Mar 18, 2010
Would Intelligent Aliens Undermine God?
From Robert Lawrence Kuhn, host and creator of Closer To Truth:
Are we alone in the universe? Or, given the vast numbers of stars and planets, is the universe teeming with intelligent life? The search is intensifying, and what if that electrifying first contact comes? How would it impact human society? How would it affect religion?
I’d like to believe in a creator God. Would such a God have made the universe to bring forth innumerable species of intelligent life? Or would such a God have made human beings, on this ordinary planet circling an ordinary star in an ordinary galaxy, to be so absolutely and utterly unique? Some religions teach that what God does right here is supremely and stunningly special. Christianity cannot duck this question: Would intelligent aliens undermine God?
NASA chief historian Steven Dick questions the consistency of the Christian salvation plan if there are sentient beings on other planets. The salvation of humans on Earth depends, according to traditional doctrine, on Jesus’ death and resurrection, but what about those beings on other planets? Does his death on earth save them?
“If the answer is ‘No,’” says Dick, “then you have a scenario of a planet-hopping savior, which was not kindly looked upon by, say, theologians in the Middle Ages.”
Dick’s solution is a radical rethinking of what is meant by “theology.” He argues for what he calls a “cosmo-theology,” meaning “we need to take into account what we know about the universe, including whether or not there are extraterrestrials.” This includes the fact that “physically, the earth is not at the center of the universe” and the likely fact that, in Dick’s opinion, “biologically, human beings are not at the center of the universe either.” He suggests that there are other, far more advanced intelligent life forms. “We are most likely not at the top of the great chain of beings,” he says.
Dick’s cosmo-theology, which would be energized by extraterrestrial, or ET, intelligences, is hardly “theology” in any traditional sense. God is nowhere to be found. Nor are humans very much important. I’d be thrilled to know such “new truth,” though deeply disappointed, I’d admit, that God were no more.
Physicist Russell Stannard’s belief in the Christian God would not at all be shaken by the discovery of ET intelligence. “There must be teeming numbers of earthlike planets out there capable of supporting life,” he says, “and it’s almost axiomatic that ET is out there, a whole variety of different kinds of ETs.” As for their relationship to God, Stannard calls it “a very fascinating thought,” saying, “If I were to meet ET, my first question would be, ‘What’s your take on God?’”
Stannard raises the next questions: “How would Jesus relate to them? The Christian belief is that the Eternal Son of God took on human form as Jesus for us. So does the same Eternal Son of God then take on the form of ETs to act as their savior? Do ETs even require a savior?”
Stannard says he has no objection to the “planet-hopping savior” spending his time on millions of planets, living and dying, going through the same process over and over and over again, even though some people don’t like it and it seems to subject the Christian story to a kind of mocking. “If we’re happy to go hopping around to different countries,” he laughs, “I don’t see any problem for the Eternal Son of God to go to different planets.”
He continues: “Assuming there are ETs more intelligent or advanced than humans, I think the more interesting question is: Does God value them more than God does us? ET might look down on us as being rather primitive just as we look down on apes as rather primitive, and slugs as even more primitive. So does God pay more attention to them than God does to us?”
Stannard stresses, however, that just because a person is highly intelligent does not mean that he or she is highly spiritual. “One knows of very intelligent people who are spiritual pygmies, and of people with low IQs who have deep spiritual lives,” he says. “The true measure of spirituality is how close you are to God, how real is your relationship with God. And God is the only judge of that.”
Stannard’s firm belief in God embraces, not fears, ET intelligences. He would welcome ETs, seeing in them novel vistas for apprehending God. I respect Stannard’s conviction, but recognize that scientists who are firm adherents to particular religions have biases.
Cosmologist Paul Davies offers the controversial idea that the universe must be “about” something. Could a cosmos filled with ET intelligences be what the universe is “about”?
“Four hundred years ago, Bruno was burnt at the stake for espousing the idea that there’s a plurality of inhabited worlds,” Davies says. “The church thought this was a very dangerous doctrine, and I think the church got it exactly wrong. … If the emergence of life and mind are part of the great outworking of the laws of the universe, then we would expect to find that life is widespread. Life would not be just some sort of irrelevant, meaningless, side issue, but integral to the whole great cosmos.”
He adds, “One of the things that I have found rather surprising and a bit depressing is that theologians have given very little thought to this extraterrestrial dimension. They don’t want to think about it; it makes them uncomfortable.”
To Davies, ET intelligence is central to his vision of a universe in which life and mind are a meaningful part. And such expanding conscious awareness, by sentient life colonizing the universe, may be in some way responsible for having brought our kind of life-generating universe into existence in the first place.
Davies recognizes that he is in essence proposing a kind of retroactive, backward causation mechanism in which the development of consciousness billions of years after the origin of the universe somehow “causes” just the right kinds of original laws of the universe that seem fine-tuned for life. As for the charge that such a backward-causing hypothesis is “absurd,” Davies counters by asserting that all ultimate explanations are absurd. As for Western religions, Davies suspects that ETs would undermine them all.
Robin Collins, a young Christian philosopher, disagrees. A leader among modern theists in trying to discern God’s design, he is ready to embed ETs. “My theism itself inclines me to think, though I can’t be sure, that we humans are not alone,” he says. “God is infinitely creative, and if God wants embodied, intelligent life like us, then even more such beings would even be better.”
Would those ETs have to follow the same salvation process that Christians have followed on this planet? “Maybe, maybe not,” Collins responds. “If they were ‘fallen,’ if they had by free choice turned away from God, then a Christian would probably want to say that there would be some kind of similar salvation scheme for them. … Probably you’d want to say there’d be multiple incarnations.”
As to the semi-mocking charge that a planet-hopping savior would be “rather busy,” Collins gives a serious analysis. “Well, that depends on how one conceptualizes the doctrine of the incarnation,” he says.
“There are two major views in philosophical theology. The first is ‘kenosis,’ which is the idea that the second person in the trinity emptied himself of his divine attributes and became a human being. Under this view, God the Son would indeed be very busy going from our civilization to the Clingons to the Romulins to where have you. But under another view, often called the ‘two minds view,’ what God the Son does is take on a human consciousness and a human body as part of his own God-consciousness, where he still has this overarching consciousness of God the Son.”
“Multiple personalities,” I ask helpfully?
“It’s multiple personality by choice,” Collins stresses—adding that, in any event, “even an infinite number of salvation processes would not in any way exhaust the divine being. … It just seems hard for me to conceive of an infinitely creative God just doing it once.” ETs don’t threaten Collins’ belief. Indeed, he welcomes ET intelligences as evidence of the infinite God, though his position contradicts historical church doctrine that asserted human beings are unique creations of God.
How might salvation work on innumerable worlds? One planet-hopping savior, dying and rising innumerable times? Or innumerable saviors, incarnating the same spirit of the same God? Both seem, well, a little bit odd. But there’s lots of “odd” in existence—including us. I should visit scientists who are actually searching for ETs.
Astronomer Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research, personifies the search for ET intelligence. Does she think the discovery of intelligent alien life would undermine God?
“I see that question as nonsense,” Tarter says. “If God exists and extraterrestrials exist, God was responsible for them, so how can their existence undermine God? If God doesn’t exist, there’s still the question of whether extraterrestrials exist or not? It’s an open question to be asked of the universe and hopefully answered with experimental methods.”
Psychologist Doug Vakoch, Tarter’s colleague who focuses on the potential cultural impact of ETs, disagrees. “I think it would be a real question for some,” he says. “Some Christians believe that Christ came only to Earth and that salvation applies only to human beings. Others, even Bible literalists, argue that if in fact there is intelligent life beyond Earth, that would do nothing to change the special relationship between God and humankind in the same way that if a young couple decides to have a second child, it does nothing to change their special relationship with their first child. It’s important not to conflate the notion of human specialness with a sense that there are no other civilizations out there.”
Tarter comments, “This whole idea that any particular discovery might undermine organized religion is proved wrong by centuries of counterexamples. Organized religion is extraordinarily flexible and has been able to adjust itself to accommodate different cosmologies, different knowledge. I would be surprised if most organized religions would not be able to embrace other intelligent civilizations in the universe.”
And Vakoch adds, “The real challenge as we try to anticipate the nature of extraterrestrials is: How do we avoid transposing our way of conceptualizing ourselves, our relationships with one another, our religious concerns, onto other being? … The real challenge is for us to be open to extraterrestrials being very different than we are. Some say that if extraterrestrials have a religion of their own and if they’re much more advanced than we are, it would be very difficult to resist their religion. I don’t buy it. Our religions serve human needs. And for some people, there’s no need for religion.”
After listening to all opinions, what do I think? First, whether ET intelligences exist has profound implications. There is an ultimate answer—either we are alone or we are not alone—but theists and atheists will each mold that ultimate answer to fit their opposing worldviews.
If we are alone, theists will stress human uniqueness, a special creation, while atheists will mock “God” for making so barren a universe.
It we are not alone, theists will praise God for creating so bountiful a universe, while atheists will ridicule human uniqueness as archaic self-deception.
If ETs exist, Christianity does have special issues, primarily the process of salvation. Did Jesus’ claimed death and resurrection on earth suffice for all beings on all worlds for all time? Many ET civilizations must predate humanity.
Maybe there’s another way to salvation? Christians wouldn’t like that.
Or maybe ETs gets no salvation. Hardly fair, don’t you think?
It would seem that there are six and only six possibilities for Christian salvation to work in the context of sentient life beyond Earth:
1) Jesus’ death and resurrection on Earth covers all beings on all worlds and at all times.
2) Jesus goes through a similar process of life, death, and resurrection on innumerable planets to save innumerable beings and creatures.
3) Human beings, as galactic missionaries, will ultimately colonize the universe and spread the Word of God to heathen ETs.
4) There are other mechanisms to attain salvation on other planets.
5) Salvation is not offered to other beings and creatures on other planets.
6) There are no other sentient beings on other planets anywhere; humans are utterly unique.
Given Christianity’s worldview, I don’t see any other alternatives. Judaism and Islam do not have the problem of the incarnation, but they do subscribe, at least traditionally, to the very special place of human beings on this particularly planet, and thus might be disturbed or at least disoriented by the discovery of ETs. Many Eastern religions, by not claiming a personal God, would not be so troubled.
Here’s my bottom line: Just asking the question, “Alone or not alone?” is closer to truth.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn speaks with Steven Dick, Russell Stannard, Paul Davies, Robin Collins, Jill Tarter, and Doug Vakoch in “Would Intelligent Aliens Undermine God?”—the seventh episode in the new season of the Closer To Truth: Cosmos, Consciousness, God TV series (46th in total).
The series airs on PBS World (often Thursdays, twice) and many other PBS and noncommercial stations. Every Thursday, participants will discuss the current episode.
P.S. Click here to visit our Closer to Truth archive.
It is funny how man always tries to put aliens and religion side by side. Why should any beings from any other planet or any other galaxy..abide by “man made religions”?
It is rather arrogant and closed minded for any to think such.
The human species is in for a shock after so long of putting trust in religions, governments and sciences.
The truth about ET and their “relationship” with us will be known as the largest and most damaging lie in the history of mankind as it will be revealed in our lifetime.
We are not alone.
I’d like to see some Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu and Judaic opinions on this topic. Most humans in fact are not Christians.
You shall not break this circular reasoning with facts and logic! I really hope the first ETs we find have horns. I read a funny scifi story about that once.
I really think the whole 2012 thing is going to play a picture in this one. I am hoping its what the mayans were saying. That will be the day they come back and reveal to the world that we are not alone. I am really hoping they can give us a life strategy to live by that actually works. I would look forward to learning what they have to teach me. I just hope I don’t end up on a shishcabob stick.
There is no god, there never has been, and their never will be. Get over it. Alien civilizations are unlikely to bother contacting a species so backward that it still believes in gods.
All good points. It is apparent that as science stretches the boundaries of knowledge, the church will have no choice but to continually adjust its position on past doctrines.
-PTS
(www.parttimescholar.com)
If god is real and aliens are real how can one undermine the other?
Whatever the universe is like, if there is a god, then it is his/her/its universe and who are we to argue with that?
The real question then is, how would the existence of aliens affect the human concepts of god.
Preston
Its not only a factor of religion or ET but also time. Why i dont know the mayans put so called 2012 a dead point. And their king on his tomb it engravved as a pilot on spaceship and morover some puzzles or to be solved like historical egypt and mayan pyramids. And i saw in history channel about maps, technology and cultral advancement of acient humans. There are so many unsolved mysteries and i hope this 2012 factor might solve them. I dont think earth will end on that day but may return what the mayan and all our so called pre historic humans expected. Might be god? Might be aliens? but be truth. But i strongly can say something will happen on that day with knowingly or unknowingly and which can be identified later by so called archieological and scientific troops. I give Damn about gods but i have interest on knowing mysteries even i got disappointed or shattered by forces. I’m technical guy believes in matter but my brain always works beyond this to know more. Let us see what 2012 deciphers?…..and one more thing what creeps me..it go like following..2012(year)..last two digits 12(month)…its reverse 21 date..and mayan end of calendar and solar max and so..on..everything logically related to one date..So guys decipher it or wait and watch for that date…
I have come to believe that the development of religion is as much a part of our human evolution as is walking upright and being able to invent Hadron Colliders to produce micro singularities. In fact, I think having invented the divine, we have something higher than ourselves to aspire to, to explain that which we do not understand, provide us comfort, provide a means to control and keep a social order, and to give us justification for our actions. Do Aliens need a god too? Who knows. I think God is the product of our own mind – a simulacrum. We pray to God and if we are fortunate enough to get an answer, I think it is really the individual answering back – providing self guidance. We run a simulation in our minds – we act and feel all in responce to living that similuation as if it were real. I think, perhaps, religion may be a uniquely human aspect that other Aliens may not have any use for. But, it would be interesting if a group of aliens traveling across the Galaxy decide to stop by earth to spread the good news about Urlu the Merciful and bring with them their holy scriptures about universal love and the unity of the cosmos, just how some christians will react – I dare say, these Aliens better be on guard for the loving christians will feel the need to correct their hethen ways.
O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.
Hello guys , sorry for bad english but my opinion is that there is no god. Aliens are “GOD” in most of ancient pictures , in bible too there is flying machines , “eye” of god , eye in triangle or something like that. I think that is UFO and the god’s are aliens who watch at us from high “sky”.
If you read bible there will be some stories about those “eyes” about battles in sky and etc. Aliens is more realistic than GOD. I also think that there was Jesus , he was sent to earth as human and tell us what will be and etc. Just read bible , watch some vids about stories , or read.
I tend to agree with Mike in part that religion is part of our evolution as walking upright. But, I don’t necessarily think that God is simply a figment of our imaginations. However, I believe if we were to make contact with “alien beings” they would be at least somewhat religious. And probably like humans, they may have many different and conflicting religions. Why would they be religious? Because, when people come together in communities, there are usually universally accepted morals (do not kill, steal etc). Also consider that most human advancements early on were religious in nature. Contributions to art, math astronomy architecture, all these had religion as a central theme in ancient cultures. Without religion, much of this would never have happened. Also, any culture we make contact with will have its own history, myths, traditions, values, and may even regard certain dates on their calendar as “holy”. Moreover, assuming any life form we meet is mortal and part of a society with the ability to form relationships, our counterparts will live,die and inevitably grieve loss, all this is part of what makes a religion. Finally, I believe if we were to encounter ETs, they may be more likely to be polytheistic if anything because historically, most human cultures have been polytheistic.
I can absolutley sure theres no god in the universe, alien must not be knowing allah, jesus, or any such gods in hinduism..
The bible says that God made us in ‘his own image and likeness. So if aliens do not look like us, does it mean that they have a different God that looks like them?
Great article. My thoughts:
Technically God (and I won’t be so arrogant and/or close-minded to state that he/she/it doesn’t exist) IS an extra-terrestrial by strict definition (which is: “originating, existing, or occurring outside the earth or its atmosphere”).
Sure God would be an eternal, spiritual, omniscient, omnipotent, transcendant, infinite (and so on) extra-terrestrial, but technically one nonetheless. As for the “standard” ET’s mentioned in this article, I see no conflict with their existence and the existance of an eternal and supreme consciousness that transcends the universe. First Cause and Infinite Regress and all that jazz; it all still applies to aliens, no matter how ancient.
As for Christianity, extra-terrestrials might not NEED salvation at all because God didn’t reveal Himself to them, or He did and they never turned their back on him. Either way, salvation wouldn’t be necessary and would apply to us and not them.
And finally, I would just like to say that for some time now, the Vatican astronomers from the Vatican Observatory have stated that life on other planets does not conflict with belief in God whatsoever. So there you have it, right from the horse’s mouth.
There we go again Africans will be suprised that maybe they were not so wrong after all ; its all about civilistion, they dutifully left their traditional african religions in favour of their colonial masters, now they have to incoporate aliens into the picture, wel this is very intresting and scary now who is right is it the muslims the chrisians or the the scientists, well i think my grandfather Chemoiywo may have been right after all, he once remarked that Redds beer may be the only thing he appreciates in western civilisation.
Hopefully.
In my oppinion ETs wouldn’t deny the existence of a supreme being at all. You just have to see it from another point of view. I myself are an agnostic, i really don’t know if there is a supreme being in the role of an creator, but it surely could be. Since (according to credible leaked Reports) some of the known contactees are very simmilar in appearance to humans and you probably should think of them as a part of your own family, as a kind of sisters and brothers. they maybe come from other places, nevertheless doesn’t that mean they haven’t been created by the same entity. The thought, that the whole universe was just created for humans alone is highly ignorant and stupid. Today we’ve so much religions but nearly all of them lost the focus of what’s really important. Religion should not lead to hatred and conflicts, but to love and peace and the awareness that we all are human beings with the same origin and should respect each other with all the simmilarities and differences we have, as well as all life. As long as we aren’t able to understand the spiritual core in our religions and raise our consciousness towards a thinking of more tolerance we won’t respect each other, neither any ET coming here with good intentions.
(sorry for my bad english, i normally don’t use it)
Oh, I rather think religions would find away around it somehow
What are you talking about.. Intelligent HUMANS Undermine God.
Really.
People who believe in “God” have been abused in the mind, and force fed delusions, and taught to hate and outcast anyone who believes the delusions to not be true.
Truly sick little creatures.
You should pity them.
will the true is that for so manny years people have been talking about ET,God only made Humans and Angels but some off this Angels decide to betray God and transforme into Demons.God had Michael and hes Angels to kick Satan and hes Demons out of Heaven to Earth.and the real deal is that Satan is a very smart intelligent Angel who is mad and angry about getting kick out of heaven that he is trying to bring us with hem to eternal death.Satan use alots of tools to bring humans as far away from God and some of thise tools are Eliens,movies and everything that get us away from God.Demons meaby are comming soon transforme into eliens to fool the world about theres no God we are God.people read the word of god or belive in notting.the bible is true just read it and compare it to the news and history.
i believe there are ALIENS but on the contrary we will find them in their misery,more ancient than ourselves,we would have to help them with some antibiotics to treat thier skin diseases.
i believe there are ALIENS but on the contrary we will find them in their misery more ancient than ourselves, we would have to help them with some antibiotics for their skin diseases
Maybe someone else has posted this idea but I think 6 is wrong.
The fact is in Christian religion the reason humans need salvation is because we were introduced to sin, sin leads to death yada yada yada. But what you fail to mention is that all other Alien life might not have sinned and there for does not need salvation.
One thing is for sure, I’m sure the truth is beyond anything our little minds can fathom.
What about the theory of multiple universes? If their are other dimensions other realities is our God the God of those places or is our God the God of just this universe, one of billions of Gods in billions of universes
Science is everything, look if some-one told you that God create everything,like sky,water,air,so who create your phone? I never said God create that for me,cause I’ll said it’s Made in Taiwan.So Science is everything and I want to tell you all about (any time BC) around some place at Asian The Headhunter we known as Iban they tell me about half men half crocodile that were called “Byujang Seanang” and I think that man was Aliens…
God/ Aliens/ Man/ The real question is does either one really believe in the other one? Here we are worried about is there a god? Or are the gods aliens? Did our ancestors worship Gods or Aliens? Well I don’t think any answer we seek will truly be known to us until we learn how to live as a race of one and get along.I mean think about it.If you were a God or superior Alien race that had anything to do with our being here would you want to visit a bunch of selfish beings who don’t even like each other.What kind of welcome do they get to look forward to? We think we are superior to each other let alone constantly at war with ourselves.Would you visit your in-laws knowing they are in a major divorce custody battle?I mean come on they are not gonna visit us and teach us anything if we are just gonna start a fight with them later.They are there. They know we are here. They just don’t want to babysit without being paid.
Are we as a race that egotistical that we assume we are the chosen ones for God.Everything in mother nature has a reason for being right down to an omeoba and up to an elephant. The bible says that we were created in gods image {ever heard someone say that their child is the image of their parent.Most religions if you read widely have a very similiar storyline Adam and eve the floods falling from grace the crusifiction and so on, with this being 2012 and god saying he will return {funny that it is the year of the mayan calendars end}also the year that nubira is supposed to come around again.Six thousand years?If god is an alien being he will be coming this year also . We are all gods children but what about DNA why is it different. God said you must not worship any other god but him. Does this mean he acknowledges other gods .What would our civilisation do if he does return and try to put us on the right path again.Try to execute him as well.I dont think so considering he parted the ocean.