ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9608300014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: CODY LOWE
SOURCE: The Back Pew
When a team of scientists concluded - tentatively, at least - that they had found evidence of life on Mars, there was a flurry of debate about the discovery's impact on religion.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell told USA Today that, "They can spend a trillion dollars " looking for life on other planets, "but they'll never find it." Falwell believes the Bible "makes clear that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man" and precludes the possibility of life elsewhere.
Writer Margaret Wertheim in a New York Times commentary concluded that the new evidence "raises some awkward questions," including "If God were going to put life on Mars, wouldn't he have chosen something a little grander than bacteria?"
Other lesser- and better-known theologians from around the world weighed in on the significance of supposed extraterrestrial life. But, because ivory tower theological debates often times don't mean much in the back pew, we wanted to know what you thought about the discovery.
The journalistic speculation seemed to focus on whether or not evidence of Martian life was likely to kill faith in God or undermine the authority of the Bible, as if that is what interviewers were expecting.
But the 75 or so of you who responded to the discovery overwhelmingly said, "No, this doesn't change a thing about my religious faith."
As usual, we don't have room to include every response, though we truly appreciated each one. I have tried to distill some of the most representative - and diverse - comments, while trying to be faithful to the context out of which they were lifted.
There were, of course, skeptics. One reader, echoing a 30-year-old suspicion, not only doesn't believe evidence of Mars was found, but still doesn't believe men really landed on the moon.
Others were suspicious that the scientists who announced the possible discovery of bacteria-like life on a meteorite from Mars were relying on scant evidence and were part of a continuing scientific scheme to attack religion.
"It seems the scientists, evolutionists, in an effort to disprove the existence of God, are starting with the answer and working backwards using their maybes and possibilities," said James R. Bowman of Daleville.
The Rev. Wayne Brooks, pastor of Woodland Church in Troutville said his "basic reaction to finding possible life on Mars is one of skepticism. [but] If there is life on Mars, or any other place in the universe, it is only because God created and put it there."
"I notice that there is no mention of other people on other planets [in the Bible] but I don't conclude that there are no other people on other planets - nor do I conclude that there may have been life on Mars a long time ago, that there was human-like life there," wrote Rena Porter Fielding of Martinsville.
But Kirby Phillips of Radford says, "I believe that if there is life on any other planet, God in his word would have said so." Yet, "It does not have anything to do with my belief in the creation by our Lord. If there is or has been life on Mars, God put it so far away for a reason that it can't bother us."
Others recommended reading Christian apologist and fantasy writer C.S. Lewis' space trilogy, which begins with the book "Out of the Silent Planet," for a different view of the reason for the distance.
Lewis' "main concern seems to have been that if God had created life on Mars, WE would carry evil to that other planet and other beings, who were not necessarily affected by OUR fall from grace," wrote Catherine Carter.
A number of readers used the words "arrogant" and "limiting" to describe those who deny the possibility of God-created life elsewhere.
"We are trying to set limits on God's power if we believe there is no other life other than here on Earth created by God," said Roanoke's Paul Bigler.
"I have always believed it to be very small-minded and insulting to suggest that God is so limited, weak and boring as to make billions of planets and put life on only one," said Mike Sheets of Dublin. "I hope to live to see the day all know what I've always believed, that there is life on many other planets, because God has no limits."
David Johnson of Roanoke wonders "Why isn't God big enough to have all the side projects he wants? What does that have to do with the relevance of Jesus on Earth?."
David Riddle thinks all the fuss is a little elementary. "I didn't find this one too hard in junior high. The reasoning goes something like this: 1) God is Life. 2) God is everywhere. Therefore, Life is everywhere."
A slightly different but equally linear reasoning leads Nathaniel Back of Roanoke to a similar understanding: "Today, when we know the universe consists of billions of astral bodies, it should not surprise us that there is a very high probability that life, yes, even intelligent life, exists elsewhere than on Earth. Only our human chutzpah stands in the way of this understanding."
Though almost all the responses were from Christians, there were perspectives from other faiths.
"Buddhists have always taught that what we know as life is only a small part of the possible forms of life in the universe," wrote E. Jacques Miller, who teaches Zen Buddhism in Roanoke. "Life is the result of the natural functioning of the universe."
"We Baha'is aren't surprised," wrote Shireen Parsons of Riner. The founder of the Baha'i faith, Baha'u'llah, wrote: "Know that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute."
Bill Flarsheim of Daleville said the discovery would not affect his Jewish faith. "My belief is that God created the universe, but I don't feel the Bible is the specific recollection of what happened. Saying the Bible is inerrant in effect says God's actions are limited by what could be comprehended and written down by people who lived 3,000 years ago. The Bible is a way of communicating for us God's purposes for humans in the universe he has created. We shouldn't feel like it is all the story and that there can't be more that we can discover and find out through scientific endeavor."
The presumed conflicts between science and faith were addressed by many readers.
"As a Christian and a scientist, I am frequently challenged by the intersections of faith issues and 'hard data,''' wrote John L. Hess of Christiansburg. "If we become alarmed and allow our experience of the universe to make us skeptical of our relationship with God, it would appear that our understanding of God is too limited and our `God is too small.' (From J.B. Phillips' book, `Your God is Too Small.')''
Likewise, Richard R. Bauman concludes that "Science is the means of discovering God's handiwork, and not its enemy. There is no innate conflict between science and the diminishing mystery of creation. Just as Christ came to us to help us know God, the gift of science helps us to know God's creation."
William O. Capps Jr. of Roanoke is not "convinced that the big bang and creation by a supreme being are necessarily mutually exclusive. ... I do not find it surprising, therefore, that the same things that happened here could also have happened elsewhere. Indeed, there is some evidence that we humans are not even the only intelligent life on THIS planet. We may some day find that we must share that distinction with the whales and dolphins."
Several readers also pointed out that discoveries such as the purported Martian meteorite should be a cause of joy, not anxiety.
"As Christians, we should be celebrating each new discovering of the creating power of God," wrote Mauna Hair of Bedford.
Morton Nadler, a Blacksburg Unitarian, is sure there is life out there, but not so sure we'll ever make contact. "We must conclude that in the billions of billions of stellar systems, over the billions of years that the universe has existed, there must be more than one that are solar systems with intelligent life." He adds this P.S.: "It is exceedingly unlikely that we would ever be able to make `contact' with `aliens.' Cosmic distances make transmission of intelligible, let alone intelligent, communications very impractical."
He supposes this hypothetical conversation:
"Carl Sagan beaming up a message: `Hey, we've detected your existence. We're here, too.'
"Sixty years later, the reply: 'What did you say?'''
Poet Alice Meynell mused more seriously in her "Christ in the Universe," submitted by the Rev. Michael Lyle, pastor of my church, Fincastle United Methodist.
It includes this verse:
"But, in the eternities,/
Doubtless we shall compare together, hear/
A million alien Gospels, in what guise/
He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear."
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