God and Aliens

A very belated Happy New Year to all.
I’m back after a long hiatus, so let’s start on a high note.

Over the past few months, I’ve often been asked “Do you believe in God ?”.
The problem is, of course, that everyone seems to have a different definition of God. However, if you statistically accumulate the various views, (and ignore the obscure or tautological ones), God is generally defined as:
“An all-powerful intelligent Being that created the universe, loves and protects us, and watches over our lives”.

Hmm, still problematic.
To illustrate, suppose you are asked, “Do you believe in aliens?” (being an avid sci-fi fan, I get asked that a lot, too) and aliens are defined as :
“Intelligent beings from elsewhere in the universe who are visiting us in their spaceships.”
See the issue ? Both definitions are conflations of two concepts which are not necessarily linked.
To resolve the problem, let’s split the Alien definition into:
ET’s: “Intelligent creatures elsewhere in the universe”.
UFO’s: “Intelligent creatures who are visiting us in their spaceships”.
Realize that it is perfectly possible to believe in ET without believing in UFO’s. The Alien question is actually two questions in one.
Similarly, God splits into:
Alpha: “An all-powerful intelligence that created the universe.”
Omega: “An all-powerful, loving being who cares about and protects us.”




Observe that when people talk about God, they mostly mean Omega.
It is assumed that God created the universe as well, but the primary attribute is that God cares about us as individuals and a species. All the paraphernalia of religion – prayers, rituals, efforts to live according to specified ‘God given’ norms – are useless if the deity does not care. Additionally, Omega is typically imagined as an enhanced human, complete with very human-like emotions, though one is occasionally admonished that “God cannot be understood in human terms”.

Alpha is a different entity altogether. An intelligence that created the universe could be infinitely mysterious, utterly alien. Such a Being may be totally indifferent to us carbon based life-forms in our obscure corner of a typical galaxy. It may not even notice our existence. Religious literature, being overly anthropocentric, provides few examples, but think of the Overmind in ‘Childhood’s End’, or Olaf Stapledon’s ‘Star Maker’.

Distinctions similar to Alpha and Omega have been made in the past. Religious philosophies, especially in Hinduism, make a distinction between an ‘impersonal’ and a ‘personal’ God.
Alpha would roughly correspond to Brahman, and Omega to Ishwara.

Ok, then, what do I believe? First, let’s face the facts.
There is no concrete evidence for Alpha, Omega, ET’s or UFO’s.
Anyone claiming to “know that God exists” is either using ‘know’ as a synonym for ‘strongly believe’, or confusing belief and fact.
I’m not about to provide any such evidence either, I’ll just say what I believe and a bit of why. So, here goes.

I don’t believe in UFO’s.
The idea that intelligent extraterrestrials are flying all the way to Earth, only to remain in hiding and get occasionally spotted by unreliable witnesses, strains my credulity to breaking point. UFO-believers typically offer arguments like “maybe they are trying to stay hidden” Sounds more like an excuse than a reason – why would they, after coming so far?
Usually this degenerates into “Who can fathom their purpose?”. Still an excuse (and one which we shall see again).
I can’t prove with 100% certainty that UFO’s don’t exist, but I can’t do that for the Lochness Monster either. But it’s clear to me that the evidence is strongly against them.

I don’t believe in Omega.
There is just way too much unfair misery in the world. Start with the recent disaster in Haiti and continue with all the natural disasters that have struck in this century alone. Add all the horrors of history – the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge, the Partition riots.... Now continue with the countless cases of individual suffering from birth defects to cancer to unfortunate accidents. This list goes on ad nauseam.
Just does not make sense in a world where Omega is out there to love and protect us.
Once again, excuses abound. “God is testing us”, “Bad karma from previous births”, “All works out for good in the end”, and finally, “Who can fathom the ways of God?”.
We saw this before and I am not convinced. It really looks like people believe in Omega despite the evidence rather than because, just like the UFO-maniacs.

I believe in ET’s.
Our galaxy alone has 400 billion stars. There are about a 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. It is becoming clear that most stars have planetary systems orbiting them. Molecules of life are abundant in interstellar clouds. Plus, it is entirely possibly that life may be based on completely different chemicals from terrestrial life.
None of this proves that ET’s exist. Maybe the odds of life forming are incredibly low, low enough to make it improbable despite all the stars out there. Maybe life happens, but it remains at the level of bacteria with overwhelming odds. But the existence of ET’s is at least consistent with the evidence.
Still, why believe without proof ? Because I like the idea!
I find it incredibly depressing to think that Earth is the only place in this incredibly vast universe to have complex life-forms and intelligence. If the evidence points overwhelmingly in that direction, I will have to accept it.
But all the evidence so far is consistent with the vastly more appealing picture (to me), of a universe where life and intelligence are commonplace, where we are but one voice in a cosmic symphony. So, I’ll stick with it until forced otherwise.

I believe in Alpha.
We live in an amazing universe “rich beyond measure – in elegant facts, in exquisite interrelationships, in the subtle machinery of awe”. Our investigations of the universe reveal a profound and elegant underlying order that continually challenges the imagination and ingenuity of our brightest minds. The depth and intricacy of the cosmic order frequently leaves our best scientists with a feeling of “rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection”.
To me, it seems entirely plausible that Alpha “breathes fire into the equations, creating an universe for them to describe”.
Once again, this is not the only possibility. The mathematical order of the universe may just be a ‘brute fact’, admitting of no further explanation. Alternatively, our universe might be a tiny part of a far bigger Cosmos, where natural laws self-organize and emerge like galaxies and ecosystems.
But yes, I personally find that elegant though the laws are, I am disappointed by the idea of “All that is or was or ever will be” being merely the working out of an algorithm that could perhaps be written down on a T-shirt.
Much more appealing to me is the concept of our universe as just one creation or manifestation of a numinous and ineffable Alpha, a mysterium tremendum without beginning or end.
Nebulous, imprecise, unverifiable – I know. But, hey, this is a belief, not a scientific hypothesis. And it is consistent with all the facts so far (though not implied by them).

Finally, a related question – Am I religious ? Short answer: No.
While religions pay lip-service to Alpha and occasionally come up with evocative poetry
(eg: The “Om Purnamadah Purnamidam” shloka of the Upanishads), their primary concern is Omega and how we can relate to Him/Her (never “It”). Doesn’t work for me.

Addendum: Throughout this piece I’ve quoted liberally from Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Einstein. Any reader of popular science will recognise them at once. If you don’t, what are you waiting for? Get reading! :)