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By Root 1268 0

over 4.6 billion years of tortuous evolutionary history. Such a finding will stress, as perhaps nothing else can, our responsibilities to the dangers of our time: because the most likely explanation of negative results, after a comprehensive and resourceful search, is that societies commonly destroy themselves before they are advanced enough to establish a high-power radio-transmitting service. In an interesting sense, the organization of a search for interstellar radio messages, quite apart from the outcome, is likely to have a cohesive and constructive influence on the whole of the human predicament.

But we will not know the outcome of such a search, much less the contents of messages from interstellar civilizations, if we do not make a serious effort to listen for signals. It may be that civilizations are divided into two great classes: those that make such an effort, achieve contact and become new members of a loosely tied federation of galactic communities, and those that cannot or choose not to make such an effort, or who lack the imagination to try, and who in consequence soon decay and vanish.

It is difficult to think of another enterprise within our capability and at a relatively modest cost that holds as much promise for the future of humanity.

PART V

ULTIMATE

QUESTIONS

CHAPTER 23

A SUNDAY SERMON

Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside [the cradle] of Hercules.

T. H. HUXLEY (1860)

We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.

NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS (1948)

THESE DAYS, I often find myself giving scientific talks to popular audiences. Sometimes I am asked to discuss planetary exploration and the nature of the other planets; sometimes, the origin of life or intelligence on Earth; sometimes, the search for life elsewhere; and sometimes, the grand cosmological perspective. Since I have, more or less, heard these talks before, the question period holds my greatest interest. It reveals the attitudes and concerns of people. The most common questions asked are on unidentified flying objects and ancient astronauts—what I believe are thinly disguised religious queries. Almost as common—particularly after a lecture in which I discuss the evolution of life or intelligence—is: “Do you believe in God?” Because the word “God” means many things to many people, I frequently reply by asking what the questioner means by “God.” To my surprise, this response is often considered puzzling or unexpected: “Oh, you know, God. Everyone knows who God is.” Or “Well, kind of a force that is stronger than we are and that exists everywhere in the universe.” There are a number of such forces. One of them is called gravity, but it is not often identified with God. And not everyone does know what is meant by “God.” The concept covers a wide range of ideas. Some people think of God as an outsized, lightskinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others—for example, Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein—considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws. Whether we believe in God depends very much on what we mean by God.

In the history of the world there have been, probably, tens of thousands of different religions. There is a well-intentioned pious belief that they are all fundamentally identical. In terms of an underlying psychological resonance, there may indeed be important similarities at the cores of many religions, but in the details of ritual and doctrine, and the apologias considered to be authenticating, the diversity of organized religions