If intelligent life was discovered on another planet, what implications would that have for your faith?

[rossum]

Would it strengthen your faith? Weaken it? Leave it unchanged? And why?

Thanks for your responses ahead of time!

Strengthen it. Buddhist scripture contains mention of intelligent life on other planets. IIRC the same is true of some Hindu scripture as well.

Basically the Ancient Indians worked out that stars were other suns seen from a very long way away. If there were other suns then logically there had to be other earths with other people on them. The Ancient Near East never worked that out, and saw stars and sun as essentially different, rather than the same things at different distances.

rossum

 

[agnes_therese]

What if these beings had no religion, or a religion totally dissimilar to Christianity? Would that perhaps suggest that Christianity is a human invention?

No, it wouldn’t suggest that to me. Perhaps God would reveal Himself in a different manner to another race.

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

Every believer in God would certainly see any eventual meeting with a non-terrestrial civilization as an extraordinary experience. A believer would be fundamentally inclined to manifest a sense of respect in such an encounter, to recognize our common origin and the new possibility of better understanding the relationship between God and the whole of creation. A similar encounter, and perhaps the ensuing dialogue, would have a “religious” dimension in the more natural sense of the term. At the same time, it seems important to note that a believer who is respectful of the requirements of scientific reasoning would not be obliged to renounce his own faith in God simply on the basis of the reception of new, unexpected information of a religious character from extraterrestrial civilizations. In the first place, human reason itself would suggest the need to submit this new “religious content” coming from outside the Earth to an analysis of reasonableness and credibility (analogous to what we are accustomed to do when any religious content is proposed to us, on Earth); once the trustworthiness of the information has been verified, the believer should try to reconcile such new information with the truth that he or she already knows and believes on the basis of the revelation of the One and Triune God, conducting a re-reading inclusive of the new data, similar to that which would be applied in an ordinary interreligious dialogue.

disf.org/en/Voci/65.asp

 

[doormouse73]

it would re enforce my faith,make it a lot stronger…happy to know that when

Jesus said…

in my fathers house there are many rooms…

he was telling us this…

 

[tabycat]

What if these beings had no religion, or a religion totally dissimilar to Christianity? Would that perhaps suggest that Christianity is a human invention?

What if their religion was/was similar to Christianity (Poul Anderson’s High Crusade)? It would just prove that God is great. :bounce::hug3::flowers: Just clean up the guest room and put another place setting on the table. :tiphat:

 

[MPat]

What if these beings had no religion, or a religion totally dissimilar to Christianity? Would that perhaps suggest that Christianity is a human invention?

Actually, something similar has happened before. When America was discovered (or rediscovered) by Europeans, the local inhabitants had religions that were not very similar to Christianity. While it might have provoked some theological questions, it obviously hasn’t been decided that it proves anything like the things that you’re suggesting. Afterwards, the Church simply sent missionaries there. Thus something like that might also happen if a way to communicate with such rational beings from another planet was found. Well, maybe the Congregation for Divine Worship would also develop some “Alien Rite”, if existing rites were unsuitable for some reason (let’s say, lack of hands with fingers)…

 

[Brendan]

What if these beings had no religion, or a religion totally dissimilar to Christianity? Would that perhaps suggest that Christianity is a human invention?

No, no more so than the religion of the Aztecs would have had. That was a human religion, but totally dissimilar to Christianity.

All it would mean is that the other race would be in need of evangelization, as the Aztecs were in need.

 

[Lochias]

It would mean that God created aliens.

Here’s a reverse question for you, Poseidon: What if we discovered aliens (or vice-versa) and found that they had a religion that was undeniably, obviously an alien parallel of Catholicism?

 

[Poseidon]

It would mean that God created aliens.

Here’s a reverse question for you, Poseidon: What if we discovered aliens (or vice-versa) and found that they had a religion that was undeniably, obviously an alien parallel of Catholicism?

A very interesting idea! If that happened I would have to first rule out a couple of things:

1. Could it be coincidental? For example, they may have a religion that is similar to Catholicism in some aspects but not others. Maybe they have a cross as their symbol, or they have sacraments similar to Catholicism’s, but when you dig deeper it really is not so similar. The similarities could then just be us looking for similarities, and selectively finding what we look for.
2. Could there have been some sort of cultural contamination? Could they have seen Catholic rites from our TV broadcasts, heard prayers on our radio waves, or picked up the Voyager probe? Could someone have secretly been in contact with them, and evangelized them? Could they possibly have started Catholicism on earth 2,000 years ago?

If I could rule these out then I’d definitely have serious reason to think twice about Catholicism. It wouldn’t solve my objections against it (problem of evil, etc) but it wold certainly provide a compelling piece of evidence for it.

 

[LSK]

actually, since I hold to be true that which The Church teaches about other religions, the discovery of another planet with intelligent life forms that practice another religion completely different (outwardly) than Catholicism would bolster my faith.

 

[MPat]

A very interesting idea! If that happened I would have to first rule out a couple of things:

1. Could it be coincidental? For example, they may have a religion that is similar to Catholicism in some aspects but not others. Maybe they have a cross as their symbol, or they have sacraments similar to Catholicism’s, but when you dig deeper it really is not so similar. The similarities could then just be us looking for similarities, and selectively finding what we look for.
2. Could there have been some sort of cultural contamination? Could they have seen Catholic rites from our TV broadcasts, heard prayers on our radio waves, or picked up the Voyager probe? Could someone have secretly been in contact with them, and evangelized them? Could they possibly have started Catholicism on earth 2,000 years ago?

If I could rule these out then I’d definitely have serious reason to think twice about Catholicism. It wouldn’t solve my objections against it (problem of evil, etc) but it wold certainly provide a compelling piece of evidence for it.

The first part is clearly reasonable and leading to good questions to ask, but how would you try to rule out the possibilities mentioned in the second part? The obvious (and easy) way would be to say that we have no evidence that would suggest anything like that (some of them are similar to conspiracy theories), but then there would be nothing to investigate…

 

[edwest2]

Would it strengthen your faith? Weaken it? Leave it unchanged? And why?

Thanks for your responses ahead of time!

No change. Having been involved in science and the creation of fictional worlds, we have no idea of what to expect. If we can communicate, we will judge each other’s character and temperament. We know humanity but we wouldn’t know them. What they do might be our only guide.

Peace,
Ed

 

[The_GreyPilgrim]

How about we worry more about what we actually know rather than speculate on what might be?

 

[Poseidon]

How about we worry more about what we actually know rather than speculate on what might be?

Because speculating is fun. You can go teach facts and facts alone, Mr Gradgrind, but the rest of us will be busy thinking about what-ifs.

 

[Poseidon]

The first part is clearly reasonable and leading to good questions to ask, but how would you try to rule out the possibilities mentioned in the second part? The obvious (and easy) way would be to say that we have no evidence that would suggest anything like that (some of them are similar to conspiracy theories), but then there would be nothing to investigate…

You could investigate in a couple of ways. First, you could always just ask them. “Did you seed Catholicism on earth?” They may say yes, and they may say no. Then you go from there.

You could also look for evidence of further contamination (by which I mean their culture seeping into ours or vice-versa - not “contamination” as in dirt or bacteria getting on something clean) in the form of linguistic similarities, technological similarities, ancient inscriptions (pictures of them in Egyptian hieroglyphs? Mayaglyphs? Ancient texts?). Basically any sort of evidence that there was in interchange of some sort between the two civilizations. The best place to look would likely be the records of the alien civilization, because if they visited earth thousands of years ago then they are presumably far more advanced than we are and kept better records.

So really there would be a lot to investigate! You just have to figure out where to look!

 

[edwest2]

I believe Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” If you look at really old science-fiction, like Jules Verne, you’ll read about impossible-at-the-time ideas. Once these ideas were imagined, some scientists went out and made them happen. Not all of them - yet.

Peace,
Ed

 

[YoungCatholic21]

What do you mean by this?

Throughout all of history, the central focus of action in the universe has revolved around man. Remove man from the universe and what do you have? An empty earth, with animals pointlessly breeding and running around, the planets having no one to gaze at them, witnessing the awesome intellect and power of Almighty God.

Sincerely, it is to say that man is the height of God’s creation, worth even more than the angels, for one man’s soul is worth more than the value of the entire universe. The angels are assigned to us for our protection and guidance, or the demons are there to tempt us to sin and confuse us. “It was pride that changed angels into demons, and it is humility which makes men as angels.” (St. Augustine of Hippo)

God came down in the Lord Jesus Christ, suffered and died for US. We deserved none of it, for when a man sins, justice is the punishment that fits the crime. Yet God loves us like a Father in Heaven so much, he will overlook our sins if we are sorry and change our lives! What a mercy! What magnificient wonder! O, how little is God known in the world, and how little is He loved for His great Mercy!

That is why Lucifer and the demons fell from Heaven, for they saw that God would lower himself to the state of a man, and unjustly suffer and die for US. They could not accept God’s loving mercy, for they did not trust Him! How much more should we trust Him, then, for He has shown mercy on us! He loves like a mother loves her children, always forgiving when we are sorry, yet He is stern as a father with his children’s behaviour modification, directing us and leading us to a better way of living, to a life of virtue!

Don’t you see? It is not really intelligent life we seek to find another planet, but God! Something to hold us in awe and wonder at its magnificient power and intellect! It is folly and confusion to go any further than God, who created the heavens and the earth.

 

[Poseidon]

Throughout all of history, the central focus of action in the universe has revolved around man. Remove man from the universe and what do you have? An empty earth, with animals pointlessly breeding and running around, the planets having no one to gaze at them, witnessing the awesome intellect and power of Almighty God.

No. The central focus of human history has revolved around man. The “empty earth, with animals pointlessly breeding and running around” is exactly what the earth was like for most of biological history. There were no people wondering at the stars while dinosaurs were around, or while trilobites trundled around the ocean floor doing trilobite things.

Remove man from the universe and what do you have? Most of the history of the universe, actually.

Sincerely, it is to say that man is the height of God’s creation, worth even more than the angels, for one man’s soul is worth more than the value of the entire universe. The angels are assigned to us for our protection and guidance, or the demons are there to tempt us to sin and confuse us. “It was pride that changed angels into demons, and it is humility which makes men as angels.” (St. Augustine of Hippo)

Now you’re just being egocentric.

God came down in the Lord Jesus Christ, suffered and died for US. We deserved none of it, for when a man sins, justice is the punishment that fits the crime. Yet God loves us like a Father in Heaven so much, he will overlook our sins if we are sorry and change our lives! What a mercy! What magnificient wonder! O, how little is God known in the world, and how little is He loved for His great Mercy!

That is why Lucifer and the demons fell from Heaven, for they saw that God would lower himself to the state of a man, and unjustly suffer and die for US. They could not accept God’s loving mercy, for they did not trust Him! How much more should we trust Him, then, for He has shown mercy on us! He loves like a mother loves her children, always forgiving when we are sorry, yet He is stern as a father with his children’s behaviour modification, directing us and leading us to a better way of living, to a life of virtue!

Don’t you see? It is not really intelligent life we seek to find another planet, but God! Something to hold us in awe and wonder at its magnificient power and intellect! It is folly and confusion to go any further than God, who created the heavens and the earth.

If you are looking for God on another planet I think you’ll be very disappointed.

I agree with you that we are looking for things to wonder at and awe us. I would propose that we’ve already found plenty of them…nebulae, beautiful spiral galaxies, the intricacies and complexity of biology, and a million other things. Not God.

 

[Lochias]

No. The central focus of human history has revolved around man. The “empty earth, with animals pointlessly breeding and running around” is exactly what the earth was like for most of biological history. There were no people wondering at the stars while dinosaurs were around, or while trilobites trundled around the ocean floor doing trilobite things.

But that doesn’t follow logically…trilobites and dinosaurs didn’t keep history, and we wouldn’t know about any of it if not for our God-given ability to learn.

Remove man from the universe and what do you have? Most of the history of the universe, actually.

Which man discovered using his gift of intellect, above. How amazing that God made us to be able to appreciate the wonders He’s made!

Now you’re just being egocentric.

Well, you’re welcome to go commiserate with the trilobites, I guess.

If you are looking for God on another planet I think you’ll be very disappointed.

Now who’s being egocentric?

I agree with you that we are looking for things to wonder at and awe us. I would propose that we’ve already found plenty of them…nebulae, beautiful spiral galaxies, the intricacies and complexity of biology, and a million other things. Not God.

Yup…and how even more wonderful it is to know that God treasures us above all of these. That’s the biggest awe-inspiring thing of all.

 

[johnnyjones]

Intelligent life elsewhere may open up the possibility that these creatures are sinners as well and need a savior. Maybe Christ died for the entire universe, but that doesn’t seem likely.

Would it effect my faith? I would have to say somewhat because I would be contemplating various theological constucts in addition to desiring to know what these beings hold to as to a creator. Fascinating all around. I designed a comic years ago around this premise.