When Billions is Pittance Part I

“Astronomers ‘search for potentially habitable planets using a handful of criteria’” (NASA website)

Investigating the heavens to estimate the number of habitable planets in the cosmos is what scientists, by definition, do.  They should be so encouraged, with blessing from the Bible (Romans 1:18).  However when scientists actually cheer the alleged mounting number of life-habitable planets, they are then involving themselves in something other than pure science.  As a Christian I acknowledge my personal desire that the testimony of science should support Christian belief in the God of the Bible.  My recitation of that evidence, however, is not science, but apologetics.  Correspondingly, the obvious desire of many (not all) in the scientific and journalistic communities to find increasing numbers of habitable planets, accompanied by their gleeful celebration at that very prospect, gives strong indication that the scientific spirit (an impassioned pursuit of truth wherever the evidence leads) is NOT what guides their goal in this particular case.  I am not suggesting that that attitude, in itself, nullifies their findings.  But it ought to raise fundamental questions about the precise criteria that are applied to the question, and what actual data has been accumulated to determine the answer to the challenge of finding habitable planets.  I am here arguing that what is glaringly overlooked or worse, ignored, in their quest, in fact calls the “assured” results of their venture entirely into question.

A specific example of the overlooking of relevant factors will be referenced in the next paragraph just below.  For now however, I wish to share that, as a Christian, I consider that the outcome of the question of habitable planets elsewhere in the universe to be irrelevant to my beliefs about God and the Bible.  In an article I wrote over a decade ago titled, “What We Can Know About Life on Other Planets,” I stated what I still believe, ”Life on other planets is a theoretical possibility.  Although some Christians reject this statement on the basis of Genesis chapter one, I do not.  The God of the Bible can create whomever and whatever He pleases [e.g. angels, who are apparently immaterial beings living in other dimensions].  God is not obligated to tell us what He may be doing in another corner of His creation.  And it is asking too much of the Bible to demand to know what plan God may have for creatures elsewhere in the universe.  Silence from Scripture about other worlds does not preclude the possibility of their existence.  God is quite big enough to care for creatures beyond us earthlings.”  I hasten to add here the proviso that life happens at all, only insofar as God intentionally creates it.

to be continued...