If we find life that evolved independently somewhere else in our solar system that basically means that life has to be common throughout the universe. I imagine this would have huge implications for major religions as well.
not necessarily, though? it could’ve evolved once and then migrated to another planet through asteroids, no?
Hence why I specifically noted the independently part. That part maybe difficult to prove of course.
I’m not sure how this would affect major religions? I don’t believe there are any that deny the existence of otherworldly life.
Acknowledging a theoretical possibility of alien life and actually being faced with it being common are two different things. Religions tend to have an anthropic centred view of of the universe. The discovery that we might not be all that special is a blow to that.
I guess? But their anthropocentrism is largely coming from a lack of knowledge about what exists beyond the Earth rather than a rejection of it. This makes a difference.
I remember reading about a priest - Catholic, I think - who was asked about the possibility of sapient alien beings and how the Church would respond to their existence. He explained that as God created all life that these beings would also be Children of God and deserving of the same treatment as humans, with a caveat that since they weren’t descendants of Adam they would be unaffected by the Original Sin and thus couldn’t be baptized as they wouldn’t need Christ or forgiveness. He also posited that they would worship God in accordance to how God wished them to and that Christianity was needed for humans while alien beings would have their own equivalent if they needed one.
It was an interesting theological exercise into how aliens would fit into Christianity and he’d clearly put some decent amount of thought into it.
By comparison I think I remember reading about the late Pope Francis saying he’d baptize aliens which was kinda funny.
Anyway, I don’t think it’d be a revelation that would require massive theological reforms to address.
It’s certainly possible religions will adapt to this and incorporate alien life into their narrative. Religions has proved to be a tenacious meme, so I’m sure it can continue to reinvent itself.
Religions will treat it in the same way they treated indigenous peoples, convert and/or die.
That assumes a comparable level of development which is highly unlikely. Just look at how quickly our civilization changed in just a few thousand years. Stuff like the internet would’ve been basically magic even a few hundred years ago. Imagine what the civilization might look like in another thousand years assuming we don’t wipe ourselves out.
Mars sucks! Earth #1!
At least Mars doesn’t have capitalism.
I feel like they archived this to distract actual news
NASA tends to drip feed this sort of stuff, because every time they release a paper talking about how there is a .5% chance that life might exist on Mars based on new data, the news media is all “OMG LIFE FOUND ON MARS?! ALIENS CONFIRMED>!?!” and then when the scientists clarify that they aren’t saying that, the public gets mad at them and not the sensationalist media lying about it.
Breaking: There may be life out there! (Which is really not fundamentally different a position than anything already known)
