Slight difference. 500 years ago the Catholic Church could convert the heathen at the point of a sword. Try that with the aliens and you might find yourself looking at the wrong end of a raygun with the alien saying “I don’t remember if I fired five charges of my gun or six …”
Even worse would be the aliens treating the very cream of Earth religions like a cargo cult, or being overheard as they leave St. Pat’s saying to one another, “and they still believe in that stuff. I love primitive cultures.” I agree that church doctrine can adapt easily - but can church people adapt to being looked down upon by an advanced culture?
What, you think this would be the first time foreigners spurned Christian proselytizers or regarded them as weirdos? Christian missionaries have had only mixed success at best in lands like India and China, where the people thought they already had a superior and more sophisticated religion.
And IF aliens who visited here were the smug, supercilious atheists you imagine them to be, well, it’s not as if we Chrisitans are unfamiliar with that type here on Earth.
There’s also the possibility of the aliens having scientific proof of a creator of the universe, perhaps even direct communication with it; but the creator doesn’t resemble any human religion.
“Don’t be silly, the creator has nothing to do with your Jesus myth; here, I can call it up on the comlink and you can ask.”
The British were not nearly as ruthless as the Spaniards. And the Hindus and Chinese didn’t do too much converting either, which is the right analogy to spreading Christianity to the aliens.
Much of religion still is motivated by unanswered questions about the world. Even Tom Paine embraced deism because he could see no natural way for the planets to be as well ordered as they are. If we met an ancient Greek we could throw his religion for a loop, explaining why the sun actually appears to move. If aliens could give a good and godless explanation for the Big Bang, what would that do to the cosmological argument?
Religions got formed at a time when the solar system was all there was. If we found Adam and Eve on Venus, as in Lewis, that would be interesting if unlikely. What is the prediction of religion about the state of aliens? If God is universal, would they not know him? (Of course the same issue didn’t stop them when the American Indians never heard of the guy.) Do they need to be saved? If so, and if Jesus never visited, why were they allowed to live in sin for so long?
Despite your accusation of smugness, any reasonable mapping of a universal god onto aliens leads to scenarios so evidently absurd that not even the most devout of Christians seem to support them. Or do you really expect to find Christians in space?
Nitpick, heliocentrism was originally proposed by an ancient Greek. It was not the dominant theory of its age, but neither did ancient Greek astronomers likely take Greek myths too seriously.
Another sci-fi book that touches on this would be Calculating God, which involves aliens showing up at Earth who have scientific evidence that there is a creator of the universe, and for whom it’s in fact a long settled scientific position; not a religious one.
Another good one, from a different angle is “Help” by James Tiptree. Evangelical arthropods land on Earth bent on converting us to worship of The Great Pupa. They proceed to destroy our heathen houses of prayer, like the Temple of the Golden Pavillion, the Blue Mosque of Ahmed, and the New York Stock Exchange.
Francis of Assisi would have talked of “Brother Alien”. Francis of Xavier would have thought “future converts!” and started talking. Francis of Borja would have seen a theological discussion waiting to happen. I expect that the RCC would globally go for a mixture of those three.
A really ancient Greek. I’ve just finished reading Aristotle, and lots of modern science would have blown his mind. It seemed to me that he was consistent in his reference to God as a single creator and the more traditional gods - though it might be a translation issue.
Aristarchus does not appear to have convinced many people, and, like atomic theory, might have gotten the right result for the wrong reasons.
I’ve just finished reading Aristotle, and lots of modern science would have blown his mind. It seemed to me that he was consistent in his reference to God as a single creator and the more traditional gods - though it might be a translation issue.