Calculating God
Creationists rarely find sympathy in the ranks of science fiction  authors--or fans, for that matter. And while Robert J. Sawyer doesn't exactly  make peace with evangelicals on the issue,Calculating Godhas to be one  of the more thoughtful and sympathetic SF portrayals you'll find of religion and  intelligent design. But that should come as no surprise from this crafty  Canadian: in the Nebula Award-winningTerminal Experiment, Sawyer  speculated on what would happen if hard evidence were ever found for the human  soul; inCalculating God, he turns science on its head again when earth  is invaded by theists from outer space.The book starts out like the setup for some punny science fiction joke: An alien  walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET  hasn't come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His  Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in  Toronto, the spacefarer (named Hollus) asks to compare notes on mass extinctions  with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho. A shocked Jericho finds that not  only does life exist on other planets, but that every civilization in the galaxy  has experienced extinction events at precisely the same time. Armed with that  disconcerting information (and a little help from a grand unifying theory), the  alien informs Jericho, almost dismissively, that "the primary goal of modern  science is to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his  methods."Inventive, fast-paced, and alternately funny and touching,Calculating  Godsneaks in a well-researched survey of evolution science, exobiology, and  philosophy amidst the banter between Hollus and Jericho. But the book also  proves to be very moving and character-driven SF, as Jericho--in the face of  Hollus's convincing arguments--grapples with his own bitter reasons for not  believing in God.--Paul Hughes