A new publication from the Templeton Foundation (available as online reading and a PDF download as well) seeks to explore the question “Does science make belief in God obsolete?” TDG readers may find it worth checking out, as according to this MSNBC article, “the answers offered by the booklet’s two theologians, eight scientists, two cultural commentators and one philosopher are more creative and sophisticated than the mind-numbing ‘culture wars’ portrayed on television.” Even more motivation for checking it out is that the publication is edited and contributed to by prominent media skeptic Michael Shermer…or at least his Bizarro world alter-ego:
Biological evolution is glacially slow compared to cultural evolution. Because of this, and the fact that the cosmos is very big and the space between the stars is vast, the probability of making contact with an ETI that is technologically equal to or only slightly more advanced than us is virtually nil. If we ever do encounter the representatives of an ETI, they will be so far ahead of us technologically that they will appear as gods to us.
For an ETI who is a million years more advanced than we are, engineering the creation of planets and stars may be entirely possible. And if universes are created out of collapsing black holes—which some cosmologists think is probable—it is not inconceivable that a sufficiently advanced ETI could even create a universe.
What would we call an intelligent being capable of engineering a universe, stars, planets, and life? If we knew the underlying science and technology used to do the engineering, we would call it extraterrestrial intelligence; if we did not know the underlying science and technology, we would call it God.
Don’t fret though, MS manages to throw in a few standard skeptical pejoratives along with the more thought-provoking (or what I like to call, ‘Daily Grail oriented’) stuff. Other contributors include Christopher Hitchins, Steven Pinker, Victor Stenger and Keith Ward, among others.
