Abstract
The question of whether or not extraterrestrial life exists and its potential impact for religions, especially Christianity, is an ancient one addressed in numerous historical publications. The contemporary discussion has been dominated by a few notable scientists from the SETI and astrobiology communities, and by a few Christian theologians active in the science and religion field. This discussion amounts to scientists outside of the faith tradition predicting the demise of Christianity if extraterrestrial intelligent life is discovered and theologians within the tradition predicting the enrichment and reformulation of Christian doctrine. Missing from this discussion is insight drawn more broadly from the science and religion field and from the sociology of religion. A consideration of how possibilities for relating science and religion are reflected in the US public’s varied acceptance of the theory of evolution; the growth of Christianity in the Global South; and a revised theory of secularization which inversely correlates religiosity to existential security, gives credence to the proposal that the response from those outside of academia would be much more varied and uncertain.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
The Association of Religion Data Archives. 2010. The World. http://www.thearda.com/internationaldata/regions/profiles/Region_23_1.asp.
Barbour, Ian. 1966. Issues in Science and Religion. New York: Harper and Row.
Barbour, Ian. 1997. Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. 2006. “American Piety in the 21st Century: New Insights to the Depth and Complexity of Religion in the US.” The Baylor Religion Survey. http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf.
Berger, Peter. 2001. “Reflections on the Sociology of Religion Today.” Sociology of Religion 62 (4): 443–454.
Bertka, Constance M. 2009. “Astrobiology in a Societal Context.” In Exploring the Origin, Extent and Future of Life, ed. Constance M. Bertka, 1–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bertka, Connie, Nancy Roth and Matthew Shindell, eds. 2007. Workshop Report: Philosophical, Ethical and Theological Implications of Astrobiology. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Breed, David R. 1991. “Ralph Wendell Burhoe: His Life and His Thought.” Zygon 26 (3): 397–428.
Crowe, Michael J. 1986. The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crowe, Michael J., ed. 2008. The Extraterrestrial Life Debate: Antiquity to 1915, A Source Book. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Crowe, Michael J., and Matthew F. Dowd. 2013. “The Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Antiquity to 1900.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.
Crysdale, Cynthia S.W. 2009. “God, Evolution, and Astrobiology,” In Exploring the Origin, Extent and Future of Life, ed. Constance M. Bertka, 220–241. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davies, Paul. 1995. Are We Alone? London: Penguin.
Deane-Drummond, Celia. 2009. “The Alpha and the Omega: Reflections on the Origin and Future of Life from the Perspective of Christian Theology and Ethics,” In Exploring the Origin, Extent and Future of Life, ed. Constance M. Bertka, 96–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DeVincenzi, Donald. 1997. Oral History Interview by Steven J. Dick, May 12, 1997, p. 16, deposited in the NASA History Office, NASA HQ, Washington, D.C. Quoted in Dick, Steven J. and James E. Strick. 2004. The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Dick, Steven J. 2000. “Cosmotheology: Theological Implications of the New Universe.” In Many Worlds: The New Universe, Extraterrestrial Life and the Theological Implications, ed. Steven J. Dick, 199–205. Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
Dick, Steven J. and James E. Strick. 2004. The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of Astrobiology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Gould, Stephen J. 1999. Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Group.
Guthke, Karl S. 1985. “The Idea of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Harvard Library Bulletin 33: 196–210.
McMullin, Ernan. 2000. “Life and Intelligence Far From Earth: Formulating Theological Issues.” In Many Worlds: The New Universe, Extraterrestrial Life and the Theological Implications, ed. Steven J. Dick, 151–175. Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
Norris, Pippa and Ronald Inglehart. 2011. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peters, Ted. 1995. “Exo-Theology: Speculations on Extraterrestrial Life.” In The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds, ed. James R. Lewis, 187–206. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Peters, Ted. 2009. “Astrotheology and the ETI Myth.” Theology and Science 7 (1): 3–30.
Peters, Ted. 2011. “The Implications of the Discovery of Extra-Terrestrial Life for Religion.” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 369: 644–655.
Peters, Ted. 2013. “Would the Discovery of ETI Provoke a Religious Crisis?” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 2005. Public Divided on Origins of Life http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/Public-Divided-on-Origins-of-Life.aspx.
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 2006. Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals. http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Evangelical-Protestant-Churches/Spirit-and-Power.aspx.
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 2011. Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population. http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-worlds-christian-population.aspx.
Pontifical Academy of Sciences. 2009. Study Week on Astrobiology. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/2009/booklet_astrobiology_17.
Sagan, Carl and Frank Drake. 1997. “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Scientific American January. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-search-for-extraterre.
Stark, Rodney. 1999. “Secularization, R.I.P.” Sociology of Religion 60 (3): 249–273.
Stenmark, Mikael. 2010. “Ways of Relating Science and Religion.” In Science and Religion, ed. Peter Harrison, 278–295. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tarter, Jill Cornell. 2000. “SETI and the Religions of the Universe.” In Many Worlds: The New Universe, Extraterrestrial Life and the Theological Implications, ed. Steven J. Dick, 143–149. Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
Weigel, Margaret M. and Kathryn Coe. 2013. “Impact of Extraterrestrial Life Discovery for Third World Societies: Anthropological and Public Health Considerations.” In Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond earth and the Impact of Discovery, ed. Douglas A. Vakoch. Heidelberg: Springer.
Wilkinson, David. 1997. Alone in the Universe? Crowborough, UK: Monarch.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bertka, C.M. (2013). Christianity’s Response to the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life: Insights from Science and Religion and the Sociology of Religion. In: Vakoch, D. (eds) Astrobiology, History, and Society. Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35983-5_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35983-5_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35982-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35983-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)