February 14, 2022
On Christmas Day in 2021, NASA launched what is possibly their most ambitious project to date: The James Webb Space Telescope.
According to the telescope’s Wikipedia page, the JWST has four primary goals:
- search for light from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the Universe after the Big Bang
- study the formation and evolution of galaxies
- understand the formation of stars and planetary systems
- study planetary systems and the origins of life.
In addition, it will also be analyzing the atmospheres of other planets to see if they could potentially support life. Pretty exciting stuff.
However, one part of this story that stuck out to me was that NASA brought in theologians from the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey to have discussions about…
Aliens!
The team behind the JWST hasn’t neglected to consider that, in the process of finally getting their eyes on the oldest portions of the Universe, they might discover some intelligent life along the way. Therefore, they wanted to speak with these theologians about whether or not they thought mankind was ready for that kind of discovery.
I have to admit, I was a little annoyed at this. I felt like some theologian got to speak for me on the matter of whether or not I feel mentally prepared for the idea that extraterrestrials exist. Further, they want to have that conversation through the lens of religion. I do understand that the guys at NASA can’t sit down with every human on Earth to have that discussion, but if they wanted to bring in a team of “experts” then why choose religious people?
I also have to wonder why NASA would even care about the implications that the discovery of intelligent life would mean to the religions of the world. If they cared about preserving religions and their teachings, then why build a telescope that could very well prove the Big Bang Theory or discover the true origins of life in the Universe?
Maybe I’m being cynical, but I suspect we’re not getting the full and honest story here. I’m wondering if these theologians were brought in not to have their brains picked, but rather to give them a courteous heads up. Here’s what I mean:
There’s a part of me that strongly suspects—should extraterrestrials exist—that NASA and the US government already know they exist. Thus, in my opinion, it actually makes a lot more sense for NASA to call in the theologians not to ask them about the implications on religion should intelligent life be found, but rather to tell them that ETs already exist and definitive proof may very well be right around the corner. And since that’s the case, perhaps they should get to work on updating their doctrines to include salvation for extraterrestrial souls, lest people start inquiring why Jesus’s sacrifice was somehow only limited to Earthlings.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 65% of Americans believe in some form on intelligent life outside of Earth. That’s a good bit, and I’d wager that a healthy amount of that 65% consider themselves to be Christian and believe in a omniscient God that supposedly created the world and Universe.
This got me thinking… what is the relationship between extraterrestrial life and Christianity? Would finding proof of life outside our planet be a death blow to world religions? As always, it depends on who you ask.
I recently asked a very-Christian coworker if she believed in aliens or any kind of intelligent life besides that on Earth. She said no. When I asked why, she said because the Bible doesn’t mention it. I refrained from bringing up that the Bible doesn’t mention all kinds of things that actually do exist.
Another time, when I had “the alien discussion” with a different Christian, he told me he didn’t believe aliens existed because that would mean Jesus’s sacrifice would’ve had to cover the souls of the aliens as well, and he just didn’t really think that would be the case because how would the aliens even know what Jesus had done for them on Earth? If they didn’t know, then it was impossible for them to be saved. In his mind, it wasn’t “fair” to the aliens that they weren’t aware of the salvation they could have.
After hearing that reasoning, it seemed to me that this guy didn’t believe in aliens because he needed aliens to not exist so that he could hold on to his religious beliefs.
Would these two people deconvert from Christianity upon learning that aliens exist? I have no idea, but I suppose there’s a chance.
Back when I was a Christian, I was a bad little boy because I never believed we were alone in the Universe. It just never made sense to me that we were. I had many Christians tell me that a belief in aliens wasn’t compatible with the Christian belief system, but I didn’t care; I still believed they were out there. And these people never really pushed me on this, either. To them, they were okay with me stepping out of bounds just a tiny bit by believing in aliens as long as I was falling in line and doing everything else I was supposed to be doing (and, of course, not doing the things I wasn’t supposed to be doing).
So if I were still a Christian, I’d be one of the ones who’d be down for the disclosure. I’d say, “Hell yeah, bring on the aliens. Take me to your leader.”
So will the JWST find evidence of intelligent life out there in space? And if it does, will that knowledge throw a wrench into the beliefs of those who are religious? I guess time will tell.
And if the telescope does find such evidence, will NASA actually be allowed to share it with the general public, or will the US government order them to keep it hush-hush? I believe this is a very distinct possibility, and perhaps a discussion for another time.