The irrational will always find ways to remain irrational.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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Like everything else, it depends on which religion you ask. Some will be fine with it, while others will be frothing at the mouth in denial, to convert them, or call for full on extermination. Just ask yourself "how does X group treat the humans they hate the most" and you'll have your answer.
I don't know why the existence of aliens would rattle anyone's belief. Unless you can find a way to take away their threat of dying, they're going to believe in God.
It is a strange situation for me. I know that one day it will be it for me. A billion eons and a single second will be the same. For the theist they are facing a chance at magical underground fire place. Wouldn't painless non-existence be so much better than infinite torture? I won't even know that I no longer exist because there will be no I to know. If they invented the afterlife to feel better about death why even a chance that it can go wrong? I would invent heaven but not hell.
Unless of course it is just a means of control...
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If the discovery of life on other planets is anything like the discovery of life on other continents, then yes, we will force them to change their religion (and economic model).
Oh, is that not the question?
Well, it's a suitable answer anyway. No way we'd change our beliefs to accommodate aliens when we can change the aliens to accommodate our beliefs.
I think the discovery of intelligent life outside earth will cause existential crisis to a lot of people, and some of them would turn to (new?) religions to cope.
Really depends on the religion and the kind of life discovered. No religion would have any issue with life on other planets in general, as long as it's not provably intelligent life.
If it is provably intelligent life, some branches of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Mormonism (in order of age) would get into a crisis of belief while other branches would readily adapt. There likely would spring up many sects, some of which would claim that intelligent life to be angels/demons. There would be theological debates about whether these beings have their own original sin, etc.
Meanwhile, most other religions would simply not care all that much. Ancestor worship literally wouldn't give a shit. Religions with reincarnation would simply expand their notions of what you can be reincarnated as. Many local pagan religions have creation myths that apply only to their local region. If those creation myths survived contact with colonizers and the knowledge that the world is larger than the area they cover, the knowledge of aliens existing wouldn't make any more of a difference.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if several new alien-based religions sprang up.
Some fandoms are basically religions, especially sport club fandoms. They wouldn't give a shit.
Lastly, it would be a boost to militant/proselytizing atheism/materialism, which also are like religions to some people.
That said, it would take a long time from the first evidence of intelligent alien life to having it proven to the point that it can't be dismissed as misinterpretation of data and malicious manipulation. Unless an alien armada invaded and took over part or all of Earth, there would be more than enough time for everyone to adapt without much issue.
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I think that if we had inexorable proof of alien life there would absolutely be a shift in the public. I'd love to think we'd grow closer as humanity.