If we discover life on Mars, what would be the religious implications?

Question

Scientists announced today that they've discovered signs of recent liquid water on Mars.

It's a far cry from declaring life on Mars, past or present, but IF life were to be discovered on Mars, how would it affect people spiritually? Is this concept incompatible with mainstream religions? How might believers explain the presence of extraterrestrial life?

Answer 1

Hopefully the religious nuts keep their mouths shut, and don't hinder progress.

Answer 2

I think all the metaphors will be reinterpreted to accomodate the new discoveries. Interpretations of the "world," for example, would now cover interstellar bodies instead of just the surface of Earth.

There are already some answers that point out that these gods created the universe (not just the planet). So rest assured, the religious can always find a way to reinterpret and adjust. After all, there was an upheaval, was there not, when we discovered that Earth actually wasn't at the center of the universe and in fact was a planet the revolved around the sun?

Centuries later, the same religions are still here. Kicking and screaming.

Answer 3

The religious implications of finding life on Mars will depend on how advanced the organisms are.

If the life found is little more than one cell plants or animals, there will be a lot of talk and posturing but little impact (religious or otherwise) on our daily life for at least 10 years.

If the life found on Mars is as complex as a beetle, some serious money (such as 100 billion US dollars) will be put into play for a variety of new science. There will be little impact on our daily life for the next five years, or until the new science efforts start to pay dividends. The real spiritual and religious trends will take at least five years to reveal themselves.

If we find evidence of tool use on Mars, watch out. I believe the current organized religions will start a slow and noisy decline. Even so, organized religion stayed strong for decades after religious leaders began relying on lightning rods, rather than prayer, to protect churches from lightning strikes.

Answer 4

All the major religions are based on ancient views of life and the world we live in. Believers can argue all they want but the fact of the matter is that men in the ancient past wrote these religious texts and based on their understanding of the universe this was the only world there was. There were no planets or stars, what you walked on was it. So for people now days to base their beliefs about life and if this world is the only place it resides on text written by men who didn't even know we lived on a planet is ignorant. If the people at NASA find life out there or evidence of it(and eventually they will) anyone who bases their beliefs on ancient texts alone is going to have a problem with it.

Answer 5

Aside from the thousands of sermons/outcries attempting to disprove/falsify the evidence of life, this would most likely not hinder the religious.

I have asked several devout Christians what they would do if this were to happen, and their response was a general 'God must have put them there." And "Where in the Bible does it say life can only exist on Earth?"

Once this hit the news channels, explanations would stream in across all fronts.. Almost all would likely be as futile as "Satan put it there to trick us", "NASA is lying to us to get rid of religion", or "How do we know for certain it is life?"

Answer 6

if they kill progress well newlife will se me with a gun at there church ! and a bomb! LETS SEE HOW THEY LIKE IT WHEN I BRING DEATH WEAPONS TO THERE PLACES! thats for planned parent hood bitchs! and also the ONLY REASON RELIGION EXISTS IS CUS OF PPL culdnt explain simple **** with scinece they didnt have so they had to put it in spernatrual terms and sadly today we know those ," simple" things we explained
and they still practice there primitive beleifs but once again today SCIENCE PROVAILS!

Answer 7

lol even if the discovered the water
what about the air ?
how u going to breath ?
they think about make house and surrounded by a hug glasses and full it with air but they just plan for that
about religion i dont know but i think its upon to the person who will live there

Answer 8

Governments ought to attempt to regulate public reaction so human beings didnt do some thing loopy. it ought to somewhat in elementary words be a situation if the extraterrestrial beings determined that in order to apply earth's factors they could favor to get rid of the present inhabitants . As comprehend one is established with a thanks to talk alien it ought to take a even as for us to appreciate one yet another in which time human beings and extraterrestrial beings ought to bypass loopy and kill one yet another except the extraterrestrial beings do issues with ideas administration. it ought to influence faith because it ought to tutor some those who god doesn't exist and persons extreme interior the church ought to compared to that and have a glance at to suppress the extraterrestrial beings

Answer 9

The possibility is not mentioned in the Bible that I know of so my take is that life on other planets is not relevent to my "religion". I hope they do find life elsewhere. It would add flavor to this universe. Jesus said "love your neighbor as yourself". Perhaps we could amend that to say "love your neighboring planet as well".

Answer 10

some could feel alienated...lol...just kidding.

I can't see that there would be a problem those who are strong believers will have faith in their teachings and I really don't think there will be a great effect.
Look at the DaVinci Code for example....all the hype and the what if's....you don't hear a thing about that anymore now.

Answer 11

Interesting. That life might be missionaries from elsewhere in the galaxy!
Genesis is suitably vague "He made the stars in the firmament...." or something like that, so... the zealots would be stirred but not shaken!