Would finding aliens shatter religious beliefs?

“If you ask most people whether there is alien life, most people say yes,” said science-fiction author Robert Sawyer, who was also part of the panel discussion. “It’s the prevalent opinion. At least, the last poll I saw in the United States was that most Americans believe that there’s extraterrestrial life.”

So rather than being shaken to its foundations by the confirmation of life on another planet or moon, organized religion may accept the news, adapt and move on.

Vakoch cited the example of Baptist theologian Hal Ostrander, who is an associate pastor at a church in Georgia.

“Dr. Ostrander is adamantly opposed to evolution, and yet he has no problem with the idea of there being extraterrestrials,” Vakoch said. “He says it’s as if a couple has one child, and then they decide to have a second child. Is that second child any less special? So too if God decides to have life on our planet, and then another planet, and another planet. It doesn’t make us less special.”