Philosophical and religious implications of extraterrestrial intelligent life

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Abstract

If any evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life were ever to be discovered, what would the likely reactions of our society be, and how should we manage such a discovery? The answer depends largely on the following question: What are the implications of such a discovery for our religious beliefs? This issue is the core subject of this chapter. Two basic assumptions are made: (1) There will not be direct contact with extra-terrestrials (ETs) or with intelligent probes, only indirect contact via electromagnetic waves, as in the “classic” SETI scenario. (2) The contact will take place in the “near” future (i.e., in a few decades), which very likely means within a range of some hundreds of light years, due to the limits of our present technology.

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Musso, P. (2009). Philosophical and religious implications of extraterrestrial intelligent life. In Studies in Space Policy (Vol. 1, pp. 210–219). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-87465-3_26

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