Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:00:04.224Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The search for microbial Martian life and American Buddhist ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2019

Daniel Capper Open the ORCID record for Daniel Capper [Opens in a new window]
Daniel Capper*
Affiliation:
School of the Humanities, University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, #5037, Hattiesburg, MS39406, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Daniel Capper, E-mail: Daniel.Capper@usm.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Multiple searches hunt for extraterrestrial life, yet the ethics of such searches in terms of fossil and possible extant life on Mars have not been sufficiently delineated. In response, in this essay, I propose a tripartite ethic for searches for microbial Martian life that consists of default non-harm towards potential living beings, default non-harm to the habitats of potential living beings, but also responsible, restrained scientific harvesting of some microbes in limited transgression of these default non-harm modes. Although this multifaceted ethic remains secular and hence adaptable to space research settings, it arises from both a qualitative analysis of authoritative Buddhist scriptural ethics as well as the quantified ethnographic survey voices of contemporary American Buddhists. The resulting tripartite ethic, while developed for Mars, contains ramifications for the study of microbes on Earth and further retains application to other research locations in our Solar system.

Keywords

American Buddhismastrobiologybioethicsenvironmental ethicsextraterrestrial lifeMarsmicrobes
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , pp. 244 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnould, J (2011) Icarus’ Second Chance: The Basis and Perspectives of Space Ethics. New York: Springer Wien New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhikkhu, Ṭ (2007) Bhikkhunī Pāṭimokkha. Available at https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/vin/sv/bhikkhuni-pati.html.Google Scholar
Bhikkhu, Ṭ (2013) The Buddhist Monastic Code I and II. Valley Center: Metta Forest Monastery.Google Scholar
Bishop, JL (2018) Remote detection of phyllosilicates on Mars and implications for climate and habitability. In Cabrol, NA and Grin, EA (eds), From Habitability to Life on Mars. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 37–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodhi, B (2000) The Connected Discourses of the Buddha vol. 2. Boston: Wisdom Publications.Google Scholar
Brack, A (2018) An origin of life on Mars? In Cabrol, NA and Grin, EA (eds), From Habitability to Life on Mars. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 13–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabezón, JI (2003) Buddhism and science: on the nature of the dialogue. In Wallace, BA (ed.), Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 35–68.Google Scholar
Cabrol, NA, Grin, EA, Zippi, P, Noffke, N and Winter, D (2018) Evolution of altiplanic lakes at the pleistocene/holocene transition: a window into early mars declining habitability, changing habitats, and biosignatures. In Cabrol, NA and Grin, EA (eds), From Habitability to Life on Mars. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 153–177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cady, SL, Skok, JR, Gulick, VG, Berger, JA and Hinman, NW (2018) Silaceous hot spring deposits: why they remain key astrobiological targets. In Cabrol, NA and Grin, EA (eds), From Habitability to Life on Mars. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 179–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capper, D (2014) The trees, my lungs: self psychology and the natural world at an American Buddhist Center. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 49, 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capper, D (2015) Learning love from a tiger: approaches to nature in an American Buddhist Monastery. Journal of Contemporary Religion 30, 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2015.986976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capper, D (2016 a) Animism among Western Buddhists. Contemporary Buddhism 17, 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2016.1189130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capper, D (2016 b) Learning Love from a Tiger: Religious Experiences with Nature. Oakland: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockell, CS (2007) Space on Earth: Saving Our World by Seeking Others. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockell, CS (2016) The ethical status of microbial life on earth and elsewhere: in defence of intrinsic value. In Schwartz, JSJ and Milligan, T (eds), The Ethics of Space Exploration. Cham: Springer, pp. 167–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, DE and James, SP (2005) Buddhism, Virtue, and Environment. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Eisen, A and Konchok, Y (2018) The Enlightened Gene: Biology, Buddhism, and the Convergence that Explains the World. Lebanon: ForeEdge.Google Scholar
Farmer, JD (2018) Habitability as a tool in astrobiological exploration. In Cabrol, NA and Grin, EA (eds), From Habitability to Life on Mars. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
Foltz, RC (2006) Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Cultures. Oxford: OneWorld Publications.Google Scholar
Han, C (2017) Diverse practices and flexible beliefs among young adult Asian American Buddhists. Journal of Global Buddhism 18, 1–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1247854.Google Scholar
Hand, KP, Chyba, CF, Priscu, JC, Carlson, RW and Nealson, KH (2009) Astrobiology and the potential for life on Europa. In Pappalardo, RT, McKinnon, WB and Khurana, KK (eds), Europa. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 589–629.Google Scholar
Harris, I (2006) ‘A vast unsupervised recycling plant’: animals and the Buddhist Cosmos. In Waldau, P and Patton, K (eds), A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 207–217.Google Scholar
Irudayadason, NA (2013) The wonder called cosmic oneness: toward astroethics from Hindu and Buddhist wisdom and worldviews. In Impey, C, Spitz, AH and Stoeger, W (eds), Encountering Life in the Universe. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 94–119.Google Scholar
Hobgood-Oster, L (2008) Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Iqbal, M (2018) Islamic theology meets ETI. In Peters, T (ed.), Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life. Eugene: Cascade Books, pp. 216–227.Google Scholar
Jakosky, BM, Westall, F and Brack, A (2007) Mars. In Sullivan, WT III and Baross, JA (eds), Planets and Life: The Emerging Science of Astrobiology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 357–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keown, D (2001) Buddhism and Bioethics. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Koizumi, T (2010) The noble eightfold path as a prescription for sustainable living. In Payne, RK (ed.), How Much is Enough? Buddhism, Consumerism, and the Human Environment. Somerville: Wisdom Publications, pp. 133–145.Google Scholar
Kramer, WR (2011) Colonizing Mars – an opportunity for reconsidering bioethical standards and obligations to future generations. Futures 43, 545–551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2011.02.006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, WR (2019) Giving Voice to the Extraterrestrial – providing legal standing to the unknown [abstract 5001]. In Mars Extant Life: What Next? Conference Abstracts, Carlsbad.Google Scholar
Lama, D (2005) The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. New York: Broadway Books.Google Scholar
Lopez, DS Jr (2008) Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovejoy, AO (1976) The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lupisella, M (2009) The search for extraterrestrial life: epistemology, ethics, and worldviews. In Bertka, CM (ed.), Exploring the Origin, Extent, and Future of Life: Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 186–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupisella, M (2015) Life, intelligence, and the pursuit of value in cosmic evolution. In Dick, SJ (ed.), The Impact of Discovering Life Beyond Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 159–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormick, AJ (2013) Buddhist ethics and end-of-life care decisions. Journal of Social Work in End-Of-Life and Palliative Care 9, 209–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/15524256.2013.794060.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKay, C (2018) Astroethics and the terraforming of Mars. In Peters, T (ed.), Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life. Eugene: Cascade Books, pp. 381–390.Google Scholar
Milligan, T (2015) Nobody Owns the Moon: The Ethics of Space Exploitation. Jefferson: McFarland and Company.Google Scholar
Mitchell, SA (2016) Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Nattier, J (1998) Who is a Buddhist? Charting the landscape of Buddhist America. In Prebish, CS and Tanaka, KK (eds), The Faces of Buddhism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 183–195.Google Scholar
Prebish, CS (1979) American Buddhism. North Scituate: Duxbury Press.Google Scholar
Race, MS (2009) The implications of discovering extraterrestrial life: different searches, different issues. In Bertka, CM (ed.), Exploring the Origin, Extent, and Future of Life: Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 205–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Race, MS and Randolph, RO (2002) The need for operating guidelines and a decision making framework applicable to the discovery of non-intelligent extraterrestrial life. Advances in Space Research 30, 1583–1591. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0273-1177(02)00478-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randolph, RO (2009) God's preferential option for life: a Christian perspective on astrobiology. In Bertka, CM (ed.), Exploring the Origin, Extent, and Future of Life: Philosophical, Ethical, and Theological Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 281–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricard, M and Thuan, TX (2001) The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet. New York: Three Rivers Press.Google Scholar
Sagan, C (1980) Cosmos. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Samuelson, NM (2018) Jewish theology meets the alien. In Peters, T (ed.), Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life. Eugene: Cascade Books, pp. 208–215.Google Scholar
Schulze-Makuch, D (2015) The landscape of life. In Dick, SJ (ed.), The Impact of Discovering Life Beyond Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 81–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seager, RH (1999) Buddhism in America. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Shostak, S (2015) Current approaches to finding life beyond earth, and what happens if we do. In Dick, SJ (ed.), The Impact of Discovering Life Beyond Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 9–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, AC (2014) Diversification in the Buddhist Churches of America: demographic trends and their implications for the future study of U.S. Buddhist Groups. Journal of Global Buddhism 15, 35–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1.1.670.7912-1.Google Scholar
Taylor, C (2007) A Secular Age. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traphagan, JW and Traphagan, JW (2015) SETI in non-western perspective. In Dick, SJ (ed.), The Impact of Discovering Life Beyond Earth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 299–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vertesi, J (2015) Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldau, P (2002) The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williford, KH, Farley, KA, Stack, KM, Allwood, AC, Beaty, D, Beegle, LW, Bhartia, R, Brown, AJ, Torre Juarez, MDL, Hamran, S-E, Hecht, MH, Hurowitz, JA, Rodriguez-Manfredi, JA, Maurice, S, Milkovich, S and Wiens, RC (2018) The NASA Mars 2020 rover mission and the search for extraterrestrial life. In Cabrol, NA and Grin, EA (eds), From Habitability to Life on Mars. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 275–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, J (2012) Dixie Dharma: Inside a Buddhist Temple in the American South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yun, X (1988) Empty Cloud. Worcester: Element Books.Google Scholar
Zajonc, A (2004) The New Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar