Aliens: What if they AREN’T really out there?

(Note: This was my science column for Canada’s ChristianWeek for August 15, 2008)

Science writer Marc Kaufman informs us in “Search for Alien Life Gains New Impetus” (Washington Post, July 20, 2008) that

Few believe that the discovery of extraterrestrial life is imminent. However, just as scientists long theorized that there were planets orbiting other stars — but could not prove it until new technologies and insights broke the field wide open — many astrobiologists now see their job as to develop new ways to search for the life they are sure is out there.

And if they fail, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying. On Mars for example, NASA’s robotic lander Phoenix is scooping up soil and ice, in pursuit of material that could only come from life forms, perhaps long dead ones. So far, Phoenix has found many of life’s essential nutrients. Mars also had plenty of water long ago. In the wake of these discoveries, there is much talk of the earth-shattering implications of finding life on other planets. But, Kaufman cautions,

To some, debating the implications of discovering extraterrestrial life is premature at best, because — all UFO ‘sightings’ aside — none has ever been found.

Actually, debating the implications isn’t premature, it’s “postmature.” The discussion is already over as far as most of the public is concerned. As Kaufman’s reference to UFOs hints, many people already believe that civilizations far more technologically advanced than ours exist. They are hardly going to settle for long-extinct one-celled organisms on Mars!

In a 2005 poll in connection with National Geographic Channel’s Extraterrestrial, two-thirds of Americans said they believe life exists on other planets. Of these, eight out of ten think that alien civilizations exist that are more advanced than ours. I can’t find a recent Canadian poll just now, but Tiffany Crawford notes (Canwest News Service, July 18, 2008) that there were 836 alleged UFO sightings by Canadians in 2007 — a near 12 percent increase over 2006. The higher number of “sightings” is likely due to the fact that more people are looking more often, perhaps because of specials such as Extraterrestrial.

In other words, given that so much of the public already believes in extraterrestrial life without evidence, the idea’s effects should be evident now. And that is why I am skeptical of the oft-heard claim that finding extraterrestrial life will be a world-changing science discovery. Quite the contrary, persistent failure to find such life would have a much more profound effect. That effect can be glimpsed from a most revealing conversation between Richard Dawkins and Ben Stein in the recent Expelled documentary, featuring the intelligent design controversy. Well-known atheist Dawkins, recognizing the hopeless snaffle of current origin of life research, admitted that he could accept the idea that life was brought here by intelligent aliens. In other words, he could accept the idea that intelligent aliens created life — but not that God did.

Dawkins is the leading edge of a trend. Belief in extraterrestrial life is much higher among non-churchgoers than among churchgoers, and that’s no accident. Non-churchgoers have a much bigger investment in advanced (and godless!) alien civilizations. In that case, the aliens might, as Dawkins suggests, be able to do some tasks that most churchgoers attribute to God.

But suppose all our searches turn up nothing more than this: Simple life forms once existed on Mars but not any more. We already know that bacteria got started on Earth almost as soon as the planet cooled (an awkward fact for those who believe in a long, slow evolution of life). Bacteria may also have got started on Mars, but failed to thrive there. Or possibly, they migrated from Mars on material flung through space by the seething early planets. In that case, we are worse off than before in understanding the origin of life. Currently, we do not know how life came into existence, but such a discovery would mean that we also don’t know where.

And suppose we also find that many Earth-like planets orbit stars other than our sun (exoplanets) but few or none have life — until we go there ourselves? Is that God’s providence? Either finding will probably move the public in the direction of increased belief in God.

Also, just up at Colliding Universes (my blog on current ideas about our universe and other universes):

The number 137 has its own Web page? Why?

Origin of life: Random origin of life was exploded by 1970s discovery – who didn’t get the memo?

Astronomer argues that we can test whether Earth is fine-tuned as a science lab

Our unique solar system is less probable than our universe? – a reader writes

Millions of universes out there? Multiverse is incompatible with naturalism (materialism) it tries to save! – Philosopher William Lane Craig’s view

Extraterrestrial life: Are media “hypocritical” or just not able to change their story at this point?

Perchlorate on Mars? Neither good nor bad (but actually bad) for life?

Rare? Solar systems like ours are rare?

The black hole: Does it or doesn’t it destroy information?

What Big Bang theory and Thomas Aquinas’s proof of God have in common

Origin of life: There must be life out there! vs. There can’t be life out there!

Big Mars announcement in the works – and still bigger rumours

Origin of life: Intelligent design theory and creating life in the lab

Journalist Denyse O’Leary is the author of By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy and co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain A neuroscientist’s case for the existence of the soul (Harper: August 2007).

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My name is Denyse O'Leary, born 1950, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I have been a journalist all my life. I began to publish books in 2001. I live in Toronto, and I have two daughters and two granddaughters, as of 2008. You can reach me at oleary@sympatico.ca | More from Denyse O'Leary