The Religious Perspective

Abstract

Arthur C. Clarke wrote in 1951 in The Exploration of Space that there are people who are afraid that “the crossing of space, and above all the contact with intelligent but non-human races, may destroy the foundations of their religious faith.” He then went on to note that “in any event their attitude is one that does not bear logical examination — for a faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.”¹ Actually the idea that the discovery of extraterrestrial life, and above all intelligence, will give such a blow to religion to put all churches and religious institutions definitively “out of business,” as they say, is fairly common among atheist scientists. This idea is not new: in the era in which the plurality of the worlds was accepted by the majority of people (religious and not), Thomas Paine wrote in The Age of Reason (1794): “He who thinks he believes in both [the Christian view of the world and extraterrestrials] has thought but little of either.” And he would certainly choose to believe in extraterrestrials. Many SETI scientists would agree. Jill Tarter, for example, wrote: “God is our invention.⋯ If we get a message and it’s secular in nature, I think that says that they have no organized relion — that they have outgrown it.” And this will cause us to do the same.