DATE: Monday, July 14, 1997                 TAG: 9707140057

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

HOW DO SPACE DISCOVERIES FIT INTO EVERYDAY FAITH?

A NASA rover creeps about Mars, searching the rocks for signs of life.

Jodie Foster, playing a scientist, makes ``Contact'' with intelligent aliens from another galaxy in the new movie of that name which opened Friday.

One's real, one's fictitious. Either way, these are not events mentioned in the Bible or other holy books. Can religion explain them, or help people of faith fit them into their view of the world?

``For some people of faith, the question of intelligent life elsewhere can cause real problems,'' said Chip Payette, youth director at Oaklette United Methodist Church in Chesapeake. ``I always thought it was not that important. As I see God, he's pretty big. He can support other life forms besides our own.''

Payette was to take a group of teen-agers from the church to see ``Contact'' over the weekend and hopes to discuss it soon in Sunday school classes.

``I just want to talk about what the ideas in the movie are,'' Payette said. ``There's been a little bit of controversy, I gather, about the movie, although I haven't seen it and I'm not quite sure what the controversy is.''

Foster's character, from the novel by Carl Sagan, is an atheist who has to confront her notions of science and faith. Foster has said in interviews that for her, the movie addresses the question, ``Does God fill your gaps or does science?''

Science and religion have co-existed for centuries, if not always comfortably. But major religions, such as Judaism and Catholicism, have acknowledged the achievements of science. Many scientists hold firmly to their faith.

Payette said Arthur C. Clarke, a noted science-fiction writer whose novels were made into the movie ``2001'' and its sequel, clearly thinks about God.

``I always go back to `2001,' '' Payette said. ``What was Clarke trying to say about God in that movie? I don't think it was answered straight out, but I felt that God played a part.''

Dr. Dean Elfath is chief medical officer and head of research for the American Red Cross, mid-Atlantic region. He also is a practicing Muslim.

``If you read the Koran, it directs Muslims to look in the universe and look around them and appreciate the creations of God,'' Elfath said. ``The Koran emphasizes in many places that pondering upon and thinking about the creations of God is one of the highest forms of worship.

``Seeking science and knowledge is well encouraged in Islam and by the prophet Muhammad.''

He said it has fascinated him to follow the discoveries of Pathfinder and its little rover, Sojourner, on Mars over the past week.

As far as life existing beyond Earth, Elfath said, the Koran actually leaves room for that possibility. It describes the creation of ``heavens'' and ``earths,'' not just one.

``There is nothing in Islam that contradicts the idea of having other creations on other worlds,'' he said.

The Bible seems more specific to Earth. Genesis, at least, describes the creation of the world and all the stars, with their center in the Garden of Eden.

``The Bible's very silent concerning outer space, other than the extreme outer space of eternity,'' said Mark Stone, associate pastor at Kempsville Baptist Church in Virginia Beach.

But he and others noted that the Bible has always provided considerable leeway for Christians' beliefs.

``I wouldn't be upset one way or the other if they found life somewhere beyond the Earth,'' Stone said. ``It comes down to our own personal opinion, whether there's life out there or not.''

In the strictest sense, the events of the Bible take place in a very small portion of the world, now considered the Middle East. As far as the Bible is concerned, life on Antarctica, or in Tucson, Ariz., is just as much a mystery as Mars.

For Payette, the moral scope of God is far broader.

``I've always thought that God was too big to stick with one planet, when as Carl Sagan put it, there are billions and billions of planets out there,'' he said. ``I definitely believe that God created other worlds, and it would be nice to think we could communicate with them.''

Sagan's last book, ``The Demon-Haunted World,'' made a deep impression this summer upon Rabbi Arthur Z. Steinberg, of Temple Sinai in Portsmouth.

Steinberg said Sagan's views on science and religion were very close to his own, particularly in how belief and skepticism mesh, and how our moral code can help inform the scientific search for truth.

``If technology and exploration are sciences, then religion is the art of interpreting them,'' he said. ``Things that are in the news - except for Roswell, (N.M.), which I won't include - are there for religion to interpret and to understand and to incorporate.''

Judaism and its literature, like other religions, hold a strong tradition of scholarship, Steinberg said. In their purest forms, he said, religion and science could even be said to have the same goal.

``The literature of religions of the world are expressive of a human search for truth,'' he said. ``That search would never be interrupted or challenged by the findings of science.

``Anyone whose belief system is harmed by the progress and advance of science, it seems to me their God is too small.''

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