…with the James Web Telescope looking for sources of artificial light to identify potential intelligent life, and the news this week of Perseverance searching for microbial life on Mars it feels like we are getting closer to a major discovery. But what - if anything - would it mean for the religions on Earth if life is proven to exist out there?
Religion would change if religious people learn to look beyond 6 feet in front of them, but I guess that’s less possible than proof of extraterrestrial life.
Will proof of aliens change the brainwashed ultra religious? Not a chance. Hell, there are flatearthers and election deniers. I don’t expect much from about 30% of our population.
Lmao no. Just how “vaccines cause autism” never changed…
Same as every other times when science have disproven religions fairytales. They adapt. God also made those lifeforms
Religions are unlikely to change substantially, I imagine they’ll just find some way to explain the existence of aliens that fits their existing scriptures and world view.
There will be new religions that pop up as a result though, for sure.
Or say that science is lying again :p
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I think a lot of religious people will reason it this way- “Yes, there are aliens, but God chose us.”
Death to all who reject Avis!
*bows head
Avis, we try harder.
They would just claim god created them, too. They already did this with the universe when the whole thing about there being other stuff than the earth came up.
Right, but you also need the whole “we were saved by Jesus” or “we were God’s chosen people” or whatever from the various religions. You have to maintain that by saying there may be aliens, but we’re the ones that God favors.
The god of gaps strikes again.
Better than the god of gapes
Exactly this. I know a guy who is a Christian but also believes in extraterrastial life saying that ayy lmaos are also Gods children. Every time he talks about it my head starts to spin.
I look forward to the aliens response being something along the lines of, “You’re God’s best boys and girls, yes you are, who are blessed little ape-beings? You are, yes all of you.”
How many more steps until it’s the 40k universe?
I think wed be about 28000 years away from having to worry about all that lol
In general I think it would just give religions a new group to hate. They would be “Creatures not of God, but of the Devil Himself” in the same way that Christians think of other religions as born of the Canaanites and influenced by Satan.
Did other advances in human knowledge change them?
Most of them still think the universe was made in 6 days by a bearded toga dude in the sky and if you are gay you are going to magical underground fire place.
What if the aliens are religious and their god is the one true god?
This actually brings up a good point that I never thought of before–it seems likely that if aliens have a religion, that religion will become a source of instant fascination to humans and will likely shake up Earth’s religious landscape a lot more than the simple existence of alien life would (alien life simply existing would not have much of an impact by itself IMO).
The Orville show touched on this with the Krill species. Highly aggressive territorial beings acting in the name of thirr God, Avis.
We’re screwed
Nah, it’ll just be another, “Gawd werks in mysterious wayz!”
Religion didn’t change when it went up against intelligent people on earth. Why do you think intelligence from space would make a difference? If anything they’ll use it as a way of validating their own beliefs.
They’ll just make a new Testament saying a man cannot lie with that of another planet
It’s pretty hard to change mindsets. Even with proof, some would still close their eyes and shut their ears denying any fact presented in front of them.
With new worlds to deliver The Word to? Nah they wouldn’t change, but they’d get serious about space travel.
I recall reading or hearing a rumour that the Vatican had a sealed scroll somewhere which is “to be opened in the event of positive extraterrestrial contact or proof”.
Given secrets of that type don’t often stay secret, it amounts to something like: “God made all life and the creator is in all living creatures” (handwaving).
In other words, the major religions already have their shit prepared.
Given secrets of that type don’t often stay secret, it amounts to something like: “God made all life and the creator is in all living creatures” (handwaving).
Imagine being a pope when alienz arrive and with shaky hands, opening that “sealed scroll” and going, “sigh, it’s all that same GODDAMN crap again…”
Did they have to write it on a scroll :/
It isn’t official until it is written on a scroll.
