When the most famous theoretical physicist of his generation and key leaders of the Christian world — representing the two most important cultural institutions of the modern world (science and religion) — talk publicly and seriously about a controversial subject, then you know it’s becoming more mainstream. Such was the case recently with the Vatican’s and Hawking’s comments on extraterrestrials (ETs) and their implications for humanity.

As we approach the 2015 Maslow Window (which may open near 2013), the public senses increased global activity in technology and space and thus becomes more aware of and interested in related topics. Both groups (in science and religion) respond by addressing the perceived interests of their constituents — yes scientists have constituents too; they buy their books, take their classes, and support their universities and research centers.

For example, in the Vatican Newspaper (5/13/08) the Director of the Vatican Observatory,
the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, asserted that life could exist elsewhere in the Universe.
“It is possible. So far we have no proof. But certainly in a universe so big we can not exclude this hypothesis.”

According to Dr. Funes, an Argentine Jesuit priest with a PhD in astronomy from the University of Padua (Italy), even intelligent extraterrestrials would not be a problem for believing Catholics, “As there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, so there may be other beings, intelligent, created by God. This does not conflict with our faith, because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God.”

As part of a lecture at George Washington University honoring NASA’s 50th anniversay, Stephen Hawking also suggested that we are probably not alone in the Universe. Hawking, the world-renowned cosmologist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, believes ETs could be intelligent, but it is more likely that “Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare.”

For ETs to avoid galactic hazards and survive a long time, they must move into space. And in our case, Hawking believes that “If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before,” and he compares current opponents of space exploration to those who didn’t support Columbus in 1492.

One of the reasons space colonization can become a life insurance policy for human civilization is because of the devastating potential for asteroid impacts on Earth. In addition to the 1908 Tunguska comet impact — an A bomb-like explosion that could have leveled a modern city if it had not occurred in Siberia — scientists have recently found archeological evidence suggesting the ancient destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (recorded in Genesis 19: 24-26) was caused by asteroid impact.

Indeed, a Princeton professor has calculated odds for how much longer we’ll survive on Earth. Richard Gott, a Princeton astrophysicist, uses the assumption that we are at NO special time or place (known as the Copernican Principle) and the fact that humans have been around for about 200,000 years already, to forecast that — at the 95% probability level — it could be all over for the human species in as little as 5100 years (Nature, Vol. 363, P. 315, 1993), about the length of recorded human history. Incidentally, just to bring it into your personal timescale, if you increase the probability level to 99.9% — a near certainty?? — we have at least 100 years left.

To survive longer you have to do something “special”; i.e., you must violate the Copernican Principle. According to Professor Gott, “Clearly we would increase our chances of surviving if we colonize space.”

Trackback URI | Comments RSS