After hundreds of years of suppression of belief in aliens and extraterrestrials, The Vatican has finally opened its arms to the notion that aliens indeed exist, and is now actively joining others in the search for extra-terrestrial life. This week the Pontifical Academy of Sciences holds a conference of astrobiology on Earth as well as throughout the Universe. The conference comes long overdue as earlier this year The Vatican changed its position on extraterrestrials from denial to indifference to acceptance that aliens likely exist elsewhere in the universe and may or may not be visiting Earth.
In the 1600s, Giordano Bruno was put to death for his claim that other planets, possibly like Earth existed elsewhere in the Universe, by the Inquisition. He was ultimately burned at the stake for this claim. It is unknown if a pardon is on the way for Bruno.
Of course The Vatican’s acceptance of aliens has been bringing up several questions about theology and causing quite a bit of controversy that is still waiting to be cleared up. Of course a number of people consider that despite the Vatican’s position, a second intelligent race of beings would be of monumental spiritual significance. Would such a race have an alternate religious text? Would they have an alternate Christ figure?
The conference will be discussing planets outside of our solar system, evidence of aliens both intelligent and/or prokaryotic in nature, as well as early life on Earth. The whole thing has all the trappings of a major disclosure about to be made. Earlier this year, the Vatican also said it was possible and still in keeping with scripture that Evolution was not beyond the realm of possibility. Before this, Copernicus and Galileo’s theories that the Earth was not the center of the universe were also accepted without any need for the Vatican to make any biblical rewrites. It’s probably safe to assume alien disclosure would come in the same vein.
Still, one has to wonder what spirituality and religion would be like on alien worlds. Often it is assumed that aliens would be simply too scientifically minded to actually have a spiritual side. This claim comes from the 1950’s image of the science fiction bug-eyed alien of yore. The modern alien often reportedly has many things to say that are spiritually significant, although with an interesting focus on Eastern philosophies of reincarnation. Of course this too comes from reports of abductees, which can vary widely at times. Until the “White House Lawn” landing alien, we may never know what their philosophies are for sure. And even then, is it more possible that an alien race would have a uniformed belief system or individual beliefs that follow similar themes but are incomparable to what on Earth would call “religion?”
One of the main hurdles, disclosure proponents claim is that before any conclusive full-disclosure scenario, mass religions (particularly those following the Vatican) will have to make it possible to have their religions compatible with an alien scenario to ensure minimal chaos caused by the disclosure. It seems The Vatican has just taken this step, and many are saying that means full disclosure is happening soon.