[meteorite-list] ALH 84001 and Creation - Part 1 of 2

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:11 2004
Message-ID: <3B1BE604.BECFC05D_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

Kenneth Woodward (1996) Sacred Realms: God's Expanding Universe - The
Mars discovery excites religious thinkers (Newsweek, August 19, 1996, p.
46):

Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin: the history of science is studded with
discoveries that have made theologians rethink what the Scriptures say
about the creation of the universe. The evidence introduced last week
that microbes may well have existed on Mars, more than 4 million years
ago, hardly disturbed the universe of faith. But it did excite the
imagination, especially of scientists who are also religious believers.
At the papal summer residence, where John Paul II was vacationing with a
group of philosophers, astronomers from the Vatican Observatory were
elated by the prospect of life outside planet Earth. "Finding life on
other planets is a vindication that God is not limited by our
imagination," said Jesuit Guy Consulmagno, a specialist on meteorites.
"As our understanding of creation grows, our understanding of God gets
bigger." At the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, astronomer
Owen Gingerich, a conservative Protestant, put the Martian find in
Biblical perspective. "In Genesis there's a kind of sacred story being
told that focuses on us. But within that focus there is nothing that
precludes intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. It would be
extremely arrogant to limit God's creativity to human beings as the only
contemplative creatures in the universe."
To be sure, it is a long way from a handful of molecules to intelligent
beings with a will and conscience. There is, in fact, still no evidence
to suggest that humankind is not alone among billions of galaxies. But
to an astronomer like David Slavsky, dean of science and mathematics at
Loyola University in Chicago, and a religious Jew, the message from Mars
offers profound intellectual reassurance. "It tells us that the laws of
physics and chemistry are not limited to Earth alone, he says. "I find
it intellectually and spiritually uplifting to have evidence that these
laws apply throughout the universe. It would be plain pre-Copernican to
believe that life cannot occur anywhere else."
Received on Mon 04 Jun 2001 03:48:20 PM PDT