Edward Willett, "Robert J. Sawyer Calculates God" (2004)

Copyright 2001 by Edward Willett

Robert J. Sawyer is Canada's only native-born full-time science fiction writer--and his latest book Calculating God, has just been nominated for a Hugo Award for best science fiction novel of the year.

The Hugo Award is roughly the science-fictional equivalent of a People's Choice Award: it's voted on by members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, which this year will take place in Philadelphia over the Labor Day weekend.

(Another Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson, who is probably the first black Canadian female science fiction writer and whose work reflects her Caribbean ancestry, was also nominated for a Hugo for best novel for Midnight Robber, which is also up for a Nebula Award--roughly the equivalent of an Academy Award, because it's voted on by other SF writers. And a third Canadian writer, Douglas Smith, has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new science fiction writer, an honor that has gone to Canadians two years in a row already; Nalo Hopkinson won it in 1999 and Cory Doctorow in 2000. Canadian science fiction is hot!)

I had the opportunity to interview Rob Sawyer at last fall's World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago about the book, which is interesting because it addresses the idea that the universe didn't just happen, but instead shows evidence of intelligent design.

This concept doesn't get a lot of friendly attention from the media; any people assume that all reputable scientists dismiss the notion out of hand.

Many reputable scientists do--but not all. There are actually strong scientific arguments to be made that the universe in which we live does show evidence of a guiding intelligence. In fact, one can make the argument that it is intellectually far easier and satisfying to believe in a designed universe than in one that occurred by chance.

Certainly that's the argument made in Calculating God. In it, a spacecraft lands just outside the Royal Ontario Museum. An alien emerges and says, "Take me to your paleontologist." Much to the paleontologist's chagrin (he's one of those atheistic scientists mentioned earlier), the entire reason for the alien's visit is to look at Earth's fossil record for evidence of the Creator the aliens are already certain exists.

Sawyer didn't draw the book's arguments in favor of a designed universe out of thin air. He attends a lot of scientific conferences, he says, and a lot of scientists are talking about the evidence for a designer. Those discussions simply aren't filtering down to the press. "I think there is a legitimate debate going on," he says. "It's not fringe stuff, and it's not creation science."

This column is far too short for me to describe in detail the evidence Sawyer presents in his book (for that, you need to read the book). It isn't evidence for a created-in-seven-days-out-nothing kind of universe, but rather a universe whose every aspect has been tweaked to allow for the appearance and evolution of life.

For instance, we know of four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force); they all have wildly different strengths, but if the strengths of any of them were even slightly different, the universe would not exist and life could not have formed. (One example Sawyer gives is that if the strength of gravity were different by as much as one part in one times 10 to the fortieth power, stars such as our sun would not exist--they'd all be blue or red giants, neither of which could support planets like Earth.)

A more familiar example is the way water behaves. It is the only element we know of that expands when it freezes, which is why ice floats. If, like every other element, water shrank when frozen, ice would sink to the bottom of lakes and oceans, and eventually all bodies of water would be frozen, with only a thin layer of water on top--and life could not exist.

As well, water has the highest surface tension of any element except liquid selenium. If it did not, it would not be drawn into cracks in rocks, where, by freezing (and expanding) it eventually turns those rocks into soil.

Again, if water were more viscous, our blood would be too thick for any conceivable biological mechanism to pump--and we couldn't exist.

Those are just a few examples. Sawyer gives many more (although, since the book is, after all, a work of science fiction, he also makes up a few based on the aliens' knowledge of the rest of the galaxy).

The response, says Sawyer, has been remarkably positive (at least, positive from everyone except those at the polar ends of the debate). For instance, Tom Harper, the Toronto Star's religion columnist, wrote a column around the book.

On the other hand, several religious fundamentalists, however, have taken Sawyer to task--while also insisting they will never read the book!

Certainly the God uncovered in Calculating God is not a God Christians, Jews or Muslims would recognize. But that's fine with Sawyer. "It is science fiction, it's about speculation," he said. "The last thing I want to do is to reinforce people's preconceptions."

"I think controversial themes make science fiction relevant," he added. "By writing science fiction that focuses on controversial themes, I try to show the public that science fiction is very much of the here and now."

Read Calculating God and see for yourself.

Posted September 22, 2004