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1.2. The Additional Perspectives of Astrophysics and Space
Exploration
A new area of scientific insight is now opening up –
the knowledge of the depth and dynamics of cosmic space and, thereby, a view
into the depth of time. Will this new
field of knowledge again bring new questions or challenges for Christian
theology, as Galileo and the doctrine of Darwinian evolution did? Will, this time, the challenges be accepted
by theology?
Initially, space exploration led to a sobering
reaction for most people, as Mars was found to be without canals or living
beings. All other celestial bodies were
found to be equally lifeless entities consisting of minerals or poisonous and
extremely hot or cold gases. That could
be of interest to scientists, but it has no significance for the common
man. The religious person and the
theologian, however, recognize in the immense depth and powerful appearance of
cosmic space an even more impressive grandiosity of divine Creation.
Astrophysics and astronomy are increasingly able to
clarify how the stars and galaxies of heaven originated and still new ones
originate in the continuing grandiose evolution of Creation. Astrophysics and nuclear physics have also
clarified how all the stars, including our sun, will again collapse after
consumption of their energy source, how they will be extinguished, and may
disappear in “black holes” in the center of their galaxies. From there, they may disappear through
radiation, resulting in dissolution of all structures in our universe. Following a different theory, the whole
universe may ultimately collapse into a single point in a reversal of the Big
Bang.
More recently, it was confirmed that other suns in
outer space are also surrounded by planets, as our sun is. It could be possible that the formation of
planets is the rule, rather than the exception.
By now, one also knows quite a bit about the process of formation and
the characteristics of planets. The basic
materials are always the same in outer space, and the laws of nature are everywhere
the same. There is a great variety of
phenomena in the formation of galaxies, suns, and their planets. But there is a certain degree of probability
that somewhere among all the stars in outer space there will be another
Earth-like planet. Our galaxy, the Milky
Way, contains several billion stars (possibly more than 100 billion). Therefore, there could already be Earth-like
planets somewhere in this, our own vicinity.
The entire cosmic space contains many billions of galaxies (possibly
more than 10 billion), which lets us expect a significant number of Earth-like
planets within them.
Our Earth was formed sometime between 7 and 10
billion years after the beginning of Creation through the gradual concentration
of dust-like material and cooling. Science has succeeded in retracing all the
subsequent steps of the origin of life (except, so far, only the synthetic
production of RNA) and its amazing diversification through evolution. Our “higher” human civilization originated
about 3½ billion years after the origin of life on Earth, approximately 7,000
years ago. This civilization almost
destroyed itself again in our days through a senseless nuclear war and may
still do so by some means of mass destruction.
Another geophysical catastrophe must be expected (possibly within 10
million years) and will bring large-scale biological extinction on Earth. In about 2 billion years, our sun will have
become too hot (before first expanding, then collapsing to become a “white
dwarf”) to let any civilization on Earth continue.
Earth-like planets
circling around their respective suns somewhere else in outer space may have
originated at different times. If life
has ever appeared on them, then it could not have had high complexity right
from the beginning. Such complexity
could have developed only over time through some form of natural
evolution. Life may have reached the
level of high civilization, and those civilizations may have lasted or may have
soon destroyed themselves again. Thus,
civilizations in outer space should be seen as existing in a distribution over
time, as their stars and planets originate and disappear, some a long time
before us, others a long time after us.
Statistical distributions of qualifications and
problem solutions are a necessary precondition for natural evolution. Therefore, practical questions of “right” or
“wrong” and socially valued questions of “good” or “bad” must be expected with
all intelligent life that developed through evolution. In this sense, “good” and “bad” do not relate
to what one does for oneself, but to what one does to or for others (including
other parts of Creation in an environment-conscious concept). Since higher civilizations require the
coordination of many individuals; this also includes what one does to or for
such a group or society. But it is not
necessary for the evolution of individual civilizations that brotherly love be
extended beyond personal family groups to all subgroups or to all members of
one’s own species (see such cultures among humans as the Spartans, Aztecs,
Japanese, Israelis, Serbs, or Muslims).
On the contrary, nature seems to generate the fighting between competing
groups as part of evolution.
If one assumes a
minimum of only one intelligent civilization with values of “good” or “bad”
among the many billions and still growing number of solar systems (stars)
within a suitable galaxy, then one can still expect billions of such “ethical”
or part-ethical civilizations in the course of time in outer space, because
there are that many galaxies. If such
civilizations appear only once among a thousand galaxies, then there still
were, or will be, many millions of them.
The question arises for Christian theology, whether
one can expect all intelligent beings in all ethical civilizations in cosmic
space to believe in a loving God-Father while they themselves assume that they
are afflicted by original sin. Does one
have to, or can one, expect the redemptive mission of the “only” son of God and
his painful sacrificial death also with all other ethical civilizations in
cosmic space, or only with some of them?
That would still be millions or billions of times, repeated over and
over in the course of time. If there is
redemption on other planets in the universe, does it always occur through the
murder of God’s only son? Could
redemption occur through a festive ritual of animal or produce sacrifice, as
known in primitive religions? Is the
killing of God’s only son millions of times, again and again, on one planet
somewhere in the universe after the other, really a viable interpretation of
God and God’s creation? If the son of
God, when sent out, has fared better or will fare better on other planets, how
does it then look with the “redemption” from sin on those other planets in
outer space? Thus far, the concept
of a special position of Earth within the totality of Creation has not been
shown to be supportable. One may not be able to postulate a special position of
Earth regarding “good”, “bad”, need to be redeemed, or redemption either. What is a general, universal, or at least
often applicable solution?
And how is it with the concept of eternal life? One has to consider that the material content
of the universe was generated from aboriginal energy. One also has to consider that the whole material
content and the whole structure of our universe will disappear again in
“black holes”. The black holes will dissolve
over many billions of years in radiation into cosmic space (see Hawking’s
theory), thereby allowing the entire structure of our universe to vanish – or
the whole universe may collapse again into one spot in a reversal of the Big
Bang. How about the preservation of the
“souls” at and after that time? [1]
On account of the very slow speed of light or any
other signal transmission (as seen in the dimensions of the universe –
requiring already more than four years just to reach our closest neighbor among
the stars and millions of years to reach other galaxies), it is unlikely that
we can obtain the information we seek or ask for from other civilizations in
outer space within the foreseeable future.
Possible theological consequences result, however, solely from the fact
that other civilizations exist in outer space and from our knowledge of
astrophysics.
[1] There is some vague speculation about possible other
universes (visualized as sequences or branches of bubbles representing other
expanding universes). Those universes
would have no time, space, or physical relation to ours, possibly no similarity
either.