An alien ship lands outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto carrying two species of intelligent life – the Forhilnors and the Wreeds. One of the Forhilnors, a six-legged creature named Hollus, enters the building and says, “Take me to a paleontologist.” Hollus is introduced to Thomas Jericho, a paleontologist who is terminally ill with lung cancer. Hollus’s race has discovered that their own planet, the Wreed’s planet, and earth have all experienced five cataclysmic events at about the same time. He assumes that God is directing the evolution of life on each planet for a common end. Through the study of earth’s fossil record, Hollus hopes to gain insight on why all three planets have experienced a similar history.

Surprisingly, Thomas Jericho is more shocked about the aliens’ belief in God than in the aliens themselves. Hollus informs him that all aliens – and virtually all humans – believe in God and that it is earth’s scientists that are the anomaly.

God in the Equation

After a long explanation of all the intricately adjusted parameters that make life possible, Hollus concludes, “the reality is simply this: if any of them – any in this long chain – were different, there would be no life in this universe. We are either the most incredible fluke imaginable – something far, far more unlikely than you winning your provincial lottery every single week for a century – or the universe and its components were designed, purposefully and with great care, to give rise to life” (70). Ever the skeptic, Thomas continues to argue that all of Hollus’s arguments simply provide “indirect evidence for God’s existence” (70).

Thomas will only believe if he is provided with a “smoking gun” – clear, inarguable evidence that God exists. He tells Hollus, “A smoking gun is incontrovertible evidence. And that’s what I want: indisputable proof” (101). Hollus counters his demands by highlighting Thomas’s inconsistencies. “There is no indisputable proof for the big bang… And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?” (101-102)

Thomas admits that though there is ample evidence for evolution within species, there is no indisputable proof of evolution from one species to another: “That natural selection can produce changes within a type is disputed by no one, not even the staunchest creationist. But that it can transform one species into another – that, in fact, has never been observed” (102).

Both Thomas and Hollus wrestle with the establishment of morality apart from a creator. The Wreeds – the other intelligent life form that has traveled to earth with Hollus – have no problem with morality. Because they have never developed the science of mathematics, the Wreeds “never treat moral questions as a zero-sum game in which someone must win and someone else must lose. God, the Wreeds would say, wants us to love other as they are and also to struggle to help them fulfill their potential… Indeed, a core Wreed belief is that our individual purpose in life is to help others become great” (143). The Wreeds spend a significant portion of their lives seeking to communicate with God, but with little success. In contrast, Hollus’s species, the Forhilnors, do not believe that God cares for individuals, and thus spend no time attempting to directly communicate with their creator. Hollus states his beliefs: “I believe the creator may have a specific reason for wanting a universe that has life in it… But it seems clear beyond dispute that the creator takes no interest in specific individuals” (175).

Spoiler Alert: If you plan on reading this book, you should read no further, since key plot elements are disclosed.

In the end, the races discover that God truly exists. When a supernova threatens the existence of all three worlds, an enormous inky black entity appears and contains the explosion so that it does no harm to any of the worlds. They conclude that God controls evolution by directing and averting cataclysmic events. They eventually meet this God, who proves to be uninterested in their individual lives. Instead, God has directed each species to one another so that they can cross-fertilize and produce a being whose cells go on producing forever. In short, God creates another God to take his place in the next universe that will appear after the present one collapses.

Interesting Questions, Unsatisfying Conclusions

This is a fascinating novel that raises interesting questions. But its conclusions are less-than-desirable, even to the characters in the story.

God exists, but God is only out for himself. The cosmos is one vast laboratory in which the creator manipulates life to eventually create a suitable heir. What, then, is the meaning of the universe? In this story, the meaning is simply to perpetuate the existence of both God and the universe. God’s goal in directing the evolutionary process is to replicate and multiply deities. All intelligent life forms are merely pawns in one vast science experiment to create the perfect DNA combination.

Though Thomas is “converted” into believing in God, the God he believes in does not satisfy his deepest yearnings. Thomas longs for God to personally recognize him and his plight. At one point in the story, he pleads for God to heal him of his cancer, but to no avail. He is forced to rest content with the fact that the closest personal contact he will ever have with God is with the newborn deity: “And Wibadal [the infant deity] stirred, and waved a stubby, chubby appendage back at me. Maybe the current God had never acknowledged my presence – even when I’d come right up to him, he’d still been indifferent to me – but this god-to-be had noticed me, at least once, at least for a moment. And, for that moment, I felt no pain” (333).

The heart yearns for more than the mind is willing to accept. Thus, to limit belief to only that which is intellectually apprehensible is to reduce God to the limits of one’s own psyche. It is to create an idol the size of one’s ego. Thomas will only accept a deity in his own image – a deity that conforms to the laws of science. When he reflects on how he “defines” God, he writes, “A God I could understand, at least potentially, was infinitely more interesting and relevant than one that defied comprehension” (326).

I find his statement extremely contradictory. He desires a God, but only one that he can rationally comprehend. He finds this kind of God “infinitely more interesting and relevant” than a transcendent God who defies understanding. And yet, a God that can be completely understood is no God at all, but merely the projection of his own wishes – a God in his own image, hardly worthy of the name God. Usually, believers are condemned by skeptics for projecting their wishes upon the cosmos. Here, it is the scientist who has done so.

Even though Thomas’s God is intellectually satisfying, it is not emotionally or personally satisfying. Thomas desperately desires a deity that will recognize his own personal struggles – especially his cancer. He has to settle for merely being in the presence of a god-to-be – a god who has little concern for his sufferings or his future.

Thomas years for significant, personal contact. It is for this reason that I adhere to my statement that the heart yearns for more than the mind is willing to accept. Thomas will not accept a transcendent, personal, benevolent deity – even though his heart yearns for this – but he will accept a cold, calculating deity who runs the universe for its own sake, in spite of the suffering it brings to others.

Thomas’s God is truly created in his own image. He is a scientist in the laboratory of creation who seeks to plunder it with little or no thought for others. No wonder that Thomas and Hollus have problems with morality. Who could possibly pattern their lives after such a deity?

This God also demonstrates that the Wreed’s morality – no matter how beautiful – does not reflect ultimate reality. Why look out for the interests of others if the Deity does not share this interest? Why seek to communicate with this Deity, if it has no personal concern for individuals?

In spite of its shortcomings, the novel has echoes of redemption. First, the Deity does save three worlds from extinction – but only for its own purposes. However, the Deity also destroys worlds for the same ends. Second, the Deity does become incarnate, even if only in the form of the god-to-be, Wibadal. Tragically, the incarnation serves only the Deity’s purpose.

One final note: One sub-plot involves two mindless fundamentalists out to destroy evidence for evolution. The author seems to present us with only two options: mindless fundamentalism or enlightened scientism. And yet, there are many other mediating positions available that virtually go unrecognized.

Quotes excerpted from Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer
© Richard J. Vincent, 2006