NASA has asked theologians to determine how major world religions would respond if humans were to make contact with aliens, Relevant Magazine reported.
The Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey, will help the space agency make sense of the quandary – apparently an epic concern especially among more and more Americans who believe in the potential of life being detected on other planets.
The former head of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, Carl Pilcher, indicated the space agency invited theologians to “consider the implications of applying the tools of late 20th (and early 21st) century science to questions that had been considered in religious traditions for hundreds or thousands of years.”
Meanwhile, Rev. Dr. Andrew Davison, a University of Cambridge religious scholar and one of the two dozen experts brought in to advise on the project, says if or when a close encounter with space aliens takes place, “it will be useful to have thought through the implications in advance.”
Two in every three Americans think intelligent life exists on other planets, according to a Pew Research study released last summer.
One recent 2020 Hollywood production, “Proximity,” led a group of obsessed people from two human generations to meet up again with the aliens who explained why they had come – to worship Jesus who was connected with for them for ancient origins.
In recent years, there’s been a growing tie between extraterrestrial life and religious matters. One study by Scientific American revealed faith in either God or extraterrestrial life may derive from the same impulse to understand a deeper meaning in human life.
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