Post by swamprat on Dec 18, 2016 17:50:15 GMT -6
Universal Faith: Would finding extraterrestrials change the beliefs of world religions?
by Shawn Ryan
December 18th, 2016
A person is standing on the top of the hill next to the Milky Way galaxy with his hands raised to the air. Photo by jankovoy
Sometime in the 2020s, a NASA probe will fire off from Earth, rocketing into a trip of 550 million miles and several years. Its goal is Europa, one of Jupiter's 53 moons.
Why Europa?
Although the moon of Jupiter is covered in a complete coating of ice, underneath is an ocean that is two times the size of the oceans on Earth. Scientists believe there’s a chance that life has developed in that ocean, which may have all the elements needed — water, carbon, hydrogen, other organic compounds — for life. Still, scientists also admit that any life on Europa might have come from totally different chemical sources than life on Earth and be unrecognizable to them.
Named the Europa Clipper, the probe will zoom past the ice-covered moon, its instruments searching for "biomarkers," signs that life is already there or that conditions are right for it to develop. The enormous ocean under Europa's icy sheath is considered one of the most-likely places in the solar system for life, but scientists basically hope to find conditions suitable for life or, at best, actual microbes. Sentient beings are virtually an impossibility.
But beyond the huge scientific ramifications of any life on Europa, even microbial, there's an equally large philosophical angle. If extraterrestrial life is proven to exist, especially an intelligent species, how does that sit with religious faiths? Do their doctrinal tenets include the possibility and discuss what it means? In Christianity, for instance, if God sent Jesus to Earth to spiritually redeem a sinful world, is it possible that he sent Jesus to other planets to do the same thing? In faiths such as Islam and Judaism, did God send prophets to other planets as well?
In short, would life on other worlds cause crises of faith for this world's religions?
Some faiths or denominations outright refuse to believe there's sentient life elsewhere, saying Earth is the central foundation of God's ultimate plan. Others say extraterrestrial species are a given since the universe simply has too many would-be suns and too many planets for us to be the only ones here. And some say life out in the universe, while perhaps not likely, would be no problem since God can do whatever he wants wherever he wants.
Morty Lloyd, senior pastor at Chattanooga Church, notes that the Bible doesn't overtly address whether God created other life in the universe.
"It only describes what he did here upon Earth," Lloyd says. "From a biblical perspective, there is no proof that beings exist on other planets."
Greg Nance, pastor at Signal Mountain Church of Christ, also goes back to the Bible when it comes to extraterrestrial life.
"From a biblical creation point of view, Earth is the place where God planted his son," he says. "That leans towards the Earth as a privileged planet. It was God's creation and the center of his attention."
But both he and Lloyd agree that God is capable of all things.
"The universe is a big place and however God sees fit to organize the way he puts life here and there, that's definitely his prerogative," Nance says.
"Nothing is impossible with God," Lloyd says. "He is great and can create anything he wishes."
The Rev. Donald Fishburne, former rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, says that, in his opinion, sentient life probably exists somewhere in "the incomprehensibly vast creation" of the universe.
"More important to me is this question: Humanity has asked for all of its existence, and more than 7 billion people on the planet now ask, "Are we alone?'," Fishburne continues. "It is an existential question and a question of faith. The answer is: Humanity is not alone. There is God who, in my perspective as a member of the Jesus Movement, comes to us in person. And Jesus says he has other flocks about which we do not yet know."
Ken Duggan, pastor at Dallas Bay Baptist Church, says he's not aware of any official stance on extraterrestrial life from the Southern Baptist Convention. For his part, though, he's skeptical that there's life elsewhere.
"Our objective source of truth is the Bible and and I don't find any text where the Bible reveals to us any form of other worldly beings with the exceptions of angels and demons," he says.
In 2 Peter 3:10 and Revelation 21:1, "the Bible does teach that someday the 'heavens and the earth' will be destroyed by fire," he continues. "If extraterrestrial life does exist, it doesn't seem to me that God would destroy their home because of our sin."
Seeking answers
On the website Space.com, Ted Peters, a theologian at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif., posed the question to Christians: What if Jesus Christ showed up on more than one planet? What if, in each case, he was the catalyst for spiritually redeeming the dominant sentient species on that planet, saving them from original sin?
"It's been argued for a couple of centuries now whether one incarnation of God as Jesus Christ for the entirety of creation is sufficient, with some thinking that God would do so multiple times as appropriate for the capacity of any individual species to comprehend," Peters told Space.com.
Delving further into the question, Peters and colleagues approached people from faiths around the world, including Protestants, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Hindu and Buddhists. After surveying more than 1,300 individuals, they discovered that, whatever their religion, most believers didn't think proof of extraterrestrial life would destroy their faith, although it might require some rethinking of various tenets.
by Shawn Ryan
December 18th, 2016
A person is standing on the top of the hill next to the Milky Way galaxy with his hands raised to the air. Photo by jankovoy
Sometime in the 2020s, a NASA probe will fire off from Earth, rocketing into a trip of 550 million miles and several years. Its goal is Europa, one of Jupiter's 53 moons.
Why Europa?
Although the moon of Jupiter is covered in a complete coating of ice, underneath is an ocean that is two times the size of the oceans on Earth. Scientists believe there’s a chance that life has developed in that ocean, which may have all the elements needed — water, carbon, hydrogen, other organic compounds — for life. Still, scientists also admit that any life on Europa might have come from totally different chemical sources than life on Earth and be unrecognizable to them.
Named the Europa Clipper, the probe will zoom past the ice-covered moon, its instruments searching for "biomarkers," signs that life is already there or that conditions are right for it to develop. The enormous ocean under Europa's icy sheath is considered one of the most-likely places in the solar system for life, but scientists basically hope to find conditions suitable for life or, at best, actual microbes. Sentient beings are virtually an impossibility.
But beyond the huge scientific ramifications of any life on Europa, even microbial, there's an equally large philosophical angle. If extraterrestrial life is proven to exist, especially an intelligent species, how does that sit with religious faiths? Do their doctrinal tenets include the possibility and discuss what it means? In Christianity, for instance, if God sent Jesus to Earth to spiritually redeem a sinful world, is it possible that he sent Jesus to other planets to do the same thing? In faiths such as Islam and Judaism, did God send prophets to other planets as well?
In short, would life on other worlds cause crises of faith for this world's religions?
Some faiths or denominations outright refuse to believe there's sentient life elsewhere, saying Earth is the central foundation of God's ultimate plan. Others say extraterrestrial species are a given since the universe simply has too many would-be suns and too many planets for us to be the only ones here. And some say life out in the universe, while perhaps not likely, would be no problem since God can do whatever he wants wherever he wants.
Morty Lloyd, senior pastor at Chattanooga Church, notes that the Bible doesn't overtly address whether God created other life in the universe.
"It only describes what he did here upon Earth," Lloyd says. "From a biblical perspective, there is no proof that beings exist on other planets."
Greg Nance, pastor at Signal Mountain Church of Christ, also goes back to the Bible when it comes to extraterrestrial life.
"From a biblical creation point of view, Earth is the place where God planted his son," he says. "That leans towards the Earth as a privileged planet. It was God's creation and the center of his attention."
But both he and Lloyd agree that God is capable of all things.
"The universe is a big place and however God sees fit to organize the way he puts life here and there, that's definitely his prerogative," Nance says.
"Nothing is impossible with God," Lloyd says. "He is great and can create anything he wishes."
The Rev. Donald Fishburne, former rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, says that, in his opinion, sentient life probably exists somewhere in "the incomprehensibly vast creation" of the universe.
"More important to me is this question: Humanity has asked for all of its existence, and more than 7 billion people on the planet now ask, "Are we alone?'," Fishburne continues. "It is an existential question and a question of faith. The answer is: Humanity is not alone. There is God who, in my perspective as a member of the Jesus Movement, comes to us in person. And Jesus says he has other flocks about which we do not yet know."
Ken Duggan, pastor at Dallas Bay Baptist Church, says he's not aware of any official stance on extraterrestrial life from the Southern Baptist Convention. For his part, though, he's skeptical that there's life elsewhere.
"Our objective source of truth is the Bible and and I don't find any text where the Bible reveals to us any form of other worldly beings with the exceptions of angels and demons," he says.
In 2 Peter 3:10 and Revelation 21:1, "the Bible does teach that someday the 'heavens and the earth' will be destroyed by fire," he continues. "If extraterrestrial life does exist, it doesn't seem to me that God would destroy their home because of our sin."
Seeking answers
On the website Space.com, Ted Peters, a theologian at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif., posed the question to Christians: What if Jesus Christ showed up on more than one planet? What if, in each case, he was the catalyst for spiritually redeeming the dominant sentient species on that planet, saving them from original sin?
"It's been argued for a couple of centuries now whether one incarnation of God as Jesus Christ for the entirety of creation is sufficient, with some thinking that God would do so multiple times as appropriate for the capacity of any individual species to comprehend," Peters told Space.com.
Delving further into the question, Peters and colleagues approached people from faiths around the world, including Protestants, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Hindu and Buddhists. After surveying more than 1,300 individuals, they discovered that, whatever their religion, most believers didn't think proof of extraterrestrial life would destroy their faith, although it might require some rethinking of various tenets.
See next post for page 2