In the new issue of Atlantic Monthly, author Paul Davies, who specializes in trying to harmonize science and religion, writes a
lengthy article examining how various religions might deal with the existence of extraterrestrial life. Davies, winner of the 1995 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities, explains that Christian theologians are divided into two camps on the issue, with some suggesting multiple incarnations of Christ on various planets and others finding the whole idea ridiculous since Jesus was God's "only" son. Interestingly, Islam seems quite open to the notion of aliens since, as Davies notes, the Koran states explicitly that "among his signs is the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and the living creatures that he has scattered through them."
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If voyagers from outer space should ever make contact with Earth via E-mail, Davies himself might be one of the first people to find out. He is one of 80 members of the Invitation to Extraterrestrial Intelligence Group, an organization that, according to its Web site "extends a friendly invitation to any form of alien intelligence or extraterrestrial intelligence that has reached our planet (or that is somehow monitoring us in detail from afar)."
The invitation comes via the group's Hello to ETI page, which is "extended to any manifestation of extraterrestrial intelligence or alien intelligence that has reached our planet. Regardless of your form, regardless of where in the universe you originated, regardless of when you arrived, regardless of how deeply different you are from us, we welcome you."
The group notches its fifth anniversary next month. Among the other participating researchers, engineers, artists, and writers are authors Arthur C. Clarke, David "the Postman" Brin, and Cosmos illustrator Jon Lomberg. Astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe, noted for his belief that cosmic dust seeded life on Earth, also participates. The contact man for this "first contact" group is Allen Tough, SETI researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. In a chat with Next News, he explains the group's use of the Internet for greeting aliens as "totally logical. If we are dealing with a civilization far older than ours and more advanced in technology, why couldn't they tap into our computer network?"
The invitation also asks the ETI to answer a variety of questions about where it comes from, its culture, and what humans can do to achieve their potential. Any alien visitors can also be expected to provide evidence of their off-world origins. Tough says that he's been contacted 65 times from beings claiming to be aliens, though none have turned out to be the real deal. One E-mail (most use a service like Yahoo! or Hotmail ) invited Tough to test him (her, it?) with a mathematical problem. So Tough came up with 100-digit number and asked the "alien" to tell him what two prime numbers multiplied together created that product. "The guy then admitted he was a bored computer programmer from
New Orleans," Tough says.
Another wiseguy claimed he would shut down British television at a specific time as proof. But the BBC, unfortunately, kept on broadcasting.
If any possible extraterrestrials passed the group's tests or provided some other evidence such as a scientific marvel, the news would then be posted on the site as quickly as possible to prevent the government from
putting an embargo on the information, the group says.
