Gene for Pedophilia?

Gene for pedophilia? Some Italian researchers claim to have discovered a gene that causes pedophilia. I think a lot of geneticists would balk at the claim that a gene causes a behavior. But there is in the popular media a lot of claims for genes for various behaviors.

There is an often misunderstood theological concept called "original sin" -- which simply means all humans are bent to do wrong things because that is inherent in our nature. Just because a behavioral tendency identified in someone's genes, such as a pedophilia, does not mean they are free to live that tendency, even if it gives them a sense of pleasure and fulfillment in that activity. There is a greater good to resist, using the help of friends and others.

Ultimately, because of our bent to do wrong, we fail at doing the right things we should. There is a cost to failure. 2000 years ago Christ lived a perfect life and died for our failure. Those who put their trust in and alligence to Christ have this cost cancelled and have a new life given by Christ.

Turing Test for the Imago Dei

Last month was the British mathematician Alan Turing's 100th birthday. If you are a geek or techie, you undoubtedly came across the many of the biographies and legacies of Turing. One interesting thought experiment associated with Turing is the the Turing Test, a test of a machine to exhibit human intelligence and behavior. The test consists of a judge, a human, and a machine that is designed to perform just like a human. Each of the participants are separated from each other. If the judge cannot reliably identify the machine from the human, the machine will have passed the test.

There is an interesting program developed in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum called Eliza. Eliza simulates the behaviour of a Rogerian psychotherapist. Some who have played Eliza were fooled into thinking they were interacting with a human. I have provided a Google Gadgets edition of Eliza below for you to play with. It is supposed to work best with Firefox. Alas, this does not work with Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

After playing long enough with Eliza, most people are able to see it is a computer program. I think people these days are more computer savvy than in 1966 and so are not so easily fooled.

The previous post I discussed the theological aspects of intelligent extraterrestrial life. I asked the question of if it is possible for rational intelligent life not to exhibit the "image of God" -- or what theologians say in Latin, the Imago Dei. I said that the Imago Dei consists of rationality, the ability to correctly think, an immortal soul (an essence that carries on even when the physical body dies), knowledge of God, righteousness (moral integrity towards other intelligent life), and holiness (the right relationship towards God). Humans have fallen and thus do not exhibit perfect righteousness nor perfect holiness. In fact, these areas are seriously broken. For some, such as Protestant Reformer Martin Luther, the image was shattered to the point of being gone. For other Protestant Reformers, the image was severely marred but not completely eradicated.

The question I want to explore now is this: Can a Turing test be done for the Imago Dei?

The most difficult part would be the detecting the immortal soul. Ignoring that for now, how would a judge go about asking questions to a machine to determine if it was a human who possessed the Imago Dei? Alan Turing, an atheist, would probably dismiss the question or say this is part of the human nature. But suppose we came across extraterrestrial intelligent life, is there a way to test if it had the Imago Dei? It would probably center around the sense of right and wrong, moral values, if it had those. It might not consist of asking whether the intelligent life believed in God and loved God. While that is a good question, human atheists are thought to have the Imago Dei and would answer they do not believe in God.

What do you think?

Theological Thoughts on Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life

Suppose someday we discover extraterrestrial intelligent life. If it exists, the most probable way we'd discover it is through its signals from a planetary system of a star that is light years away. How would such a discovery impact Christian theology?

In Christian theology, God created the universe for his glory. The Old Testament psalmist writes: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." The Bible does describe other forms of life that god created. These include angels and demons.  Demons are angels that rebelled against God. It is possible that the Bible hints of some other forms of extraterrestrial life, but that is unclear at best. From the created intelligent beings that the Bible does clearly speak about, humans, angels, and demons, we can gather several principles.

The first principle is that all intelligent creatures owe God worship and reverence. The apostle Paul writes in the New Testament: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." (Romans 1:18-21 ESV)".

There are two classes of intelligent beings mentioned in the Bible: (1) humans and  (2) angels/demons. Demons are in the same class are angels. Demons were once angels that worshiped God. At some point, a group of angels, lead by Lucifer (Satan), rebelled against God. These fallen angels are referred to as demons. It is interesting to note how God deals with each of these classes of intelligent beings. With the class angels/demons, God rewards those who follow him by keeping them in his favor. Those who rebel, God casts them out of heaven and their ultimate fate is to be cast into hell. There appears to be no second chances for angels that rebel; they are irrevocably lost. Humans have fallen. The default destination for fallen humans is to be cast into hell. God has provided a means to redeem or rescue the fallen people so they will not be cast into hell. In fact, God has purposefully chosen a select group out of the fallen human race whom he will absolutely rescue. God will rescue any human that desires to be rescued, but unless God changes the mindset (often referred to as the heart) of the fallen person, that person will not desire to be rescued. Not all Christians agree that only God's prior purposefully chosen people will be rescued. Most readers of this blog article are not regular readers of this blog and enter from Google searches. Just so you know, I take a Reformed Protestant view, sometimes referred to as Calvinism. To me it makes the most sense of an omniscient and omnipotent God. It also makes sense out of the Bible, but that is a long discussion. Since this is my blog, this is the view I am running with for me entries.

God is not obliged to rescue anyone. This is demonstrated that with angels, God does not even provide a way for any fallen angel to be rescued or redeemed. With humans, God does provide a means of rescue, that God offers it to all humans, but only those who God awakens with the desire to be rescued will be rescued.

With extraterrestrial intelligent life, I am also making some assumptions:

1. Intelligent life is able to do symbolic reasoning. This is the ability to represent one thing with another. It includes the capability to relate thoughts or signs to concepts of non-physical ideas.
2. Intelligent life has consciousness, an awareness of itself.
3. Intelligent life has a spiritual component to it. There is what theologians call the Imago Dei, the Image of God, in the intelligent life. This includes a sense of right and wrong and an appreciation for the transcendent God. This appreciation for the transcendent God is not just seeing the amazing universe and being struck with a sense of wonder at that, but the sense of wonder, awe, and love for the one who made the universe.
4. There are objective, universal moral standards that hold across the universe for intelligent life. These would include, but are not limited to: do not to murder other intelligent life, do not steal from other intelligent life, do not covet, love and honor God.

I will expand on the Imago Dei a bit more. My definition of the image of God is not universal among Christians. Again, I am taking a Reformed perspective on this. One of the classic (and Reformed) confessions of faith in Christendom, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), says: "... He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image; ..." (WCF 5:2). From this statement, which is an attempt to summarize what the Bible teaches, says that the image consists of a number of elements. Rationality, the ability to correctly think, is the first element. An immortal soul is an essence that carries on even when the physical body dies. Knowledge is another essential element. Knowledge, in terms of the the confession understands, foremost is a knowledge of God and other knowledge as well. Righteousness is the moral integrity towards other intelligent life while holiness is the right relationship towards God.  Classical Christian doctrine teaches that God created humans with a perfect righteousness and holiness where there was no rebellion towards God and the original humans were in perfect relationship with each other. A one point, the original humans disobeyed God and they became corrupted as a result. This corruption effected the Imago Dei to where it is seriously distorted in humans ever since. This distorted, corrupted image of God in humans is bent towards rebelling against God ever since. The technical term of this corruption that all humans have since the fall is the often misunderstood phase "original sin".

Is it possible for intelligent life not to have a spiritual component to it? A variety of science fiction books I've read explore the idea. These had intelligent creatures that had no concept of morality, it was a survival of the fittest taken to its logical conclusion. There was cooperation in a group of individuals, like wolves in a pack, and groups would compete and war with each other for supremacy without any concepts of good or evil. Those books were interesting reads. While I assume intelligent life does have a spiritual component to it, I also discuss what if it did not.

Assuming, for the sake of argument that extraterrestrial life exists, here are some possible categories in how they relate to God.

1. Extraterrestrials with the Imago Dei who have not fallen.
1. Those who have passed a trial successfully and will never fall.
2. Those who will have a future test and could potentially fall.
2. Extraterrestrials with the Imago Dei who have fallen.
1. Those who have a redemption setup with God.
2. Those who do not have a redemption setup with God.
3. Rational extraterrestrials with symbolic reasoning and consciousness without the complete Imago Dei, that is, they do not possess a spiritual component to them.

Extraterrestrials with the Imago Dei who have not fallen.

Extraterrestrials who have the Imago Dei and have not fallen would those beings who never do any moral wrong and worship God as he desires. These beings would enjoy God's favor. There may be two subcategories on this group. Those extraterrestrials who went through a period of testing, did not fall and will not fall in the future. These creatures will, in my take on theology, continue to live in God's favor and will enjoy God in heaven. It might be that they will not suffer a physical death, but it is also possible that individuals will die, but death will not hold an unpleasant or terrifying aspect to them. Instead it would be a natural and welcome event for each of them.

The second category are extraterrestrials who have not gone through critical testing and may yet fall. If they do not fall in that future trial or testing, they would become like the extraterrestrials who passed through their trail and did not fall, and will enjoy the same characteristics as that first subcategory. For those who fall, then we go to the next category.

Extraterrestrials with the Imago Dei who have fallen.

Extraterrestrials who have the image of God and have fallen are creatures who are in some state of rebellion with God. This is the state of humans, even those who have become Christians, who are God's chosen people, still struggle with an inner rebellion against God. There are two subcategories: those whom God has a plan of salvation or redeeming, and those who God does not plan to redeem. Remember, from the Bible's description of God's activity with respect to fallen angels, who are intelligent, rational, conscious beings with a sense of right and wrong, God does not provide a means of redeeming them. (As a side note, it is possible that theologically angels are not considered to be created in the image of God -- but I am ignoring that possibility for this discussion.)

For those extraterrestrials that God does provide an means of redemption, what would that look like? This is speculative theology (which all of this is), but I will brazenly make speculations. It might be that someone like Jesus Christ, the second person of the Triune God, entered or will enter into the extraterrestrial civilization and die for their sins, taking the punishment that each one of them deserve. As with humans, those who place their faith in that Christ-like being will be redeemed. One interesting variation would be that Jesus' death and resurrection here on Earth covers the fallen extraterrestrials who place their faith in Christ.

For those extraterrestrials where God has not provided a means for redemption, there are a few things to consider. If we were to ever come across them, we may not be able to distinguish these from the category where God will provide in the future, or where Jesus from Earth is the means of their redemption, or that these simply will not be redeemed by God at all just as the fallen demons have no provision for redemption. Just as with people we encounter who do not know God, it is possible that God will redeem them sometime in the future, so it may be with these fallen extraterrestrials. Further, I am assuming it will not be simple to understand completely alien extraterrestrials, and judging their condition with respect to God may be very difficult.

Intelligent Extraterrestrials without the Imago Dei

Finally, is it possible that are extraterrestrials without the image of God? They do not have a spiritual nature to them. They do not have a sense of moral integrity with each other. They do not have a sense of God or any duty towards him at all. They are not immoral, the are amoral. Perhaps the same could be asked of what happens to a wolf, a lion, a dog? These are creatures who do not exhibit a sense of morality. Well, many dog owners will tell me otherwise, but there is a distinction in Christian theology that differentiates these animals from humans in the sense of the image of God. Humans have a much greater degree of righteous integrity than dogs do, a much greater sense of God. To me, this last category of intelligent extraterrestrials would contain the biggest unknown in my mind. I am not sure it is even possible that an intelligent, rational, self aware, conscious being is possible without a sense of righteous integrity and an awareness of God and duty towards him. If such creatures exist, when they die, they just go out of existence -- period. I don't see anywhere in the Bible that demands that intelligent extraterrestrials without the image of God cannot exist. It just seems that it is unlikely. Neither does the Bible make a direct reference on what happens to such creatures.

Fini

These are some of my guesses. If you read all they way to here, I am amazed, since most come here in a one-shot click from a Google search, having not read this blog before, and not having my background. I welcome comments from Christians and non-Christians alike. For non-Christians, this may look a bit heartless in its analysis and arrogant. Many non-Christians think this kind of analysis is arrogant, because  I claim to know that God shows partiality to one type of belief I personally hold. What hubris! I understand. I only offer this. If Christianity is true, I cannot claim any credit in becoming a Christian. God is the one who made me a Christian, not based on anything good that I've done or had to offer. Quite the contrary, God chose and made me a Christian because I am bad and have nothing to offer. I would not come to God on my own in any way. In this way Christianity is a humble religion of bad people who did not seek redemption that God redeemed. If this is true, I had no part of making this true. Quite the opposite.

Thanks for reading.

Extraterrestrial Life With Earth-Like Biochemistry

Titan, the second largest moon in the solar system, orbits Saturn. The NASA Cassini Website says that the Cassini space probe has probably detected a subsurface ocean on Titan. A variety of scientists propose that life might exist in that subsurface ocean. NASA's website says:

"The presence of a subsurface layer of liquid water at Titan is not itself an indicator for life. Scientists think life is more likely to arise when liquid water is in contact with rock, and these measurements cannot tell whether the ocean bottom is made up of rock or ice."

So far there have been some hints here and there that life might exist in several locations, Titan (Saturn moon), Enceladus (Saturn moon), Europa (Jupiter moon), and Mars. What if life was discovered on one of these bodies? This blog entry will briefly examine to possibility of finding life with the same type of biochemistry as life found on Earth.

First, a little background. Christians has differing opinions of how to interpret the passages in the Bible depicting God creating the universe. I am going to identify three broad groups. The first are the Young Earth Creationists (YEC). This group holds that the universe and the earth were created thousands of years ago in the span of six literal twenty-four hour days. The second are the Old Earth Creationists (OEC). This group believes that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and the earth is roughly 4 billion years old. God miraculously created life on earth and created the various kinds of plant and animal life over the span of missions of years. OEC people believe that the days of Genesis is not six consecutive twenty-four hour days. It could be days are long ages, or it could be that days are six 24-hour snapshots spread across millions of years revealing the state of the creation as it is narrated in Genesis, or that the days are some other literary device to describe the creation. Another group of Christians are Theistic Evolutionists (TE). This group believes that the universe is 13.7 billion years old along with a 4 billion year old earth. TEs are different from the OECs in that they believe that God used natural means to bring about life and used evolution to develop all the plant and animal life we see today. One of the most famous Christian theistic evolutionists is Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Most Christians I hang around with are YEC. I happen to be an OEC.

These three broad groups, Young Earth Creationists, Old Earth Creationists, and Theistic Evolutionists have quite a bit of variation, and there are more views. But for the purposes of this analysis, I will stay with these categories.

Discovery of life, say on Mars, could go in a couple of directions. The first is that evidence for past life is found the rocks of Mars. Most likely this would look like a fossilized single cell microbe. It could be ambiguous of whether it is truly a fossil microbe or some other structure. But let's suppose that life was found on Mars, and it's biochemistry like the biochemistry of life on Earth. What would such a discovery have on Christian theology? In part, it would depend on how life arose on Mars. Some possibilities:

1. God specially created life on both Earth and Mars with similar biochemistry.
2. Life co-evolved on Earth and Mars with similar features.
3. Life started on Earth and somehow was exported to Mars.
4. Life started on Mars and was exported to Earth.
5. Life started somewhere else and was exported to Earth and Mars.

One of the assumptions about life being discovered on Mars (or the other bodies of the Solar System) is that it would be simple, microbial life.

Option 1 fits with YEC and OEC groups and probably has little impact on Christian theology. If life was discovered on Mars with biochemical structures of proteins, DNA, and RNA, it can mean that God used common design elements in creating life on Earth and on Mars. In the YEC and OEC viewpoints, the only adjustment to make in theology is to understand the creation accounts in the Bible do not describe God's activity with creating simple life in other parts of the solar system. No big changes in their respective theologies.

Option 2 fits with the Theistic Evolutionists (TE) approach. There would probably be very little change in the theology accompanying TE.

Option 3 is a serious proposal by many scientists. If life was discovered on Mars with very similar biochemistry to Earth life, a number of scientists believe that evidence that over the nearly 4 billion years that life of some form existed on Earth, there were meteor or comet impacts that injecte earth material into space containing life that eventually arrived on Mars. After all, scientists have found rocks on Earth that have the characteristics of Martian rock and believe those rocks originated on Mars. For the three Christian views of YEC, OEC, and TE, this option does not have much impact on their theologies.

Options 4 and 5 would be difficult to prove, scientifically, and so YEC and OEC would tend to dismiss those options. If the evidence were somehow strong for option 4 or 5, the OEC and TE could adapt their interpretation of God creating life on Earth to be God creating life on earth using life he created elsewhere as a seed for life on Earth. Again, the change in theology would not be that significant. The Young Earth Creationists would probably not be impressed with the evidence for options 4 and 5 (as would most OEC).

In the previous post I said I would analyze:

1. Discovery of life on other bodies in the solar system with similar biochemistry with earth life. 
2. Discovery of life on other bodies in the solar system in different biochemistry found in earth life..
3. Discovery of the by-products of life (such as oxygenated atmosphere) on extra solar planets (exoplanets).
4. Discovery of signals from stars with exoplanets which indicate intelligent life.

Item 2 is very similar to options 4 and 5 which I discussed above. There would be very little difference in analyzing item 2. In the next post I will examine item 3.

Possibilities for Extraterrestrial Life

So, what if life was found on other worlds? How would that effect the Christian Faith?

First off, there is nothing in the Bible that explicitly rules out life in other worlds. The Bible is silent about the subject. That silence sometimes is though by some to mean that the Bible teaches there is no life on other worlds. It could just simply mean it is not discussed -- it could exist or not, Biblically speaking. Noted Christian C.S Lewis did an interesting analysis of the topic in "Religion and Rocketry" (also known as "Will We Lose God in Outer Space"). I have read portions of it in Google Books and some of this analysis is influenced by Lewis' essay.

The discovery of life on other worlds could take several forms, each has an interesting side effects, theologically speaking. I will explore what I think are the most likely discoveries that could happen over the next 50 years. There are a number of constraints.

First constraint, life elsewhere in the solar system, if it exists (or existed), is probably simple -- single cell organisms or multicellular that are similar to bacteria or perhaps algae. The most likely candidates for life are Mars or one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, although there has been some speculation that some comets could harbor life.

The second constraint is travel distance. Advanced, intelligent life, if it exists, would be on other stellar systems. Stars are far, far away from us. Human travel to even the closest stars is out of reach for us for the foreseeable future. The reason is the distance, the speed limit of the universe (the speed of light), and the enormous amounts of energy to travel to even the closest stars in a reasonable period of time (say a 40-year round trip).

The third constraint is communication time. If there is intelligent life on other stellar systems, the distance over which the communications would occur spans light years. A light year is the distance it takes a beam of light to travel in a year. Searching for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) listens for radio signals. Radio signals travel at the speed of light because they are a form of light. The closest stellar system, Alpha Centauri (which is three stars orbiting each other) is a little over 4 light years away. Other stars are tens to hundreds of light years away. If a radio signal were discovered to be one that was emitted from an intelligent civilization, say 50 light years away, it would take 50 years for a signal from earth to reach it, and another 50 years for the response back from it. It cannot, given the laws of physics, be sped up, or a short cut taken to reduce the time it takes for the signal to travel.

Here is a list that I will explore in the upcoming entries:

1. Discovery of life on other bodies in the solar system with similar biochemistry with earth life. 
2. Discovery of life on other bodies in the solar system in different biochemistry found in earth life..
3. Discovery of the by-products of life (such as oxygenated atmosphere) on extra solar planets (exoplanets).
4. Discovery of signals from stars with exoplanets which indicate intelligent life.

What about intelligent life visiting us? What about the UFO reports and reports by people making contact with extra terrestrials? I don't think there is any credible evidence that intelligent extra terrestrial life has visited earth. Even the office of the President of the United States has reported there has been no evidence. Unless you are into major conspiracy theories, I am willing to accept that report at face value.

I will write about each of these four categories and the theological significance each has on the Christian faith in upcoming blog entries.