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skc | 4 months ago

If SETI is successful it would be a fascinating to sit back and observe the deeply religious.

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kulahan|4 months ago

The Catholic church answered this question ages ago. I assume the other major religions did too. It's really not concerning at all to the institution; the major problem would be with people who don't actually understand their own religion.

Granted, this would be a lot of people, but I think it'd be a midrange of "kinda religious, but not enough to dive in"-types who are mostly freaking out over the revelation.

9dev|4 months ago

So, how does the story go? Only earth is blessed by god, because Jesus crashed here, and all the alien races are toast because they didn’t have a chance to learn about Christ, Savior of the strange bipeds from Earth?

I’m sure they came up with an elaborate story how Jesus loves sentient mollusks from Alpha Centauri, but I hope most people are smart enough to realise how little sense it all makes. I for one am curious how this plays out, if I’m lucky enough to witness it.

jandrese|4 months ago

It would depend a lot on what the alien species was like.

If they go "oh yeah Religion, that's a quirk of your biology, don't worry you will outgrow it in time" then yeah, that's problematic.

If they go "Oh, you say that the savior Jesus Christ was a human? That answers one of our biggest questions. The story never made much sense before. Boy, those Angels must be pretty freaky looking for you then." then that's entirely different.

bluGill|4 months ago

Most will quickly look and discover the bible is silent on the topic which leaves plenty of room for God to create other aliens.

I'm not familiar with every religion, but I think most can say the same.

skc|4 months ago

There's a wonderful scifi novel based on these themes, called "The Sparrow"

Pretty harrowing reading.

BrandoElFollito|4 months ago

I don't think it would make any difference.

Religion is completely disconnected from reality, making up things as they go.

A signal from a life form would either be conspiracy or a signal from god, so strong that we cannot understand it.

Either way, no real difference with what we have today.