Last weekend, at a symposium titled Astrobiology, Planetary Sustainability, and Theology, organized by the Lutheran City Academy in Bochum, Germany, I gave a talk about the search for Earth 2.0 in our galaxy. The discussions got me thinking: How likely is it that intelligent aliens would be religious?
All major cultures on our planet believe in some kind of god or multiple gods—even cultures that have very little contact with the outside world. This may be a way to explain things that can’t be explained otherwise, which is consistent with the finding that religious belief seems to decrease in more technologically advanced societies. Nevertheless, according to a 2015 survey, only three percent of Americans said they were atheists, and only four percent were agnostic. A huge majority, at least in the United States, claim to be believers, which appears to indicate that there is something intrinsic within humanity to believe in a higher being.
How do the major religions see the possibility of extraterrestrial life? Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit priest as well as an accomplished astronomer, addressed at a 2014 meeting at the Library of Congress the question of whether he would baptize an alien. He later expanded on the topic in a book. His short answer was yes—if the alien wanted to. And that suggests that he expects aliens to be religious in the first place.
To read more, click here.