Belief in aliens may be a religious impulse
외계인에대한믿음은종교적본능일수있다
In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Captain James T. Kirk encounters a deity that lures him to its planet in order to abscond with the Enterprise. “What does God need with a starship?” the skeptical commander inquires.
스타트렉 5편: 최후의 미개척지에서 커크선장은 엔터프라이즈호를 빼앗아가려는신과마주친후이런말을 합니다.“도대체 어떤신이우주선을필요로하는거지?”
I talked to Kirk himself ― William Shatner, that is ― about the film when I met him at a recent conference.
나는 얼마전 한 컨퍼런스에서 윌리엄 섀트너, 곧 커크 선장을 만나 이에 대해 이야기했습니다.
The original plot device for the movie, which he directed, was for the crew to go “in search of God.”
그는 영화의 원래 줄거리는 동료들과 함께‘신을찾아가는’것이었다고말합니다.
Fearful that some religious adherents might be offended that the Almighty could be discoverable by a spaceship, the studio bosses insisted that the deity be a malicious extraterrestrial impersonating God for personal gain.
하지만우주여행을통해신을찾을수있다는생각을종교인들이불쾌하게 여기리라생각한 제작자는 신이 아닌 사악한 악령이신을흉내내는것으로내용을바꾸었습니다.
How could a starship ― or any technology designed to detect natural forces and objects ― discover a supernatural God, who by definition would be beyond any such sensors?
자연적인 힘과 물질을 감지하도록 되어있는 기술을 가진 우주선이 그정의 자체로초자연적인 신을 발견하는 것이 가능할까요?
Any detectable entity would have to
be a natural being, no matter how advanced, and as I have argued in this column, “any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.”
나는오래전한 칼럼에서“충분히 진화한외계지성은신과구분할수없을것”이라고말한바있습니다.
Thus, Shatner’s plot theme of looking for God could only turn up an ETI sufficiently advanced to appear Godlike.
즉스타트렉의신을찾아가는여행이라는원래 줄거리는 신과 비슷한 능력을 가지게된 외계 지성을 찾아가는 내용이라야 말이 된다는것입니다.
Perhaps herein lies the impulse to search.
여기에는몇가지숨은내용들이있습니다.
In his 1982 book Plurality of Worlds (Cambridge University Press), historian of science Steven J. Dick suggested that when Isaac Newton’s mechanical universe replaced the medieval spiritual world, it left a lifeless void that was filled with the modern search for ETI.
과학 역사학자 스티븐 J. 딕은 1982년 출간한‘세계의복수성’에서아이작뉴턴이중세의 영적 세계를 기계적 우주로 바꾸면서만들어진 텅빈공간을 현대의 외계지성 탐색이채웠다고썼습니다.