If intelligent life is found in the universe will it change religion(s)?
If intelligent life is found in the universe will it change religion(s)?
....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?
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Religion will just claim God made aliens, too.
Or that they're a test for the faithful. The way some do about dinosaur fossils.
I am also fully convinced that religious people could scientifically discover God and not believe it's actually God, so...
Yeah, stories in some religious are so vague that they can be applied to any thing. Some of them are vague enough that religious leaders will have no trouble just telling their followers that existence of aliens was already told in them.
Pope Francis has already said that if intelligent life is found, that they would also be considered children of God, so you're right on your first point.
What does it mean to scientifically discover god?
Proving God's existence by means of physical evidence and scientific method.
I see, but theists define god as being immaterial so we wont find their god through science.
Yeah, stories in some religious texts are so vague that they can be applied to any thing. Some of them are vague enough that religious leaders will have no trouble just telling their followers that existence of aliens was already told in them.
To expand on this, every stretch will be made to re-enforce their beliefs.
Aliens are bipedal? Intelligent design!
Aliens have mouths? intelligent design!
I've already seen religious people mixing christianity with ancient alien theory, claiming the aliens are really fallen angels, demons or nephilim, some woukd probably persist in this