Jeff Schweitzer
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The discovery of Kepler-452b
is not likely to see the public swoon with a collective rendition of
Kumbaya. But this Earth 2.0 is a huge if under-appreciated discovery,
not because Kepler-452b is unique but for just the opposite reason;
there are likely thousands or millions or even billions of such
earth-like planets in the universe. The discovery of just one such
world is good evidence for many more: after all, we know of 100 billion galaxies each
with as many as 300 billion stars (big variation per galaxy).
Astronomers estimate that there are about 70 billion trillion stars.
Math wizardry is not necessary to conclude we did not by chance find the
only other possibly habitable planet among that huge population of
stars.
With this discovery, we come ever closer to the idea that
life is common in the universe. Perhaps you are not convinced. That is
OK; let me speculate what would happen should we ever find evidence of
life beyond earth even if you think such discovery unlikely. I would
like here to preempt what will certainly be a re-write of history on the
part of the world's major religions. I predict with great confidence
that all will come out and say such a discovery is completely consistent
with religious teachings. My goal here is to declare this as nonsense
before it happens. I am not alone in this conclusion that religion will contort to accommodate a new reality of alien life.
Let
us be clear that the Bible is unambiguous about creation: the earth is
the center of the universe, only humans were made in the image of god,
and all life was created in six days. All life in all the heavens. In
six days. So when we discover that life exists or existed elsewhere in
our solar system or on a planet orbiting another star in the Milky Way,
or in a planetary system in another galaxy, we will see a huge effort to
square that circle with amazing twists of logic and contorted
justifications. But do not buy the inevitable historical edits: life on
another planet is completely incompatible with religious tradition. Any
other conclusion is nothing but ex-post facto rationalization to
preserve the myth. Let us see why more specifically.
From Genesis 1:1, we get:
God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of god he created him; male and female he created them.
Nothing
in that mentions alien worlds, which of course the ancients knew
nothing about. Man was told to rule over the fish on the earth, not on
other planets. But god would have known of these alien worlds, so it is
curious he did not instruct the authors to include the language.
There
is also a problem with Genesis 1:3: And God said, "Let there be light"
and there was light. Well, the earth is only 4.5 billion years old,
yet the universe, and all the light generating stars in ancient
galaxies, are more than 13 billion years old. So when god said, "Let
there be light" there already had been light shining bright for at least
10 billion years. He was flipping a switch that had been turned on
eons before by the thermonuclear reactions in billions of stars that
predate earth. That light bathed other suns and other planets long
before the earth was a loose accumulation of rocks orbiting our sun.
Since this is the story of all creation, these tidbits seem an important
omission that will undermine the entire story when we find life
elsewhere. We were late to the game of "let there be light."
We are also told in unambiguous terms that all life
was created in six days. Genesis 2:1 says, "Thus the heavens and the
earth were finished, and all the host of them." So here we learn that
all life, in all the heavens, was complete, and all found on earth and
on earth alone. The complete totality of that creation in all the
heavens, all of which was here on earth, is made clear in the preceding
sections of Genesis 1:1-31 with "every herb bearing seed" and "every
beast" and "every fowl of the air." There is no modifier like "every
fowl of the air, that is, on earth but excluding life on the planet
Zenxalaxu." We know all of this took place in six days because Genesis
2:2 says, "And on the seventh day, god ended his work which he had
made." Now some say that these are not real days, but allegorical "god
days" which could be millions of years each. But no, when god said let
there be light and created life in six days, he tied these events to
seasons on earth, which are governed by real days. So the Bible tells
us that all life, in all the heavens, was all put on earth in six days,
that is six earth days. Let us be perfectly clear that this leaves no
room for alien life in this creation story. The discovery of alien life
would therefore undermine the entire saga.
We can also have no
doubt that the earth is the center of the universe, because this is
where god placed man. In the trial of Galileo, Pope Urban VIII made
perfectly clear the church's understanding of god's word that the earth
is unambiguously the center of the universe:
We say, pronounce, sentence and declare that you, Galileo, by reason of these things which have been detailed in the trial and which you have confessed already, have rendered yourself according to this Holy Office vehemently suspect of heresy, namely of having held and believed a doctrine that is false and contrary to the divine and Holy Scripture: namely that Sun is the center of the world and does not move from east to west, and that one may hold and defend as probable an opinion after it has been declared and defined contrary to Holy Scripture.
Yet
it would be difficult to claim the unique position of universe center
if other planets held life that was zipping around in anti-gravity cars
traveling at the speed of light. Clearly, if the ancients knew there
was alien life, any form of life at all, the idea that the earth was the
center of the universe would be more difficult to sustain. Again,
though, there is no mention of alien worlds or life beyond this little
blue dot.
None of the 66 books of the bible make any reference to
life other than that created by god here on earth in that six-day
period. If we discover life elsewhere, one must admit that is an
oversight. So much so in fact that such a discovery must to all but the
most closed minds call into question the entire story of creation, and
anything that follows from that story. How could a convincing story of
life's creation leave out life? Even if the story is meant to be
allegorical, the omission of life elsewhere makes no sense.
Be
clear I am talking here only of how just the simple existence of life
elsewhere undermines religion. I leave the question of how religion
would accommodate thornier questions
like would such life go to the same heaven as earth life, or the same
hell, or would such life be tainted by original sin even if not
descendant from Adam and Eve. Maybe childbirth would not be painful.
That is fodder for another blog.
As I stated at the beginning,
none of this will matter upon life's discovery elsewhere. Religious
leaders will simply declare that such life is fully compatible with, in
fact predicted by, the Bible. Just like they eventually swept under the
rug being wrong about earth's position in the heavens. Or evolution.
They will create contorted justifications to support this view, cite a
few passages of the bible that could mean anything, and declare victory.
Don't say I did not warn you.
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