Would extraterrestrial life disprove religion?, page 2

It would "disprove" some religions but not others. The ones that are too... humanity-specific would be doomed.

Many pagan, eastern, and esoteric religions would still retain their valid points, given that a lot of them do not exclude the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and some view the universe as an emanation of god. Any life outside of earth would be part of and guided by the same forces which culminated in life here. Some new age religions already claim knowledge of extraterrestrial life, so even if it was not the aliens they're thinking of, it would practically be a validation of their faith for extraterrestrials to exist.

I suppose it comes down to which gods the religions venerate and the "scope" of the godhead, with a lot of the tradition and dogma rearrangeable. A religion which embraces the idea of an infinite number of gods, god-in-everything, pantheistic interpretations of god, natural forces as god, anthropomorphic personifications of ideas and forces, and other more abstract godforms would probably stand up pretty well. Religions with flexible traditions and those which are still evolving could also weather the new information without going down in flames.

The major points that would prove problematic for the 3 Mid-Eastern religions is that god is not flexible. Out of them, Christianity would definitely be the most doomed, at least the mainstream segment of the religion. I don't think the Jewish roots of Christianity would fare as badly, nor would the esoteric branches, but a lot of the popular Christian dogma would just not mesh. God as a bearded man in the sky who created the universe six thousand years ago on a fine Sunday morning just seems small compared to the necessary realization that the universe is Huge. Many reform Jews already take a less literal, more abstract view of god and their tradition, and I think Judaism would probably survive based on that. I am really not sure if Islam would make the grade, but my guess is that at least a few sects would be able to sync with reality.

Of Hinduism and Buddhism, I think they'd both fare really well. Hinduism has already proved itself flexible enough to adopt major religious figures of later religions as avatars of its own gods as means of adapting to new information. I should expect that whatever religions ET could bring to earth would receive the same treatment. Buddhism is abstract and philosophically sound enough to make sense in light of pretty much any discovery, and would continue unabated. Out of the major world religions, Buddhism would be the most likely to actually gain ET converts.

Some religions would fail. Judeo-Christian systems and Islamic systems would not fare well due to inflexibility. Other religions with a broader scope and more abstract philosophical points & godform would weather the information better and/or be completely unaffected and/or gain followers from the new ET population.

And that is what the haps are with that, imo