Yesterday I attended a meeting at the Royal Society in London about how the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence would affect people and society, and was introduced to a whole new discipline: astrotheology. A big talking point at the meeting (stated somewhat crudely) was whether the discovery of alien intelligence would throw religion into crisis. (Thank you to Mike Croft for his rejoinder yesterday: "That's a very poor question. Would science be in crisis if God was discovered?")
My first thought was, "No, why should religion crumble just because aliens were discovered?" and I was slightly surprised (perhaps naively) that apparently the opposite view is more widely held. But according to Ted Peters, a Christian theologian (who now also dabbles in astrotheology, pondering whether meeting our space neighbours could throw humanity into an existential crisis) the issue is partly based on the unspoken assumption that religion is primitive and inferior, while science is superior. Should aliens make contact with us, one would assume they are more technologically advanced than we are, and hence--the argument goes--more highly evolved, to such an extent that they will in fact have "evolved beyond religion." (I will come back to this point later.) What would primitive earthlings do when faced with their more evolved scientific superiors?
To address whether religious people really do feel that their beliefs would be threatened by contact, Peters has conducted a survey of people from various faiths to check the hypothesis that "upon confirmation of contact between earth and an extraterrestrial civilization of intelligent beings, the long established religious traditions of earth would confront a crisis of belief and perhaps even collapse." New Scientist has covered his findings in detail, so I will direct you there for the stats rather than typing them all out myself. But the upshot--not very surprising to many of faith--is that Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, Jews, and Buddhists really aren't too worried by the prospect that the universe contains other intelligent beings. Anecdotal evidence from Muslims and Hindus suggest they feel much the same way. Most disagreed that the discovery would shake their personal faith and many believe that others who share their own faith would also take alien contact in their stride. (Some suggest it would even strengthen their faith and provide evidence for the existence of nonhuman intelligent beings described in sacred texts.)
So where does the notion that religion will crumble in the face of contact come from? Well, that was also partially addressed in the survey. Respondents tended to assume that while those following their own religion (or non-religion, in the case of non-affiliates and atheists) wouldn't be too shaken, _other_ religions would be. "So those other people would have the problems!" says Peters.
Question answered then: Religion will not crumble. Or perhaps it's not that simple? FQXi's Paul Davies asked rather cuttingly in response to the survey, "how many people have an understanding of their own religion?" While he agreed that most religions could incorporate aliens into their worldview with little difficulty, he argued that for Christians there should be a serious problem: "Can you really be a Christian and not believe that Jesus was the incarnation of God who came to save a particular species?"
Peters responded that he has also looked into the views of many Christian theologians, and there opinion differs. Some believe that there could be only one incarnation--species-specific to humans. Others allow for multiple incarnations, with other alien species (or animals on Earth) having their own "Jesus."
To complicate matters further, it's also not clear that Christians _should_ believe that extra-terrestrials even need saving. Peters described how C. S. Lewis once speculated that aliens may never have gone through the fall, that is, no alien Adam and Eve were tempted to eat of the forbidden fruit (or the alien equivalent), and hence aliens do not need saving by a Christ-like figure. I am aware that I am straying into areas of Christian theology (let alone areas of alien Christian theology) that I am not an expert on, so I should maybe open the floor to people who know more than me here.
But, if that is the case, then a sinless alien race could be out there waiting to...inspire us? (Altruistic alien missionaries coming to Earth may not be a good thing either.) Which brings me back to the initial assumption that any advanced alien race should have evolved beyond religion. That may be the case. Or they may provide an example of a more spiritual way to live. In either case, how would their discovery affect you (whether you are an atheist, a religious person, undecided, or unwilling to declare)? Will it diminish your sense of human dignity if we meet beings that are more advanced than us? Should it?
While you're pondering those questions, I'll leave you with Jon Chase's astrobiology rap, which was performed live for us at the meeting.
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