Did you know the Big Bang is called that because Adam was banging Eve?
No, it wasn't. Science has long proven that religion is a pure hoax, that's why many studious individuals were burned to death or persecuted throughout human history.
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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It may have disproven the claim that some creation myths are to be taken literally (and even that is questionable if you assume a trickster deity), but it's impossible to disprove religion itself.
Ancestor worship for example is wholly unconcerned about how exactly the world came into existence.
Most denominations of Christianity just take the Judeo-Christian creation myth as primarily who created the universe, and not really how, and a categorisation of things and beings.
Most religions primarily make claims about what happens to the self after death and whether one's life influences that. Unless science opens a portal to an actual afterlife somehow, that is not something science can answer, and religions will continue to exist.
I think OP picked ‘aliens’ because it would be an event where the whole world has to acknowledge that they exist and it would also contradict probably most of the current religions
I'd argue the opposite. Most religions don't care about aliens existing or not (ancestor worship, Shinto, all Dharmic religions as far as I know, animism, etc.). Others have already made arguments why aliens should exist according to their religion (argued by at least one catholic "saint"), while others would find it difficult but not impossible to fit aliens into their belief systems.
Similarly, the Big Bang at best disproves the literal nature of a religion's creation myth, if such a myth exists to begin with. An ancient Greek would just tell you that obviously the Big Bang or its aftermath is Chaos, from which the first gods came. An elf in Tolkien's legendarium would tell you that obviously that was the beginning of Ea (the universe), sung into existence by the first notes sung by the Maiar. A Hindu might say something about Brahman being split into smaller existences.
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Big Bang already contradicts ALL religions though.
But I see your point.
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Like everything else, it depends on which religion you ask. Some will be fine with it, while others will be frothing at the mouth in denial, to convert them, or call for full on extermination. Just ask yourself "how does X group treat the humans they hate the most" and you'll have your answer.
The irrational will always find ways to remain irrational.
I don't know why the existence of aliens would rattle anyone's belief. Unless you can find a way to take away their threat of dying, they're going to believe in God.
It is a strange situation for me. I know that one day it will be it for me. A billion eons and a single second will be the same. For the theist they are facing a chance at magical underground fire place. Wouldn't painless non-existence be so much better than infinite torture? I won't even know that I no longer exist because there will be no I to know. If they invented the afterlife to feel better about death why even a chance that it can go wrong? I would invent heaven but not hell.
Unless of course it is just a means of control...
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If the discovery of life on other planets is anything like the discovery of life on other continents, then yes, we will force them to change their religion (and economic model).
Oh, is that not the question?
Well, it's a suitable answer anyway. No way we'd change our beliefs to accommodate aliens when we can change the aliens to accommodate our beliefs.
Really depends on the religion and the kind of life discovered. No religion would have any issue with life on other planets in general, as long as it's not provably intelligent life.
If it is provably intelligent life, some branches of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Mormonism (in order of age) would get into a crisis of belief while other branches would readily adapt. There likely would spring up many sects, some of which would claim that intelligent life to be angels/demons. There would be theological debates about whether these beings have their own original sin, etc.
Meanwhile, most other religions would simply not care all that much. Ancestor worship literally wouldn't give a shit. Religions with reincarnation would simply expand their notions of what you can be reincarnated as. Many local pagan religions have creation myths that apply only to their local region. If those creation myths survived contact with colonizers and the knowledge that the world is larger than the area they cover, the knowledge of aliens existing wouldn't make any more of a difference.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if several new alien-based religions sprang up.
Some fandoms are basically religions, especially sport club fandoms. They wouldn't give a shit.
Lastly, it would be a boost to militant/proselytizing atheism/materialism, which also are like religions to some people.
That said, it would take a long time from the first evidence of intelligent alien life to having it proven to the point that it can't be dismissed as misinterpretation of data and malicious manipulation. Unless an alien armada invaded and took over part or all of Earth, there would be more than enough time for everyone to adapt without much issue.
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Just meeting another person who didn't automatically believe in your allegedly true God unless you told him about it should have put religion to rest forever.
Moreover, it's almost funny how thousands of cultures who had no contact between them at all have imagery of red devils with bad intentions yet nobody manages to have even a similar idea of what our supposed God is.
I think that if we had inexorable proof of alien life there would absolutely be a shift in the public. I'd love to think we'd grow closer as humanity.