If you have not yet met Grace Wolf-Chase, get ready for a real treat. Grace is a scientist. Astronomer to be specific. From 1998 to 2020 you’d find her at the Adler Planetarium on Chicago’s waterfront. She’s now Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist for the Planetary Science Institute. If you want to know about star and planet formation, ask Grace.
What about astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase & Astrotheology? Grace writes a column for the Clergy Letter Project. She engages scholars at the Zygon Center for Religion and Science. She’s Vice President of the Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS), And more. Regardless of whether she uses the term, astrotheology, or other vocabulary, Grace caters nourishing science to hungry theologians like an osprey feeds her fledglings.
In our Patheos series on astrotheology, we’ve noted that, most simply put, astrotheology is religious reflection on astrobiology along with the other space sciences including astronomy. Although Christian theologians were the first religious scholars to dive into the astrobiology swimming pool, watch as now Islamic theologians are plunging in as well. Watch for a fine new book about to be published by Bloomsbury Academic, Islamic Theology and Extraterrestrial Life: New Frontiers in Science and Religion, edited by Shoaib Ahmed Malik and Jörg Matthais Determann. In the meantime, check out some of our previously recommended articles and Patheos columns…
In recent days, Grace and I have been sharing communication. The result is the interview transcribed below.
Astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase & Astrotheology
Grace Wolf-Chase & Astrotheology: An Interview
TED. Grace, these days I prefer the term, astrotheology. Back in the 1970s I had employed the term, exotheology, because Carl Sagan was using the term, exobiology. Then in the mid 1990s, NASA replaced exobiology with astrobiology. I like to think of astrotheology as religious reflection on astrobiology. How do you select your terms?
GRACE. (1) I note the distinction between exobiology and astrobiology really comes down to the fact that astrobiology also includes the Earth (whereas exobiology was primarily focused on the search for life beyond Earth.) Biologists started seriously collaborating with planetary scientists and astronomers when life was discovered in all sorts of exotic environments on our planet, and especially after we acquired evidence for the actual existence of exoplanets (as you said, during the 1990s).
TED. When I describe the ETI Myth within the heart of science, I make transparent the audaciousness of the idea of science as savior. Astrophysicist Martin Rees just published a book, If Science is to Save Us. Some SETI astrobiologists believe extraterrestrial science will save us on Earth from self-destruction by thermonuclear war or environmental despoilment. I think this counts as practicing theology without a license. What do you think?
GRACE. (2)I think the point behind the comment that astrobiology will or might save the Earth refers to the large collaborations between biologists and physical scientists who are running increasingly elaborate models of the evolution of planetary atmospheres. I think these efforts might indeed help provide solutions to some of the environmental challenges and catastrophes we’re experiencing on Earth today.
Astronomy is Theory-Driven
TED. Some astrobiologists chuckle at the lack of empirical evidence for extraterrestrial life, making their field a science without data. Even so, this field of science is exploding with new knowledge about our universe. What do you think about the interaction between theory and data?
GRACE. (3) I know you focus on data-driven science. However, astronomy has traditionally been a theory-driven science in that so many astronomical discoveries were predicted by physics long before they were actually observed/discovered (e.g., the planet Neptune, black holes, protostellar disks, exoplanets, gravitational waves, the list goes on…) Of course, there have been surprises, too, but in the history of astronomy, theory often precedes observation, and it has been astonishingly accurate in spite of the incompleteness of physics.
Science Fiction & Science Discovery
TED. Many scientists tell me that when they were kids they had been inspired by science fiction. Girls read sci fi books. Boys watched sci fi movies. What do you think?
GRACE. (4) It constantly amazes me how spot-on science fiction has been in envisioning future science and technology. If anything, science fiction was too conservative in predicting the diversity of exoplanets we’re discovering. I think this argues for inviting science fiction writers into the conversation. So many scientists I know have been inspired to develop technologies that were first envisioned in science fiction. I often think of this as the “right-brain” folks having these ideas and the “left-brain” folks saying, “Gee that’s a great idea, let’s build it!”
Do scientists practice theology and ethics without a license?
TED. Let me quote you. “Although science can, and arguably should, inform ethics, science cannot dictate ethics.” (Wolf-Chase, 2012, 110). I gather you’d prohibit a scientist from practicing ethics without a license. One task of the astrotheologian, I believe, is to remind scientists constantly to stick to pursuing the best science. The assumptions and methods of scientific research do not lend themselves to constructing worldviews, grounding values, making moral pronouncements, let alone affirming or denying God’s role in creation. Yet, many scientists make non-scientific pronouncements without a license. Among these is the very speculative idea that a more advanced ETI civilization would have both superior science and superior morlaity. What do you think?
GRACE. (5) I agree with you when it comes to many of the statements made by scientists that go beyond the actual science. Equating scientific and technological achievement with greater morality certainly goes beyond scientific knowledge. However, there is a certain logic behind this assumption. Hypothetical ETI civilizations we might detect through their technology would have successfully avoided destroying themselves with their technology. One might argue that this would require that ETI have learned how to co-exist on a planetary scale. A more advanced ETI must have learned how to live in peace. This would in turn at least suggest (not prove, of course) highly-developed ethical and moral principles. As you say, we won’t know until/if we actually make contact.
The Scientific Future versus the Promises of God
NASA Webb Arp 273. Pair of spiraling galaxies.
TED. Although theologians look for consonance between religious beliefs and scientific pictures of the natural world, this seems forbidden when we look at the cosmic future. The law of entropy applied to an expanding universe suggests that the cosmos will expand and cool and finally end in a frozen equilibrium. All life will die. The cosmic future described by science is dissonant with both Christian and Islamic eschatologies where the creation becomes consummated, healed, and redeemed. Do you have any hope for consonance between the future described by science and the future described by God’s promises for redemption?
GRACE. (6) Yes, the current scientific prediction for the fate of the Universe isn’t cheery. However, we don’t know what at least 70% of the Universe is presently (dark matter & dark energy). Scientific cosmology may look very different decades from now. I’m not saying salvation will come through science, just that we hardly have the final word in science, ever. Science should be a verb — like the way Matt Damon used it in The Martian.
Conclusion
In this interview we’ve asked about astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase & astrotheology. We’ve partially constructed a bridge between science and religion.
We’re looking at a bridge with two-way traffic. The traffic flows one way from the space sciences to the theologian so that those in the churches can come to appreciate more fully the grandeur and magnificence of God’s creation. Classically, this is called natural revelation. The scienist, whether knowingly or not, helps reveal dimensions of the divine to those with ears to hear it or eyes to see it.
Might the traffic crossing the bridge go from theology to science? Yes, indeed. In the above discussion, for example, the astrotheologian pleads with the scientific community to stick to the science! Stop practicing theology without a license? Stop peddling the ETI Myth with is misleading interpretation of evolution and its attempt to sanctify the alleged saving power of science! In the form of a critique, this is a theological contribution to the scientists’ self-understanding.
When we turn to astroethicists, these professionals can partner with space scientists to provide critically honed moral deliberation to help formulate public policy. The astroethicist–whether philosophically trained or theologically oriented–can contribute to public policy deliberation in a non-authoritarian yet cooperative fashion.
Ted Peters (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is a public theologian directing traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He recently co-edited Astrobiology: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy(Scrivener 2021) as well as Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Cascade 2018). He also co-edited Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Lexington 2022). Peters is author of Playing God: Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom (Routledge, 2nd ed, 2002) and The Stem Cell Debate (Fortress 2007). See his blogsite [https://www.patheos.com/blogs/publictheology/] and his website [TedsTimelyTake.com].
Malik, Shoaib Ahmed, and Jörg Matthais Determann, eds., 2023 (forthcoming). Islamic Theology and Extraterrestrial Life: New Frontiers in Science and Religion. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Wolf-Chase, Grace, 2012. “Astronomy: From Star Gazing to Astrobiology,” in The Routledge Companion to Religion and Science, ed. James W. Haag, Gregory R. Peterson, and Michael L. Spezio. London: Routledge, 103-112.
Ted Peters (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is a public theologian directing traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He recently co-edited Astrobiology: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (Scrivener 2021) as well as Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Cascade 2018). He also co-edited Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Lexington 2022). Peters is author of Playing God: Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom (Routledge, 2nd ed, 2002) and The Stem Cell Debate (Fortress 2007). See his blogsite [https://www.patheos.com/blogs/publictheology/] and his website [TedsTimelyTake.com]. You can read more about the author here.
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