In 1960, in West Virginia, astronomer Frank Drake made the first systematic scientific attempt to test the heavens for extraterrestrial life.
Today, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, which requires a significant investment of money and hope, represents the most daring attempt to pose the question of whether we are alone in the Universe or somewhere on a distant planet outside our galaxy some forms of intelligence were once born.
For some, one clear sign - an unusual signal in the background noise of the universe - is enough to forever change their view of the universe and the place of humanity in it. Meanwhile, Christians need much more time and evidence to get them to reconsider their worldview.
They sincerely believe in the biblical understanding of man's place in this world, as well as in the fact that the unique phenomena of Christ's birth, death and resurrection confirm the special relationship between God the creator and his earthly creation. Late 18th century thinker Thomas Paine declared in his Age of Reason that anyone who considers himself to be both a true Christian and a rational supporter of the idea of other worlds is actually neither one nor the other.
David Wilkinson's book was, in a way, Payne's answer. David Wilkinson, professor of theology and religious studies at the University of Durham, is both an astronomer and a Christian. He holds PhD degrees in theoretical astrophysics and theology.
In his book, he attempts to study how recent discoveries in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have influenced the Christian belief system. As a Methodist, he carefully studied all the scientific data on this issue and offered us a detailed analysis of the achievements in this area through the lens of the Christian faith.
In the 3rd century BC, the Greek philosopher Epicurus wrote: "There are an infinite number of worlds that are similar and not similar to ours … We must believe that there are living beings in all these worlds." People have been thinking about the possibility of the existence of life outside our planet for 2.5 thousand years.
Logically speaking, infinity suggests the possibility that somewhere far away - in our or a parallel universe - the forces that gave rise to our existence could also lead to the appearance of little green men or other forms of life unknown to us.
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As Wilkinson notes, philosophers and scholars belonging to the Judeo-Christian tradition were often the founders of this worldview, because their belief in an almighty and merciful God led them to the idea that there was an internal order in the natural world, and forced them to believe in Him. the ability to create life throughout the universe.
In connection with the emergence of such ideas, people were divided into two camps. Some Christians who believed in the biblical stories of a special relationship between God and man considered such claims blasphemy and an attempt to challenge the centrality of the Earth in the divine plan. (In 1600, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for his audacious ideas.) On the other hand, biologists -evolutionists, from Charles Darwin to modern scientists, talked about the many factors that can prevent the birth of life in principle - not to mention intelligent life.
Some modern cosmologists consider it a real miracle how perfectly all the factors matched in the case of our "inhabited" planet, so they are almost sure that this cannot happen anywhere else outside of it. According to Wilkinson, even if we found traces of primitive life on Mars, we should remember that "there is a long way between archaeians and accountants."
It is worth saying that Wilkinson is trying to protect the search for extraterrestrial intelligence from all sides. Standing with one foot on the rock of science, he cites the following paradox, proposed in 1950 by physicist Enrico Fermi: if intelligent life exists not only on Earth, then "where is everyone else?" Standing with his other foot on the rock of faith, he studies how Christian thinkers expanded the boundaries of salvation to the most remote corners of the known and unknown universe, hoping that on other planets, perhaps, there are no apples or sin.
The difficulty lies in the fact that Wilkinson's book seems to fall into two parts. The controversy between empirical science and the defenders of Christianity is exacerbated by the fact that Wilkinson has given undue attention to silly theories of UFOs and other fantasies, without presenting an analysis of the views of other world religions. His arguments seem overly detailed rather than polished. In addition, at some points he only cites the names of famous people whom he quotes, so the reader has to look for additional information about them in order to understand their place in this dispute.
True to the teachings of Methodist founder John Wesley, who insisted that those wishing to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life were not so sure of it, Wilkinson takes the position of a cautious agnostic. Nevertheless, the reader understands that for Wilkinson, as for many Christians, "the eternal silence of infinite spaces", as Pascal said, carries with it a gigantic existential threat rather than the need to question the central position of the Earth in the universe if extraterrestrial intelligence will be found.
Review of the book Science, Religion and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by David Wilkinson
