Exotheology

Of the many beliefs in the realm of human thought emergent from an Enlightenment worldview, the first to come to mind may not be the theory of extraterrestrial life. However, with the discovery and acceptance of heliocentricism and the various celestial bodies that compose the cosmos, works began to be written that posited the existence of life similar to humanity on other planets; works in this vein include John Ray’s 1691 publication The Works of God Manifested in the Works of Creation and Immanuel Kant’s anonymous 1755 publication, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens.  This concept would become more popular with the emergence of a more dominant scientific worldview in the 19th and 20th centuries, which has led to various popular and almost cultic manifestations of belief in real contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). Christian responses to claims to the presence of ETI remain secondary and peripheral; one of the most prominent efforts is that of Hugh Ross, which is a self-styled “rational” look at UFO’s and ETI from a Christian worldview. However, this speaks to the need for a more direct theological engagement with concepts of the nature and purpose of life as it respects earth and the cosmos; as such, this study will attempt to look at a particular argument found in the Miscellanies of Jonathan Edwards, which attempts to resource the Calvinist doctrine of a special election of life on earth in order to respond to then-emerging hypotheses that ETI could have been created by God on other planets, a sub-genre of theological studies known as “exotheology.”

Pages 252-262.

By placing astrobiology and astrotheology into creative mutual interaction (CMI), the theologian can offer an internal critique of the science. According to CMI proponent, Robert John Russell, CMI mandates that theology point out in science any hidden ideological or religious factors that befoul the research. At work among some astrobiologists is the ETI Myth. The ETI Myth assumes that biological evolution is progressive and that progressive evolution over a longer period of time on exoplanets will have produced alien creatures with higher intelligence than Earth's human race. The more intelligent aliens, according to the ETI myth, will be more advanced than earthlings in science, technology, medicine, ethics, and secularization. When contact is made, Earth will be blessed by the aliens. In short, science saves, and more advanced extraterrestrial science will bring salvation to the less highly evolved Earth. This chapter will demonstrate that the ETI Myth is not sound science. Evolutionary biologists deny that biological speciation is progressive. By projecting progressive evolution on to alien life, the speculation of space researchers departs from what is scientifically reliable. If the field of astrobiology would eliminate the ETI Myth, its scientific research program might become more demonstrably scientific. Science should stick to science rather than practice theology without a license.

The greatness and character of the Universe encourage believers and theologians to overcome the fragile terminology which has been used within the Church for hundreds of years. New trends in theology will focus on deeper understanding of the Earth realites, the antropomorfic understanding of God towards the idea of God of the Univere. The whole universe, galaxies and planets have a common source which is God. After the Creation, the forms of their development were glorification of the dynamics of God's creative love and power. Currently, exotheology deals with theories and hypotheses about the implication of the extraterrestrial life into the field of theology. It is focused on the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, the possibilities of the Christian faith or unbelief in the intelligent extraterrestrial life as well as its impact on theology through the evidence or the interaction with extraterrestrial life. The exotheology in the perspective of the Christian doctrine explains the relationships between intelligent estraterrestrial life and Incarnation, God's self-revelation, salvation, evil and original sin.

Are there planets beyond our solar system? What may appear quite plausible now had only been a hypothesis until about twenty years ago. The search for exoplanets is driven by the interest in the “habitable” ones among them. Could such planets one day in the far future provide resources or even shelter for humankind? Will we find one day a habitable planet that is even inhabited? These kinds of imaginative speculations drive public interest in the subject. Imagining alien intelligent life in the universe is not at all new. When Ted Peters called for establishing the field of “astrotheology,” he was certainly thinking less of historical precedents than of something analogous to the emerging field of astrobiology. Will astrotheology result in the decentering of humanity in cosmic dimensions? One could also conclude that we are alone, at least for all practical purposes.

Recent remarks of Pope Francis spark anew an important discussion: are we alone in the Universe? The article follows traces of the idea of extraterrestrial life throughout philosophy, evaluates the current considerations about the probability of extraterrestrial life and discusses the potential implications for the discovery of such life from a theological point of view. This “thought experiment” covers basic insights on creation, revelation and redemption.

Abstrakt: Obwohl extraterrestrische Lebensformen in allen Variationen längst zum festen Bestandteil unserer kulturellen Lebenswelt geworden sind, ist ihre Existenz wissenschaftlich weitaus weniger unproblematisch: bis dato gibt es keinen einzigen wissenschaftstheoretisch verwertbaren Beweis ihrer Existenz. Wir können mit Sicherheit nur Eines sagen: die uns bekannten physikalischen und biologischen Naturgesetze schließen die Existenz extraterrestrischer Lebensformen nicht aus, und je nachdem wie man sie interpretiert, lassen sie es mehr oder weniger wahrscheinlich erscheinen, dass es im physikalischen Kosmos extraterrestrisches Leben gibt. Da die Möglichkeit einer Sache aber Grund genug ist, sich ihrer wissenschaftlich anzunehmen und die Konsequenzen ihrer potentiellen Tatsächlichkeit durchzudenken, wird im Folgenden untersucht, welchen Einfluss die Existenz extraterrestrischen Lebens auf die theologischen Wissenschaften haben würde. Es zeigt sich, dass die Existenz extraterrestrischen Lebens keine gravierenden Auswirkungen auf das theologische Leben haben würde. Trotz einiger populärer Befürchtungen, dass der Kontakt mit extraterrestrischen Zivilisationen (wieder einmal) das Ende der verschiedenen Theologien und ihrer Religionen bedeuten würde, besteht der Nutzen sogenannter exotheologischer Fragestellungen schlicht darin, die eigenen weltanschaulichen Grundannahmen genauer zu explizieren.