Published: May 28, 2009 08:07 pm      

There are many ideas of what universe is like

The author of this column is in his 34th year of writing a weekly column for the Cumberland Times-News. In the last few years, I have broadened the topics that I write about, largely because of the interdisciplinary courses that I have been teaching at Frostburg State such as Energy, Science and Religion and Our Civilization’s Future Prospects.

I really look forward to writing my columns each week and would be delighted to discuss any of my column topics in a respectful setting with a club or group (such as the Rotarians, Kiwanis, etc.) I feel that I bring a broader perspective than some columnists in the big magazines and newspapers who are predictable in their outlook and often belittle those on the other side of a topic.

Also, many columnists avoid quantitative thinking in their columns for fear of alienating their readers.

This column features key ideas from the early chapters of the book, “Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists and Intelligent Extraterrestrials” by George Basalla, 2006, Oxford University Press. Basalla did his research for this book at the University of Delaware Library. (Extraterrestrials means “from other worlds”)

Our popular belief in extraterrestrials was also widespread in the 17th and 18th century by well known scientists who, as believers felt that God would not have wasted his creative powers on lifeless worlds. This outlook on extraterrestrials had its origin in ancient and medieval thinking about three ideas.

These are: First, the universe is very large or infinite; second, as a technological civilization, we are likely not alone in the universe; Third, because of vast differences in conditions between Earth and other worlds, extraterrestrial intelligent beings are likely very different than humans. Note that the second and third ideas are assumptions.

The first idea has been confirmed by modern observations of distant galaxies as far away as 12 billion light years. (A light year is the distance that light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles.)

Medieval thinkers thought that a finite universe showed a limitation on God’s power. They thought that God was infinite, extending over all space, so God’s universe would reflect this. In the early 1500’s the Polish churchman Nicolas Copernicus proposed a sun centered universe with the Earth as a mere planet orbiting the sun. Copernican supporter Thomas Digges portrayed an infinite Copernican universe in one of his printed illustrations in 1576.

Even before the size of the universe was settled, there was speculation about life on our moon. The Greek historian Plutarch felt that the Lunarians (inhabitants of the moon) were slight and ate lunar plants.

Johannes Kepler, a contemporary of Galileo regarded the lunar craters as deep pits to protect the lunarians from the long continuous sunlight (lasting about two of our weeks) on the moon.

Kepler also proposed that the four large moons of Jupiter served to light up Jupiter’s nights for Jupiter’s inhabitants (Jovians). Kepler, a devout Lutheran maintained that humans were superior to extraterrestrials as the Bible states that “we are the masters of God’s handiwork.”

Christian thinkers began to consider the consequence of the plurality of inhabited worlds. A crucial question was: “If there are intelligent extraterrestrials, did Christ’s crucifixion allow these aliens to be redeemed (released from their sins) as well?” Last year, a Vatican spokesman proposed that the answer to this question could be yes.

Copernicus’ outlook and following discoveries led to the principle of mediocrity. This idea can be expressed as: “Our view of the universe is typical; from elsewhere in the universe, we would, except for details, see the same things.” This is a powerful assumption — that the unknown parts of the universe are very much like our own.

So if we have a technological civilization, then there may be other such civilizations across space. Since we have been able to communicate across great distances for a little less than a century, then there could be other civilizations across space older and likely more advanced than our own.

The most elaborate early work on the nature of extraterrestrials was by Christian Huygens of Holland, a contemporary of Isaac Newton and an accomplished telescopic discoverer (rings of Saturn and Saturn’s large moon, Titan). Huygen’s last book was Kosmotheoros (1697) where he maintained that God had created our neighbor worlds for the pleasure of their inhabitants.

Huygens related the discovery of life forms and humans in the Americas with the future discovery of life forms and aliens on our neighbor worlds. Huygens proposed that these aliens might be presently observing the Earth through telescopes and wondering if our Earth harbors life.

A future column will explore the views of William Hershel and Percival Lowell, both astronomers who were strong advocates for extraterrestrial beings.

Tonight, the moon is just past half-full and optimal for viewing the craters and mountains with binoculars or a telescope. In the Cumberland Times-News, watch for announcements of the Cumberland Astronomy Club’s telescope viewing sessions in the Frostburg Recreational Complex near the soccer fields. These events will be held every month until the weather turns cold.

Public planetarium shows resume on Sept. 6.

Bob Doyle invites reader’s comments and questions; leave a message at (301) 687-7799 or by email at rdoyle@frostburg.edu .