Over the few centuries, scientists have been making the conclusive argument that shows the possibility of extraterrestrial life in other planets. Various researchers that have been conducted to verify the possibility of the extra-terrestrial world strongly indicate that in vastness of the universe, there must be other civilizations in existence. The film "The Real Story: Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is an account of previous researches that have been conducted to verify the possibility of another civilization in the space. The film accounts on the strange strong signals received on August 15, 1977, from uncertain cardinals in the space. However, despite humanity's endeavor to discover other possible lives in space, such researches would reconstruct existing theologies, philosophies, and some scientific arguments. Making contact with the extraterrestrial world would restructure religious perceptions and beliefs.
The Religious Implications of Making Contact with Other Possible Civilizations in Space
The huge faction of the contemporary generation of humanity relies on the Biblical account of human creation. The Biblical account of creation holds that God created the first man (Adam) and woman (eve) and placed them on earth to multiply. The creation account argues that God placed the first human beings on the Garden of Eden and gave them authority to reproduce and fill the earth (Watanabe, 2019). The biblical account of creation does not reflect the existence of life outside the earth. Making contact with the outside civilization would have strong implications on the biblical account of creation. If the research succeeds in proving the existence of another civilization apart from earth, then it shall perforate weaknesses on the biblical account of creation. Believers of the Holy Book will lose trust and confidence in the contents of the Bible.
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Another religious believe that would be implicated by the creation of contact with outside civilization is reincarnation. Many human beings share a belief that after a man's life on earth is over, he or she is born again in another world as a man or in another form of life. Reincarnation holds that there is other existing civilization out there and that after death, one's life is continued in another form in other lives (Watanabe, 2019). If contact with extraterrestrial civilization is established, the religious ideology of reincarnation will find relevance. Sceptic criticism has been levelled against the issue of reincarnation and only a few thinkers align with the possibility of reincarnation (Spielberg, 1977). Many people do not believe in reincarnation theory but evidence of extraterrestrial civilization would transform many people to believe in reincarnation.
Moreover, the discovery of another civilization in the space would weaken the biblical theory about eschatology. Eschatology is a religious belief that the world will end one day and that people will ascend to heaven for Godly judgement. The end of the world has been a serious debate in the last decades (Watanabe, 2019). A section of the world population believes that the world will end one day and that everything will come to standstill awaiting Gods judgement. Evidence of extraterrestrial life would prove that heavenly bodies such earth and other planets do not stop or die. Existence of life would strongly discredit the eschatology story about the end of times.
The subject of the possibility of extraterrestrial civilization has elicited reactions from various schools of thought. Scientific researches strongly point at the possibility of having other existing civilizations in other planets. Human beings have been receiving satellite signal from the cardinal in a galaxy that indicates the possibility of outside civilization. However, making contact with any possible outside civilization would have serious religious implications for the contemporary human generation. The Biblical story of creation and the eschatology theory would be greatly revised by the discovery of outside civilization.
References
Watanabe, J. (2019). Possible Cultural Impact of Extraterrestrial Life, if It Were to Be Found. In Astrobiology (pp. 461-465). Springer, Singapore.
Spielberg, S. (1977). The Real Story: Close Encounters the Third Kind. Smithsonian Channel.
