The Fermi paradox is the conflict between the expectation that life may be common in the universe with there being little firm scientific evidence of extra-terrestrial civilizations (for example, Webb 2002, Cirkovic 2018). There is no clear support for any explanation of the paradox and thus it remains unresolved. There is however little scientific obstacle to the belief that we are not alone in the universe. This belief is in accord with the Copernican principle, widely investigated in cosmology (for example, Clarkson et al. 2008), that there is no clear justification for assuming that humans occupy a special, unique or privileged position as observers of the universe (Rowan-Robinson, 1996).
Kardashev (1964) introduced a three-point scale which describes the technological development of civilizations according to their energy consumption. Points I, II, and III correspond to energy consumptions for a planet such as Earth, its own star, and its own galaxy, respectively. Many refinements and developments of the scale have been considered including upward extensions to advanced civilizations powerful enough to control multiple universes or to create new universes (Galantai 2003; Cirkovic 2015), and of scales involving criteria other than energy (Zubrin 1999). A well-known adage by Arthur C. Clarke is that to humans any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (Clarke 1973). This has been reworded or paraphrased in the suggestion by Michael Shermer that any sufficiently advanced extra-terrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God. Perhaps this entity need not be omnipotent and omniscient, but to us it would seem to be God (Shermer 2002). The purpose of this essay is to consider this further and develop the idea that God could have emerged by natural processes rather than be a supernatural being.