The Book of Mormon Answers The Fermi Paradox

Article by Ilyan Kei Lavanway, 27 February 2021

This article is about a short but powerful book I published Christmas Day, 2020, titled The?Book?of?Mormon?Answers?The?Fermi?Paradox. The book is available in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon.

While it is common to speculate about the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth, it is extremely rare to hear anyone mention, let alone discuss in depth, the possibility of human life, not homo erectus in general, but specifically homo sapien?life, similar to you and me, indigenous to other worlds.

For SETI enthusiasts fond of the Drake equation, the search generally includes looking for any?extraterrestrial intelligent life developing technologically advanced civilizations.

In this article, and by the way, this is not explicitly expressed in my book, but is subtly implied, I invite the scientific community to adopt a modified Drake equation, not in place of, but in addition to the existing, well known Drake equation. The modification I propose would add an eighth factor to the contemporary Drake equation.

The eighth factor would be the fraction of planets upon which technologically advanced civilizations exist that have specifically homo sapien?civilizations.

Many will ask, why take the Drake equation to such an absurd level of detail and specificity. Well, that is one of the points I am trying to imply in my book.

I feel we should do just that, because of what we are about to discover, or rather, what is about to be made known to us. Adding this eighth factor to the Drake equation, and sincerely giving it thoughtful consideration, will help prepare us for further light and knowledge soon to come, knowledge that has heretofore remained hidden from us due to a surprisingly simple, specific condition explained in my book. More importantly, the condition is one we have the power to change, but that change can only be wrought through a unified effort in good faith on a global scale.

While we yet lack widely acknowledged empirical evidence of any extraterrestrial intelligent civilization at all, there is a plethora of faith-based evidence, or at the very least, faith-based implications that can, by simple deductive reasoning, lead one to conclude that not only do technologically developed extraterrestrial civilizations exist, but many, if not most, and perhaps all of them are human, even homo sapien.

Now, lest the reader balk at the use of the words faith?and evidence?in the same sentence, please bear with me as I pose a few questions and share a little illustrative narration, followed by a simple invitation to experiment.

While the following questions may, at first glance, seem to jump out of nowhere and appear disjointed, they are actually interrelated and collectively imply an important point, one that I allude to in my book.

Why would an evolutionary process not diverge into two branches, one biological and one mechanical? The same four fundamental forces of nature (gravitational force, electromagnetic force, strong force, and weak force) are, to some degree, at the root of all machinery, as well as all biology.

Why would an evolutionary process remain exclusively biological? Especially since biology is inherently intelligent to greater or lesser degrees, which seems more difficult to evolve than machinery which does not have the complexity of possessing any degree of intelligence.

If non-organic or non-biological systems like planets, stars, and galaxies came to be through the interplay of the four fundamental forces of nature entirely without intelligent operations, why would machines not come to be as well, without intelligence behind their assembly?

And yes, cosmic structures, including rocky planets, do have moving parts with interfaces between dissimilar materials as well as between similar materials. If they can form with no intelligent impetus, then why not machines?

It is widely accepted?that the earth is composed of accreted meteors and rocks, and that the radio-isotope decay of such meteors and rocks indicates their age. But, how does the age of the rocks that accreted into a planet translate into the age of the planet itself? The meteors and rocks were around long before they were clumped together into a planet.

Also, could not the accretion of earth-sized rocky planets occur over a period of a few centuries, and gas giants maybe even less?

If, indeed, biological life came about by a process of evolution, then why are human beings －?homo sapiens specifically －?so sudden and recent in our emergence?

We are by far the most complex and intelligent biological system empirically observed to exist, yet we are said to have emerged in the shortest span of evolutionary history. What caused the sudden acceleration of complex development?

We, homo sapiens, feel, emote, are self aware. We invent and innovate. We have an innate conscience, a sense of good and evil, right and wrong, and the ability to choose, individually and collectively, applying morals and ethics, and an awareness of principles and operations and administrations and causes and effects that are bigger and of greater importance than ourselves.

We are not driven solely by instinct. Even if our physiological attributes were to have come about by evolution, how could such higher-functioning psychological, intellectual, philosophical, and dare we say, spiritual attributes evolve into us? It seems they would have to have come from somewhere, or be instilled within us or endowed upon us by a source greater than ourselves, and for what purpose?

Evolutionary biology is, by definition, strictly reactive. No change occurs until environmental factors demand change and leave no other option than extinction.

Homo sapiens are proactive. We anticipate and prioritize and operate with forethought and foresight and a capacity to prepare. We are not relegated to being acted upon by our environment. Indeed, we can even master our environment rather than simply react to it.

We can evaluate, interpolate, extrapolate. We can predict environmental trends and prepare for them, if not alter them entirely. And we do so with purpose and power to reason, not by mere instinct or a sense of fight or flight.

While we may not yet know the complete answers to how the fundamental forces of nature,?and fundamental universal constants, came to exist, the not knowing invites investigation by both science and faith. Why would we only investigate from one perspective? Even our binocular vision, which gives us depth perception, suggests greater discernment and discovery are possible by seeing from multiple perspectives, and even more so from multiple frames of reference.

Many of us share a sense of awe for the grandeur of our quest to understand our place in our vast universe. Is not the grandeur of such a quest worthy of both a scientific and a spiritual investigation?

Suppose, for the sake of illustration, there are two grand laboratories situated parallel to each other on opposite sides of a grand thoroughfare. Suppose there is a small cafe situated on an island in the middle of this grand thoroughfare.

Let's call one laboratory The Grand Science Laboratory, and the other The Grand Faith Laboratory. To passersby, and even to the majority of experimenters and researchers who work in either laboratory, these labs appear to function in opposition to one another, and often seem mutually exclusive in their undertakings.

However, out of all the experimenters and researchers working in each lab, a scant few enjoy meeting up at the small café to share each other's discoveries and efforts. These few have discovered their respective laboratories are actually parallel in their pursuits, and not mutually exclusive, but intimately intertwined.

They discover by investigating together from both perspectives, from both frames of reference －?one of science?and one of faith －?their efforts are magnified and their discoveries exponentially abound and build upon each other.

If the existence of a superior intelligence behind all that is and ever?has been has not been ruled out, then the possibility of its existence is non-zero, and is worthy of rigorous investigation. But such an investigation might have to include faith-based experiments, or shall we say, spiritual experimentation.

I kindly invite each and every reader?to initiate such an investigation with a simple experiment that can be performed in any setting at any time, independent of external circumstances. This experiment does not require a team of colleagues, lab assistants, or data processors. And it can be accomplished for free. No grant money or?funding needed. The experiment is simply to ask God if he exists. There are only two possible outcomes. If he exists, he will answer you in a way you will identify and understand. If he does not exist, there will be no answer at all.

The worst that can happen is nothing at all. That means you have nothing?to lose and everything to gain.

And to the reader who already knows God exists, but does not believe the things presented in this article or the?book to which it refers, I kindly extend a similar invitation. Ask God in the?name of his Son, Jesus Christ, if these things are not true. And then listen for his answer.

To anyone who requests, I am willing to email free PDF copies of my book, The?Book?of?Mormon?Answers?The?Fermi?Paradox. You may copy, print, post, and share the?PDF copies of my book with as many people as you like. My personal email address is [email protected].