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SETI: Part I
(a conversation between Ron Hughes and Dr. Humphreys on 
the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence in the universe)

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Ron Hughes:  Humans are social creatures.  We long to connect with others.  Indeed, we need others.  That being said, it shouldn't surprise us that fields as diverse as science and religion are looking beyond our planet to find other life forms - especially intelligent ones.  Thousands of computers around the world have been networked together to scan the universe for communication.  Nothing so far has shown up, in spite of the fact that thousands of people are devoting time to this and millions of dollars have been invested in it.

Dr. Humphreys:  Yeah, I mean it's very interesting the SETI project because it does show this inconsistency in the thinking of scientists who are not prepared to accept God.  You see in the SETI project they rely on the fact that you can send certain signals into space that any intelligent life out there would recognize.  So they choose something like a set of prime numbers because they say, these are designed and they will be seen to be designed by intelligent minds and they can be distinguished from all the background noise in space.

Ron Hughes:  Nature tends to be random.

Dr. Humphreys:  Yeah.  They'd say, so - that any creatures out there who are bright and intelligent will say, 'hey, these are signals sent by intelligent creatures.'

Now of course, there's never been any response.  There's no evidence that there is any other creatures out there, but it's early days yet.  But what I wanted to point out was when I say to scientist that you can recognize the marks of an intelligent mind, for example, in the DNA molecule.  The DNA molecule has information in it.  It has a message.  And I say that's part of the touch of the Creator.  Because it's got a message, I know there's an intelligent mind behind the molecules.

They'd say, 'Oh, no, no.  You can't infer an intelligent mind, because you can't recognize an intelligent mind in the molecules.'  Then they turn around and say, 'Of course, any intelligent minds out there will recognize these signals as coming from other minds.'

The fact is intelligent minds can recognize the signs of design.  I do it all the time and that's why I believe in a Creator.

So the SETI project is interesting from another point of view.  Not that it's shown life in the universe - yet, but it does show that fundamentally scientist know that intelligent beings can recognize an intelligent mind.  And they ought to be able to see the signs of God's intelligence in all of creation. 

But I have to say, at this point SETI has pretty well ruled out the popular idea that there is life on planets all around us.  And at this point there's no evidence that any of the hundreds of thousands of planets in our galaxy have anything that any normal person would call life.  We need to distinguish between life in the big sense of replicating, moving creatures and tiny little molecules.

As a matter of fact, Christians have been debating the possibility of extra-terrestrial intelligence for centuries.  I think Aquinas was raising these kinds of questions.  And as I read the Bible, I realize God does have a very creative way of expressing Himself.  And I have to say I have no idea what else God's creative touch has done in this universe.

And that's why I still insist, and I agree with the great writer, C. S. Lewis, on this, that's it's still an open question.  C. S. Lewis wrote a lot about life on other planets in his fiction, like, "Out of the Silent Planet," these books, because it was a very interesting thing to speculate.  But you've got to distinguish between that speculation and reality.