Did God Break the Sabbath? Astrosociology and ChristianFundamentalism in the United States

摘要

The modern era has witnessed many progressive religious traditions liberally accommodating scientific explanations and incorporating them into their interpretation of religious texts. For most religions, and their adherents, a similar acceptance of astrobiology and the search for life elsewhere in the universe can be expected. Not all faith traditions are likely to be so accepting however, and Christian fundamentalism in the United States, animated by biblical literalism, promises to be one particularly potent exception. The outspoken and politically powerful opposition Christian fundamentalists have mounted against some of the cornerstones of modern science, including evolution and the age of the Earth, ominously project another information battleground looming in the future of astrosociology. Specifically, any evidence of a "second genesis" could be seen as threatening to the belief that humans are the center of God's attention and as a validation of the theory of evolution. Consequently, the "alternative science apparatus" of the fundamentalist movement could be expected to argue in favor of one-way panspermia, originating from Earth, whenever and wherever evidence of life beyond Earth is found. To prevent astrobiology from becoming the next hotly contested information battleground between science and religion, more attention should be paid to the particular segments of the faithful in society that are likely to react negatively to any new evidence that astrobiology may produce.