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I have always been curious as to how religion will tackle proof of alien life. Do aliens get to go to heaven?

> I have always been curious as to how religion will tackle proof of alien life.

They may not have to; I can't think of a religious faith that insists that humans are the only sentient beings in the universe. (John Polkinghorne [1] argues that even multi-verses are consistent with the notion of a Creator.)

> Do aliens get to go to heaven?

Same answer as above. And this assumes there is a heaven; not all religious people, indeed not even all 'Christians,' believe this. [2]

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[1] Polkinghorne is a retired Cambridge University professor of mathematical physics, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He's now 80 years old; when he was 49 he went to seminary to become an Anglican priest, and has written a number of books about science and religion. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Polkinghorne.

[2] Some of us have provisionally concluded that a sensible way to bet is this: Over the very long term, the apparent on-going 'construction' of a cosmos, in which we seem to be participating, is likely to work out unimaginably wonderfully, but we really can't even speculate as to much more than that. See http://www.questioningchristian.com/2007/02/another_way_to_.... (Disclosure: I'm the author; the comments are worth reading as well.) EDIT: Polkinghorne has published what he describes as "naïve speculation" about how heaven might be explainable in terms of string theory. See http://www.questioningchristian.com/2006/04/resurrection_ap.....

A statement from within orthodox Christianity about this (http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/248/are_god_and_al...):

   God became man in Jesus in order to save us. So if
   there are also other intelligent beings, it’s not a
   given that they need redemption. They might have
   remained in full friendship with their creator.

The article also includes an interesting quote from C. S. Lewis on the subject:

   I look forward with horror to contact with the other 
   inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only 
   transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, 
   and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of 
   it. But if we on Earth were to get right with God, of 
   course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves 
   spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take 
   the good things with us. That is quite a different 
   matter.

Lewis also wrote a SciFi trilogy to explore these ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Trilogy

You may be surprised to learn there was debate on this topic from at least the high middle ages. A quick Google search found this write up, which seems to be a pretty good summary.

http://vox-nova.com/2009/10/10/on-multiple-worlds-and-multip...

EDIT: This is quite good too:

http://www.unav.es/cryf/extraterrestriallife.html

Religion doesn't need a literal interpretation to succeed, they'd just sweep it under the rug like everything else. Indeed, I think the majority of religious people do not believe much literally, and at least many of them are simply believers in belief.

I totally agree. Still, a discovery so profound as first contact must have some impact to their belief. But then again, my guess is that when this discovery is made, the larger part of the world are secularists.

>a discovery so profound as first contact must have some impact to their belief. But then again, my guess is that when this discovery is made, the larger part of the world are secularists.

Explored in the film "Contact" and the Carl Sagan book upon which it was based. Though apparently the ending differs significantly between the two. (I enjoyed the movie, but haven't gotten around to reading the book).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/

My religion has taught me there was alien life since I was a child. I was also taught that all humans and all animal life will be resurrected. It's not too hard to extrapolate that intelligent alien species, should they exist, would as well. So maybe the answer to your question is "It depends on the religion."

What religion is that?

If you don't mind sharing and I mean this respectfully, could you inform us which religion is this?

I'm Mormon (or more pedantically I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) so kbutler caught me.

He's quoting from the Doctrine & Covenants (like the Pauline epistles in that they're letters written by someone claiming to speak messages from God, but not like them in that they were written in the 1830s and 40s in America) and it's this more modern scripture that tends to talk about these kind of things. Basically any decent religion will start out with "Be nice to your neighbors" but when you start asking "Why?" it is inevitable going to end up in a discussion about the nature of the universe and its the modern scripture that tends to crystallize that a bit.

The example I was thinking of: http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/29.23-26?lang=eng#...

Sounds like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, commonly known as Mormon). I am LDS.

One citation: http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76.16-24?lang=eng#... All to come forth in the resurrection of the just & unjust, through Christ the worlds are and were created, the inhabitants are sons and daughters of God.

And for the record, "alien life" in Mormonism means other earths very similiar to the one we inhabit, populated by people like the people that live here on our earth. Not usually what most people think of when they hear of aliens.

Your second sentance is irrelevant, it's not like every living thing on earth is believed to go to heaven.

I do not agree that it is completely irrelevant when including the possibilities of life at a higher intellectual level. It would still put religion in a difficult position; if God created humans, he must have created aliens. At what intellectual level would you set the barrier? Must it demonstrate empathy? Love? And who would decide? What gives a human the right, as it clearly is the guy in the sky that is the gatekeeper.

The Bible for example is very clear about the one who is making the decisions: God, or guy in the sky as you call it. So I don't think that would be a problem for religion.

And I think this news is still no proof for skeptical people (like myself). They found molecules that are very rare on earth and are now suggesting they originated in space:

"...but were unsure whether these materials actually originate in space. The presence of these three molecules, however, suggest that they do, potentially raising new questions..."

So just new questions and suggestions. No proof of alien life for me. But interesting!

Way OT but… you are making a categorical error: (putting aside what you may or may not think about Christianity… but) Christianity asserts that the only reason people (or beings) are not going to heaven is because of their sin (defined as, “any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God”). To presuppose that any theoretical aliens have sin is wholly unwarranted. There is no need for any Christian to assume any status as regards heaven in relation to an alien.

Also; the existence or lack of existence of any alien life form would have no theological bearing on the western church. (That’s not to say that it would in the east. I just am ignorant of the details -- though if I was a betting man I would say that it is the same in that case also.) Wouldn’t change a thing; and not because it would get “swept under the carpet” but because it really changes nothing core to the dogma deemed necessary for the western church (i.e. the Ecumenical creeds).

And, just as an even further aside, some prominent Christian theologians believe that aliens might exist.

I don't think finding evidence of ETI would change much of anything.

Sure, an agnostic might be put into a further tailspin, but so what? Most of the world's faithful have already demonstrated the enviable ability to suspend any desire to investigate the mechanics of their belief system. What difference will it matter that aliens were thrown into the equation?

Since you seem like a science-minded man, I'll point out that every Christian in this thread has said nothing like what you said. Perhaps you should revise your model.

It may be relevant precisely because not every living thing on earth is believed to go to heaven. "But these guys don't get to go to heaven" is part of the rationale behind a lot of modern genocides, and before that many cases of slaughter and slavery. If we or the aliens are to think that of each other, hey, that's enough premise for a real-life Hollywood classic.

Right. Even if these hypothetical aliens have souls, what happens when we discover that there was no Christ crucified on their world? From that, we'll have to conclude that either

1) They can't be absolved of their sins, since Jesus didn't die for them.

2) The Earthly Jesus died for all sentient beings across the universe, but the fact that he did so on Earth demonstrates that Earthlings have a special place in God's creation (also, note that the Old Testament Jews were God's chosen people).

In a religious context, no good can come of this.

As already referenced elsewhere in this thread, C.S. Lewis hypothesized

3) Extraterrestrials did not necessarily experience The Fall, and therefor have no need of a savior.

Extraterrestrials did not necessarily experience The Fall

I'm not aware of Lewis's argument, but I did think about this. It seems to me that we'd be able to determine this by simple inspection.

I assume that when we met these aliens, we'll be able to observe that they are sinful creatures: they will lie, steal, murder, etc., just like we do. This being the case, they'll need some mechanism for unloading those sins, won't they?

But: (1) maybe they won't be sinful; or (2) maybe there's some theological point that makes "The Fall" as such pivotal, so that other sins can be freely absolved, so long as one (or one's ancestors) haven't eaten from the tree of knowledge?

EDIT: As already referenced elsewhere in this thread, C.S. Lewis hypothesized -- a search through the thread for "Lewis" shows our interchange, and one other mention that doesn't reference aliens directly, but only the evil that humans could bring to them. And searching for "Fall" shows it nowhere else as a single word. So I think you're unfair in suggesting that my post was redundant.

Well, now you're reducing it to just Christianity. And within the context of Christianity, I don't see why people would jump to the conclusions that they have souls only to get stuck at the problem of "so what do we do with Jesus?"

I suppose people sooner call the aliens soulless demons or rethink their whole religion than go half way in one direction and then stop in the middle.

Although I am deeply unreligious and disagree with much of what the Vatican says regarding birth control etc, I've been impressed with the Vatican's statements in past years re: the Big Bang, evolution, aliens, etc.

The Vatican's chief astronomer said that aliens likely have souls and he would "gladly baptize one if it asked".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/17/pope-astronome...

Don't be fooled by the Vatican and evolution. They believe in guided evolution, not in a blind watchmaker.

http://i.imgur.com/nta4G.gif

(from SMBC, and I can't find the original :-P)

They will find evidence of aliens in their religious texts. Always post factum.

The idea of non-terrestrial intelligences has been part of Judeo-Christian belief for thousands of years. Angels are generally considered both non-physical and non-terrestrial. But theologians as orthodox as Thomas Aquinas have also considered belief in non-terrestrial yet physical intelligences to be theologically acceptable[1].

[1] http://vox-nova.com/2009/10/10/on-multiple-worlds-and-multip...

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