{"id":27404,"date":"2015-05-16T11:17:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T15:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=27404"},"modified":"2015-05-16T11:17:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-16T15:17:37","slug":"would-discovering-extraterrestrial-life-make-us-and-them-platonists-mormons-or-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/would-discovering-extraterrestrial-life-make-us-and-them-platonists-mormons-or-atheists.html","title":{"rendered":"Would Discovering Extraterrestrial Life Make us &#8211; and them &#8211; Platonists, Mormons, or Atheists?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"http:\/\/theweek.com\/articles\/441829\/could-religion-survive-contact-extraterrestrials\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>The Week<\/em> featured an article<\/a> a while back which suggested that the discovery of\u00a0alien life would turn us all into\u00a0atheists or <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/mormonism' target='_blank'>Mormons<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/adversusapologetica.wordpress.com\/2015\/04\/22\/co-authoring-a-critical-review-of-geisler-and-tureks-i-dont-have-enough-faith-to-be-an-atheist-with-jeff-lowder\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matthew Ferguson<\/a> recently mentioned a number of issues which would, at the very least, raise issues for traditional Christian theology.<\/p>\n<p>In an article which quoted me (even if it gets my name and role wrong), <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/when-superintelligent-ai-arrives-will-religions-try-t-1682837922\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gizmodo<\/a> explored similar issues related to the development of artificial intelligence. That article also focused on the work of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-2940444\/Will-religions-try-convert-artificial-intelligence-Reverend-says-Christ-s-redemption-not-limited-humans.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Christopher Benek<\/a>, whom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2015\/04\/christian-robots.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">I mentioned recently<\/a>, and who has explored the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2015\/04\/17\/robot-preacher-daily-show_n_7087566.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">intersection<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/the-intersection-of-theology-and-technological-futurism-138003\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Christianity<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maysville-online.com\/news\/opinion\/columnists\/can-androids-pray-for-digital-salvation\/article_b02fb8da-d4bc-503f-9666-65b8be53a6e8.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">robots<\/a> in interesting ways.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/io9.com\/nasa-is-seriously-revving-up-the-search-for-alien-life-1699417469\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">IO9<\/a>, NASA seems to be cranking its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemeetsreligion.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/where-is-et-fermis-paradox-turns-65\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">search for extraterrestrial life<\/a> into high gear. And so these subjects may not be merely theoretical forever.<\/p>\n<p>Which religious traditions do you think will flourish or struggle in response to the discovery of extraterrestrial life?<\/p>\n<p>See also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2015\/05\/jesus-out-of-this-world.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">yesterday\u2019s post \u201cJesus: Out Of This World.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-29791\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2015\/04\/alien-jesus.jpg\" alt=\"alien-jesus\" width=\"286\" height=\"286\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Week featured an article a while back which suggested that the discovery of\u00a0alien life would turn us all into\u00a0atheists or Mormons. Matthew Ferguson recently mentioned a number of issues which would, at the very least, raise issues for traditional Christian theology. In an article which quoted me (even if it gets my name and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":29791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,154],"tags":[1860,1880,3291,6406,7701,10500],"class_list":["post-27404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-religion","category-mormons","tag-christopher-benek","tag-church","tag-extraterrestrial","tag-lds","tag-mormons","tag-robots"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Would Discovering Extraterrestrial Life Make us - and them - Platonists, Mormons, or Atheists?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Week featured an article a while back which suggested that the discovery of\u00a0alien life would turn us all into\u00a0atheists or Mormons. Matthew Ferguson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/would-discovering-extraterrestrial-life-make-us-and-them-platonists-mormons-or-atheists.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Would Discovering Extraterrestrial Life Make us - and them - Platonists, Mormons, or Atheists?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Week featured an article a while back which suggested that the discovery of\u00a0alien life would turn us all into\u00a0atheists or Mormons. Matthew Ferguson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/would-discovering-extraterrestrial-life-make-us-and-them-platonists-mormons-or-atheists.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-16T15:17:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. 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