Most Religious Believers Don’t Think Discovery of Alien Life Would Threaten Their Faith
19-08-2008
Berkeley, Aug 19, 2008 (CNA).- While
some news writers and commentators from scientific backgrounds presume
that the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence (ETI) would
undermine religion and religious belief, a new study reports that most
religious believers do not think such a novel discovery would shake
their faith. One mainline Protestant respondent to the survey even
commented "Hey! I'll share my pew with an extraterrestrial any day."
The
findings come from the Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey, conducted by
Ted Peters, professor of systematic theology at both Pacific Lutheran
Theological Seminary and the Center for Center for Theology and the
Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
California. Also written by research assistant Julie Froehlig, the
survey notes several prominent commentators who hold that the discovery
of ETI would shake religious belief.
"It
might be the case that aliens had discarded theology and religious
practice long ago as primitive superstition and would rapidly convince
us to do the same," Arizona State University physicist and
astrobiologist Paul Davies has said, according to the survey report.
"Alternatively, if they retained a spiritual aspect to their existence,
we would have to concede that it was likely to have developed to a
degree far ahead of our own. If they practiced anything remotely like a
religion, we should surely soon wish to abandon our own and be
converted to theirs."
However,
the responses given to the Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey show few
religious believers say that the discovery of alien intelligence would
affect their religious beliefs.
The
survey report summarizes the hypothesis it is testing as: "upon
confirmation of contact between earth and an extraterrestrial
civilization of intelligent beings, the long established religious
traditions of earth would confront a crisis of belief and perhaps even
collapse."
The survey reports that the evidence gathered "tends to disconfirm this hypothesis."
Surveying
1,325 persons from around the world, the researchers categorized
respondents' religious beliefs as non-religious, Roman Catholic,
mainline Protestant, evangelical Protestant, Jewish and Buddhist.
Categories with a sample size of less than 35 were not used in the
survey.
The researchers asked
respondents whether the confirmed discovery of intelligent beings
living on another world "would so undercut my beliefs that my beliefs
would face a crisis."
Less
than ten percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement, excepting Jews, who agreed or strongly agreed at a rate
slightly over ten percent. While about ten percent or less neither
agreed nor disagreed, 89 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.
Among Catholics, eight percent agreed or strongly agreed while 82 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.
One
Catholic survey respondent commented, "I believe that Christ became
incarnate (human) in order to redeem humanity and atone for the
original sin of Adam and Eve. Could there be a world of
extraterrestrials? Maybe. It doesn't change what Christ did."
"Within
the scope of Christian theology, it appears that little if any beliefs
preclude the existence of extraterrestrial beings," the survey report
says. "Their presence would at most widen the scope of one's
understanding of creation and create some puzzles for how Christians
understand the work of salvation."
When
asked whether they believed the confirmed discovery of
extra-terrestrial intelligence would throw their religious tradition
into a crisis, 78 percent of all respondents disagreed or strongly
disagreed, with only 11 percent being in agreement or strong agreement.
Catholics disagreed or strongly disagreed at a combined total rate of 66 percent, while 22 percent agreed or strongly agreed.
Respondents
were then asked that even if their own religious traditions were
unaffected by such a discovery, they believed other religions'
traditional beliefs would be undermined to such an extent that those
religions would face a crisis. Overall, 35 percent disagreed or
strongly disagreed while 41 percent agreed or strongly agreed. Among
Catholics 40 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed, while 30 percent
agreed or strongly agreed.
Curiously,
the non-religious respondents composed the group most confident that
the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence would undermine
traditional beliefs and cause a crisis in religion. While only 20
percent disagreed or strongly disagreed, 70 percent were in agreement
or strong agreement with such a statement.
Trying
to explain the disparity between religious and non-religious
respondents' estimates of the fragility of religion, the report writers
said "it appears that people who embrace a traditional religious belief
system do not fear for their own personal belief; nor are they
particularly worried about their own respective religious tradition. A
shred of evidence suggests that believers in one religious tradition
might be more inclined to impute fragility to other religions to which
they do not subscribe or about which they know little."
"Non-religious
people seem to know too little about religious people, because they are
mistaken in their assessment of the fragility of religious beliefs.
The
report writes that the survey does not confirm the hypothesis that "the
major religious traditions of our world will confront a crisis let
alone a collapse" in the event of the discovery of alien intelligent
life
"Furthermore, it appears that non-religious persons are much more
likely to deem religion fragile and crisis prone that those who hold
religious beliefs," it says.