelligent species in the vastness of space, the implications for our self-image will be profound".
Indeed, and that may be the understatement of the year.
Perhaps at this point, to interject, it may be well to remind Impey and his associates of what Stephen Hawking encountered in a Vatican conference on the Big Bang some 25 years ago, and documented in his book, A Brief History of Time (p. 122):
"At the end of the conference, the participants were granted an audience with the pope. He told us that it was all right to study the evolution of the universe after the Big Bang, but we should not inquire into the Big Bang itself because that was the moment of creation and therefore the work of God.
I was glad then that he did not know the subject of the talk I had just given at the conference - the possibility that space-time was finite but had no boundary - which means that it had no beginning, no moment of creation.I had no desire to share the fate of Galileo, with whom I have a strong sense of identity."
Of course, the reality of actual highly intelligent aliens confronting humanity will be of a whole different order since we will then be forcibly faced with their technology and or superiority. Just take a look at the current scifi series, 'V'.
In such a venue, there will be no place for excursions into abstract thought. We will be faced with accepting them as equals, running from them as threats, or maybe adulating them as our vast superiors, and "sky gods".
Recall also the cautionary warnings of some astronomers - Sir Martin Ryle comes to mind, who have warned that if we had any sense, we wouldn't allow our radio signals to escape into space and trigger the interest of possible (hostile) entities. We may live to regret it. Echoing that, physicist Freeman Dyson in a 1972 talk, warned that the worst nightmare we may encounter as an alien civilization- will likely be a "technological cancer', a race of voracious beings that will treat us about like we do our cattle, and take what they want.
What response can there be then by Catholicism and its pope, or any other religion?
What do you do, or how will you respond- if confronted suddenly by the equivalent of a race of interglactic Aryans (under an intergalactic "Hitler" ) with the fearsome technology to exterminate not just 6 million humans, but all 6. 9 BILLION? Will you bow to them? Plead to them?
Or present them with a book of canon law and hope for the best? I recall here that famous scene in the (1953) movie 'The War of the Worlds' when the local preacher approached one of the Martian craft with bible in hand, informing them about the "good news" and how he wanted to spread it. Their response? They aimed a laser or ray device at him, and vaporized him on the spot.
What we need to be alert to then, is that our religions, faith, even emotions..may mean nothing to them. No more than the "emotions" of a roach or termite may mean to us before we apply our boots. Thus, the notion of a conference to deal with "implications" of a chance meeting may be hubris defined as only limited humans can.
On another note, perhaps the most interesting fictional book that deals with such an encounter with intelligent aliens is 'A Case of Conscience' by James Blish. In this case, a Jesuit priest (Father Ruiz-Sanchez) is forced to travel over 50 light years to the planet Lithia to try to prove to the Vatican it doesn't really need to do a "planetary exorcism" and that the world is operating just fine (they have no crime, no want, no hate, no wars....but also NO religions or any faith!) despite not having ever heard of Jesus Christ or Christianity.
Is it a world in its own natural context, prospering on the basis of cold reason alone, with no small dollop of sociability?
Or, is it a disgusting trick by the "great Adversary"(a.k.a. "Satan") to try and show humans that a civilized race of beings can get on without any god or gods?
That is Fr. Ruiz -Sanchez task to find out. In one argument with Chtexa, the Lithian leader (see image), the priest wonders how the alien cannot see death as "evil". The alien replies:
"It is not evil as we look at it. Lithia lives because of death. The death of plants supplies our oil and gas. The death of some creatures is always necessary to feed the lives of others. Bacteria must die, and viruses prevented from living, if illness is to be cured. We ourselves must die simply to make room for others.."
How can anyone argue with that?
It may be the least of our challenges, if we humans actually encounter such an advanced species....especially if they opted to land on our own world. The Vatican (and other religions) will have its hands full just to convince them they need to "be saved" before they die.
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