Religion, Extraterrestrials and Apocalypse

Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Religion, Extraterrestrials and Apocalypse
We recently had another bout of “end of the world” mania and yet we’re all still here dealing with the burden of reality. The high interest does beg the question- how would humans react to an astonishing event such as First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization? Would it be considered the end of the world? That question is an enormous one, probably too big to tackle in such general terms. So, how about religion? How would alien First Contact impact human religion and thoughts about the end of the world?
Theological scholars have been interested in what First Contact would mean for religion for some time. The results of most studies show that the revelation of extraterrestrials would have little impact on religious beliefs. The Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey showed that the majority of respondents, representing various religions, didn’t expect proof of extraterrestrial intelligence to change their religious belief or their religious traditions. Interestingly, 69 percent of respondents who did not identify as being religious thought that ETI knowledge would undercut religions, while only 34 percent of the religious thought so.
In another approach, the Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey focused on clergy members. Jeff Levin of Baylor University went back to the original 1994 data to take another look. Across the spectrum of Judeo-Christian religions the results showed that clergy members thought that ETI revelation would not have a significant impact on religion. Leaving out Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist faiths is quite limiting in scope, however the results are interesting. It appears that religious leaders and religious followers are not particularly worried about aliens shaking the foundations of their institutions.
▼ more here

Alien First Contact
http://firstcontact29.blogspot.jp/2013/01/religion-extraterrestrials-and.html