Superstar RPI scientists talk about extraterrestrial life and God ( Times Union )

James Hendler                                                                                                 Heidi Jo Newberg 

This summer, the Office of U.S. National Intelligence gave Congress its report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—UAPs, aka UFOs. The report said no rational or scientific explanation could be found for 143 UAPs. Oh, and UAPs “clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security.” Not very lofty conclusions. The report conceded that there was no standardized mechanism for UFO reporting until 2019 so data is skimpy.

But that can change as scientists continue to explore space. Next year, NASA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer or JUICE heads toward Jupiter’s moons.

Many of the scientists helping America explore the heavens embrace religious faith. Science and religion needn’t be adversarial. Asked in a 2015 Paris Match interview about the possibility of life on newly discovered planet Kepler-452b,  Pope Francis said it’s hard to imagine extraterrestrials because our knowledge is limited. "Until America was discovered we thought it didn't exist,” Francis said. “We should stick to what the scientists tell us, still aware that the Creator is infinitely greater than our knowledge."

Meet Heidi Jo Newberg and James Hendler, two Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scientists with stellar reputations worldwide who both embrace religious belief. They graciously agreed to discuss how discovery of life on other worlds might shape their faiths. 

Astrophysicist and Physics Professor Heidi Jo Newberg
(Sloan Digital Sky Survey team 1992-02, currently working on a giant telescope designed to unfold in outer space)Q: What’s a normal day of research like for you?
 
I’m an astrophysicist who studies the Milky Way galaxy. I use a telescope and examine images from telescopes but not in the way people imagine.
No astronomers today work by putting their eye up to a telescope to look through it. You would have to go back about 100 years to find astronomers who work that way. … Most of my career, I’ve worked without physically going to a telescope. ... I can apply for observation time at an observatory (anywhere on Earth) with a telescope that’s positioned where I need it to be, that has the right equipment. I give the team there the coordinates so they can point it to the object I want to observe. They record the observations for me.

Alternatively, I can observe in real time on a computer screen from my office at RPI. I can control the telescope remotely, and then download the images taken on another part of the globe.

As a graduate student, I studied supernovas, exploding stars that can be as bright as a whole galaxy. After finishing my Ph.D., I had the great opportunity of being among the 100 scientists all over the world who were part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which examined a quarter of the whole sky observable in every direction from the Earth. The technology allowed us to make 3D maps of the universe and capture multicolor images.

I now use normal stars to study the structure of the Milky Way, our galaxy. For example, I study the way dwarf galaxies falling into the Milky Way are ripped apart and incorporated into our galaxy.

 2). How did you figure out you wanted to be an astronomer? Were you a sci fi fan inspired by NASA?

No, I wasn’t one of those kids who could quote "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who". But early on, I knew that I liked figuring things out. I always loved puzzles, brain teasers, and optical illusions. How our galaxy gobbles up dwarf galaxies, the nature of dark energy, those are great puzzles. Now, I’m working on a project that is a different sort of a puzzle---how to create a telescope that unfolds in outer space to look at spectra of planets that orbit nearby stars.

 
3). If somewhere out there, one day in the future, life was documented on another world, how would it influence your religious belief?

I was not raised in a church tradition as a child. But now I’m on the board of my Unitarian Universalist church. UUs believe that religion is a quest. The discovery of life, of beings  who are self-aware and aware of the universe around them, on another world doesn’t contradict my faith. I don’t have a scripture that tells me whether life is confined to Earth. For me, religion helps us address questions science can’t answer. Does my life have any meaning? Do I have a soul, and if so what happens to it when I die? What is the source of that sense of connectedness that I have with people, nature, the Universe, that some call God, grace, or the "Spirit of Life?"

Q: Are there specific emotions a life form needs to connect spiritually to a higher power? For example, a study recently concluded dogs’ brain structure allows them to feel love, fear and anger. They don’t experience shame.

Well, neither do children. They learn shame. If life exists in another world, we don’t know if it will be a carbon-based form like us. We don’t know whether that life form will experience emotions like ours.

Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web & Cognitive Sciences James Hendler 
(former scientific adviser to the U.S. Air Force, Rensselaer Institute for Data Exploration director, RPI-IBM Center on Health Empowerment by Analytics, Learning and Semantics director)

1) How does your faith inspire or shape your work?

Jewish intellectual thought is not historically antithetical to scientific endeavor (which is part of why there are so many Jewish scientists).  We have records of arguments among our rabbis, going back thousands of years, that are based upon a fundamental questioning of the universe.  When Jewish scientists see a conflict between the teaching of the faith and the scientific evidence we generally try to find ways to resolve it.  To me  this has the desirable side effect of increasing both my belief in faith and in science.

2) What impact would the discovery of life on another planet have on your personal religious beliefs?

The discovery of alien life would have little impact on my personal beliefs (and, I suspect, on that of most Jews and almost all Jewish scientists).  I will say that a discovery that UFOs were from other planets would highly impact my belief in science

3) Do you have theories on how other believers in Judaism would respond?

The best answer I can give is that the Jewish philosopher Crescas wrote in the late 1300s that a belief in life on other planets is not inconsistent with Judaism. He based his opinion in part on the fact that the Talmud (ca 500 CE) stated “G-d flies through 18,000 worlds” implying we weren’t alone.

More recently, there is a famous story that the extremely religious Jewish microbiologist Velvl Greene asked Rebbe Mendel Schneerson if it was OK that he worked with NASA looking for life on Mars. The Rebbe responded “You should look for life on Mars, and you should keep looking. If you don’t find it, keep looking elsewhere and elsewhere, because to sit here in this world and say there is no life elsewhere is to put a limit around what G‑d can do—and that nobody can do.” 

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