…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?

  • curiosityLynx@kglitch.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’d argue the opposite. Most religions don’t care about aliens existing or not (ancestor worship, Shinto, all Dharmic religions as far as I know, animism, etc.). Others have already made arguments why aliens should exist according to their religion (argued by at least one catholic “saint”), while others would find it difficult but not impossible to fit aliens into their belief systems.

    Similarly, the Big Bang at best disproves the literal nature of a religion’s creation myth, if such a myth exists to begin with. An ancient Greek would just tell you that obviously the Big Bang or its aftermath is Chaos, from which the first gods came. An elf in Tolkien’s legendarium would tell you that obviously that was the beginning of Ea (the universe), sung into existence by the first notes sung by the Maiar. A Hindu might say something about Brahman being split into smaller existences.

    • crazystuff
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Very interesting, thanks. What you reckon would an eventual response from the Pope be in case of irrefutable alien evidence?