Riddle in a Rock: How Special Are We?

For thousands of years, humans have turned their eyes toward the heavens, secure in the belief that in all creation they alone had been animated with life by the God of the universe.

But the stunning revelation that microscopic life may have once existed on Mars has, in a single Copernican-like stroke, made it intellectually impossible to view the Earth as the sole center of life in the cosmos.

For theologians and religious leaders long intrigued by the interplay between religion and science, the discovery raises anew profound philosophical and religious questions about the riddle of existence.

If we are not alone, what is the significance of our place and purpose in the universe? Are we the culmination of God’s creation or merely steppingstones in the still unfolding evolution of a young universe?

“The one thing that might have seemed distinctive about this planet--that it provided the circumstances in which very complex beings came into being--if that’s taken away from us, it would take us one more step away [from the idea] that humanity has some special role in creation,” said John B. Cobb, professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology.

The discovery of the 4.5 billion-year-old Martian rock is only the most recent in a series of scientific findings forcing theologians and religious leaders to look again at ancient teachings, especially the view that humans are the centerpiece of creation.

If life formed independently on two separate planets in our own solar system, scientists say, it raises the likelihood that life, even intelligent life, might be found elsewhere in the universe.

When it comes to such issues, there has long been an uneasy standoff between religion and science, born of a tension between claims of revealed truth and confidence in the scientific method.

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But the Martian discovery could raise the ante, and has given new urgency to efforts by a handful of theologians and scientists to bridge that ancient gap.

“This is cutting-edge theology because we’re trying to take science seriously,” said Richard Randolph, director of the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences in Berkeley. “It’s an intentional effort of struggling to integrate science and religion--and letting both sides maintain their own integrity.”

Nothing is more profound or more baffling than the riddle of existence, and most religions have something to say about how things got started.

In ages past, religion--at times to its credit and at other times to its eventual embarrassment--has influenced the course and findings of science.

Galileo, for example, was forced in the 1600s to recant his defense of Copernicus’ discovery that the Earth orbited the sun by Roman Catholic Church leaders, who feared the theological implication that if the Earth was not the center of the universe, it might not be the object of God’s constant attention.

Most theologians have long since come to terms with the decentralization of Earth in the universe. And most are not concerned that Darwin’s theory of evolution contradicts the Adam and Eve construct of Genesis. If God chose to create the Earth through evolution, they say, that does not diminish God’s power.

Only a relatively small number of religious “creationists”--including fundamentalist Christians and ultra-Orthodox Jews--dismiss evolution as “just a theory.” As for Genesis’ Adam and Eve account of creation, most Jewish and Christian religious thinkers believe that it squares nicely--at least superficially--with the now dominant scientific view that the universe had a beginning and was created seemingly out of nothing 15 billion years ago in what has been called the “big bang.”

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Still, hard questions remain for both religion and science, among them those posed by quantum physics.

At the heart of most religions is the irreducible precept that God was the “first cause” that created the heavens and the Earth. But quantum mechanics has come very close to falsifying the claim that every event has a cause.

Physicists have proved that matter can be created seemingly out of nothing; that very simple molecules organize themselves into increasingly complex forms and electrons act in unpredictable ways. If no cause can be associated with their behavior, perhaps a large universe might not require an explanatory cause?

To be sure, there are holes in most scientific theories big enough for an entire church congregation to walk through. Scientific explanations can deal with events within milliseconds after the big bang, but they can’t tell what caused it or explain the origin of the laws of physics that govern matter’s creation.

“Ultimate questions will always lie beyond the scope of empirical science,” wrote physicist Paul Davies in his 1992 book “The Mind of God.”

Still, none of the challenges posed to religion by science come close in the popular mind to the jarring possibility that there may have once been life on Mars--and that we may yet find intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos.

Evidence of life elsewhere would pose more theological problems for some faiths than others. The Koran, Islam’s holy book, speaks of universes in the plural and categorically says that there are other creations that humans cannot know, according to Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California.

But Jewish and Christian creation stories of the beginning place the human race and Earth at the pinnacle of creation.

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The Book of Genesis, held in common by Jews and Christians, speaks of God creating the heavens and the Earth--of breathing life into dust to make man and woman in his divine image, and thus having a special relationship with humans. “In the past there’s been a strong emphasis on the Earth as the center of God’s creation and human life as the highest form of life on Earth,” said Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. “If there’s life on other planets . . . I think that would shake people up.”

Still, Mouw, an evangelical Christian, said it is not difficult for Christians to believe that if there is life elsewhere, it too is “under God’s authority.” In fact, Mouw said, the Bible does speak of extraterrestrial intelligences: angels.

But the notion of extraterrestrial intelligence could seriously challenge Christianity’s central belief: That Jesus, the only Son of God, came to Earth to redeem its people from their sins.

“If we’re the only ones in the universe then it makes sense to say that Jesus Christ is God’s unique or only salvific gesture,” said Nancy Murphy, an associate professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller and a member of the editorial advisory board of Zygon, a journal of religion and science.

“If there are other communities of sentient life, then I suppose we have to assume that God would reach out to them in a similar manner. So that raises the question of how to understand the nature of God’s presence in Christ.”

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For fundamentalists, the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence is not only ridiculous, but theologically impossible.

“Our theology would allow for simple life forms but not for other thinking beings on a par with or superior to humanity,” said the Rev. John F. McArthur, president of Master’s College in Santa Clarita, which teaches that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days.

But some theologians say the Christian notion that Jesus was God’s only means of salvation is already undergoing a metamorphosis, in part in response to the growth of other world religions.

For liberal Christians, “there is no problem assuming that just as God reveals himself to Christians in Christ, God reveals himself to Buddhists in Buddha,” said Fuller philosophy professor Murphy. “God could reveal himself to other beings in an appropriate form.”

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The Mars finding raises other disturbing questions for theologians, including its implication that as Martian life became extinct, life on Earth will probably follow in 3 or 4 billion years.

“It’s really not so much a question of whether these single cells know Christ or are sinners,” said Philip Hefner, co-director of the Chicago Center for Religion and Science and professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. “It’s tied to the fact that this is life that went extinct. If one puts that into a theological framework, does this mean that God’s experiment with life sometimes fails and sometimes doesn’t? Where are we on that trajectory?”

The Rev. Matthew Fox, a former Roman Catholic priest silenced by the Vatican for his work in “creation spirituality,” said extinction elsewhere should be a reminder to humans of their special place--and obligation--in the universe.

“Dinosaurs are dead, too,” said Fox, now an Episcopal priest. “Stars are dead. They live and die. That’s what so shocking that Mars is as dead as it is and Earth is as alive as it is. . . . That gets to the moral issue of whether we’re really honoring the beauty and grace of this planet.”

Fox said it is time for religion to rediscover a sense of awe and wonder, as a universe unimaginable to earlier generations unfolds before our eyes.

“It’s not just about fine-tuning [theology],” Fox said. “It’s about learning and about opening the heart and mind to the size of God’s temple, which is the universe.”

Nationwide surveys show the religious beliefs of those in the pews are far more influenced by scientific discoveries than the clergy’s.

“For most theologians today, this [Martian] discovery will have no effect whatsoever,” said Claremont’s Cobb. “But that’s very different from popular religious belief, [where] what people learn from science has an effect on how they think religiously.”

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While no one is saying that talk of the time-space continuum and genetic codes will become the stuff of Sunday sermons, there are indications that clergy are venturing more boldly into the waves of scientific thought.

All eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America now have professors who teach about science and religion; 100 to 150 such courses are being offered around the country. And the Center for Theology and Natural Science in Berkeley has 600 members around the world.

Still, there is a monumental task ahead. Of the 6,500 theologians and others who attended the American Academy of Religion’s convention last year, only a few hundred sat in on sessions dealing with science and religion.

“In our culture there are two loud voices” that dominate the debate between science and religion, said Robert John Russell, a director of the Berkeley center. That is “the fundamentalist side, which takes the Bible to be interpreted literally and has a real hard time with science . . . in general. Or the side that reduces the Bible down to a couple of moral principles and that’s it.”

Daniel C. Matt, professor of Jewish spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and author of “God and the Big Bang,” sees a middle ground.

“We don’t have to define ourselves as being in one camp or the other. The real challenge is to see ourselves as one piece in the puzzle to help us understand our place in the cosmos. What science can learn from religion is to cultivate a sense of wonder. What religion can learn from science is that theories can be falsified.”