How Might the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life Affect Religions?

 Many of my columns focused on the likelihood of extraterrestrial life. Not necessarily intelligent aliens, but more likely microbial life. I’ve covered such topics as the discovery of planets around other stars, the chemistry necessary to support life, and where we have found it. I’ve talked about Earth creatures that can survive long stretches of time in space, like the hardy tardigrades.

The detection of life elsewhere, intelligent or not, would go down as one of the most profound discoveries in human history. I’ve always discussed this in scientific terms. That’s my background and the point of these columns.

Recently, NASA co-sponsored a study at Princeton University's Center for Theological Inquiry with two dozen theologians from many religions who discussed how humans might respond to the discovery of extraterrestrial life.

For centuries, the Catholic Church said that extraterrestrial life, at least intelligent life, couldn’t exist because the Son of God only came to Earth to save God’s creatures. In their minds, that meant only Earth possessed life. In the eyes of the early Church, no planets existed beyond our solar system

Those individuals who disputed the Church’s stance, like Giordano Bruno, faced strong retaliation. Among other “heretical” statements, Bruno said, “In space, there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light; the planets remain invisible, for they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around their suns...” For this, among other heresies, Bruno was condemned to death in 1600.

We now know of many thousands of planets beyond our solar system, and astronomers believe that number likely exceeds one hundred billion. So how might religions react to the discovery of life out there? Study participant Rev. Dr. Andrew Davison of the University of Cambridge stated wrote in his forthcoming book on the study “Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine,” “The headline findings are that adherents of a range of religious traditions report that they can take the idea in their stride."

NASA takes a new look at Extraterrestrial life 

Credit NASA

Davison also states the nonreligious community tended to "overestimate the challenges that religious people" might face if extraterrestrial life were discovered. A "large number of people would turn to their religious traditions for guidance."

How might you react to such a discovery? At least according to this study, religious folks might have an easier philosophical time digesting it.

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The element carbon is ubiquitous on Earth. And, it is the basis of all life on our planet. Carbon, like many elements, comes in multiple forms called isotopes. Carbon has two stable isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-13. Carbon-12 is by far the more common isotope, but all life on Earth prefers carbon-12, and the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 is higher in biological molecules than in non-biological molecules.

Recently, the Curiosity Rover drilled a hole into the Martian surface and found an enrichment of carbon-12 over carbon-13. Does this mean there’s life on Mars? Not necessarily, but if a scientist found such a discovery in any dirt on Earth, she would certainly assume so.

  

Each month, I write an astronomy-related column piece for the Oklahoman newspaper. On the following day, I post that same column to my blog page.

 This is reprinted by permission from the Oklahoman and www.Oklahoman.com.