Review of Robert J. Sawyer, Calculating God (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2000). 336 pp. $23.99 (paperback).

Abstract: In an entertaining and provocative science fiction novel, Calculating God, Robert J. Sawyer presents us with a likable alien scientist visiting earth to obtain more data about God’s ongoing work of creation. The alien is astounded that a human scientist does not believe in God despite the obvious evidence. Sawyer’s work introduces a variety of reasonable scientific arguments for the existence of God in a series of cleverly conceived dialogs and uses dramatic events to develop some perspectives on God. Sawyer’s purpose is not to evangelize, and the troubling concept of an utterly impersonal God who emerges in Sawyer’s interplay between multiple worlds is quite alien to Christianity and especially to the revelations from Joseph Smith, which offer a much more hopeful perspective. Calculating God is a delightful read that raises some questions that need to be discussed more often, but to obtain meaningful answers, a different calculus is needed.

[Editor’s Note: We have, from time to time, published reviews or essays that draw upon disciplines that some may not consider as having bearing on The Interpreter Foundation’s mission. For example, how can a literary genre such as science fiction fit into our mission? Some may even scoff, presuming that science fiction has no place in academic discourse. Consider, though, that science fiction attempts to create fantastic worlds, and that those worlds (and the beings that populate those worlds) necessarily reflect a “world view” consistent with the cultural views of the authors. In the realm of religion, Joseph Smith similarly described and promoted a future world which he credited to revelation and interaction with the divine. Perhaps we can learn new [Page 260]insights by comparing the man-made views of our potential future with the revealed views of our future. In this review, Jeff Lindsay describes one science fiction author’s take on the question of God’s existence and compares the God in these pages to the God described by Joseph Smith.]

Robert J. Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction author who has published 23 books and won major awards for his writing, such as the Nebula Award (1995) and the Hugo Award (2003), takes on an unusual and controversial topic in his 2000 novel Calculating God, nominated for the 2001 Hugo Award. Scientists from two alien civilizations have teamed up to visit earth to learn more about God’s work and God’s plans. They are astounded to learn that humans, in spite of their basic scientific knowledge, are not absolutely convinced of the reality of God.

The book begins with a humorous but dramatic visit of an eight-legged alien being whose ship descends next to Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The alien that steps out of the smooth, sleek ship is a female, we later learn, looking something like a large brown spider with a torso resembling a big beach ball with eight limbs going in every direction, two of which have six-fingered hands, with a couple of moving eye stalks as well. She makes an awkward entrance up the steps and through the doors to the ROM, then approaches a security guard and in perfect English says, “Excuse me. I’d like to see a paleontologist.”

Her name is Hollus, she’s a mom with two children of whom she’s very proud and misses very much, and she has come to Earth to learn more about God by studying our fossil record.

The novel is narrated by Dr. Thomas Jericho, a paleontologist who works at the ROM conducting research on the Burgess Shale collection. Here I must recommend spending some time at the ROM’s fascinating website The Burgess Shale.