NASA summons priests to religions to prepare if there is an alien discovery
Whether it’s aliens coming on a peacekeeping mission or their own discovery in a distant location, NASA wants to know exactly how the world’s religions would react if scientists encountered alien life.
To understand what could happen to the world’s faith and religion, the US space agency financed a year-long study program with religious to understand the possible consequences.
NASA brought together 24 theologians and religious (Catholic priests, evangelical pastors, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and representatives of diverse African religions) in this survey, according to The Times.
The group was tasked with addressing how exactly religions would respond to the discovery of alien life, namely the so-called “Close Contact of the Third Kind”.
It’s a worthwhile task—especially when you consider that billions of people around the world somehow profess a religion.
How would alien life change the world’s perception of God? Would religions have to change their doctrines?
“I am researching and writing a study on major topics of the Christian faith—what is often referred to as systematic theology—from the point of view of elsewhere in the universe,” said Andrew Davidson, a priest and researcher in Christian theology at the University of Cambridge and a PhD in biochemistry. He is one of the experts who were consulted on the study.
“I’m thinking about it in light of doctrines that talk about creation, sin, the person and work of Jesus Christ, redemption, revelation, eschatology, and so on,” he said.
After participating in the study, Dr. Andrew Davison will release in 2022 a book entitled “Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine” (in English) on human behavior in the face of a possible encounter with aliens, to help people in “faith guidance”.
Still according to other experts heard by The Times, the Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions would not collapse if this discovery occurred and would be able to explain the issue within their own beliefs.
