'Would soulless aliens be obliged to behave morally? Would we be obliged to behave morally towards them?'

Could the appearance of aliens be an act of God? And how would we react if said visitors had their own religions? Science fiction author Philip Purser-Hallard wonders.

Some time ago in one of my columns, I wondered how – in the admittedly unlikely event of contact with an alien civilisation – we Christians should behave towards our extraterrestrial brethren, particularly if they turned out to have religious convictions of their own.

As a thought experiment, the spiritual lives of aliens raise questions which human interfaith relations cannot.

For instance, must a creature have a soul to be intelligent? Would soulless aliens be obliged to behave morally? Would we be obliged to behave morally towards them?

Is Christ, who came to Earth as a human being to atone for human sin, sufficient for the salvation of unearthly, inhuman souls? If an extraterrestrial religion appeared pagan to us, could we be sure that this was not God’s truth revealed in a manner befitting an alien mindset?

Could Christianity’s anthropocentric view of creation and history ever survive such a first contact?

Not surprisingly, this area – sometimes called ‘exotheology’ – has been more thoroughly explored by religiously inclined science fiction (SF) authors than by theologians (although at least one highly-placed Vatican official, Monsignor Carraldo Balducci, is apparently a firm believer in contact with UFOs).

Missions to the stars

Nearly 50 years ago James Blish set out the orthodox view – which he intended to confound – in the foreword to his classic SF novel A Case of Conscience. He suggested that Christian theologians would expect intelligent extraterrestrials to fall into one of three categories.

They would exist in a state of unfallen grace, like CS Lewis’ Martians and Venusians; or they would lack souls altogether; or they would be like us, fallen and in urgent need of God’s grace, and thus of our evangelistic aid.

This last point may well seem contentious to modern liberal Christians. Blish, an agnostic, had his doubts as well, and constructed an alien society designed to upset such easy categories.

His Lithians occupy their planetary paradise in apparently sinless harmony, yet their worldview lacks any concept of God or religion. Blish’s hero (a Jesuit priest, as has become peculiarly traditional in exotheological SF) is forced to conclude that Lithia was created by Satan, a grave heresy in itself.

More recently Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow has featured aliens whose (presumably God-created) biology sits uncomfortably with Christian ethics, and a Jesuit missionary team who, out of ignorance and with the best of motives, instigate a planet-wide catastrophe.

A convert to Judaism, Russell suggests in the sequel, Children of God, that God’s grace can work even through such a grievous mistake, beginning the process of redemption – though not necessarily conversion – for the entire planetary culture.

Aliens among us

Like many of the issues I’ve been raising in these columns, the question of extraterrestrial religion may seem far from our likely experience.

Perhaps surprisingly, on this occasion I agree. I’m certainly sceptical of the idea that the Earth receives regular visitations from elsewhere, as Mgr Balducci believes.

I’m unable to credit that God intended this immense and glorious universe for our sole occupancy, and so conclude that there must be created beings on many worlds. I understand, however, that interstellar travel would be a truly colossal undertaking, wasteful of energy, time and resources, which surely few civilisations could ever see as practical.

I suspect that any non-human intelligences with whom humanity comes into contact will be of Earthly origin. Unless the orang-utans and dolphins are being very patient with us, these are likely to be either our own descendants, changed by our technologies, or our creations: artificial intelligences demanding the right to artificial souls.

And how should we respond to them? That question, once again, must be tackled in a future column…

Useful Links

• Mary Doria Russell’s homepage
• James Blish at Wikipedia
• Exotheology links
• Religion and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
• Christianity and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
• Interview with Carraldo Balducci
• Philip Purser-Hallard

Earlier articles

• It’s been unreal
• Santa Claus conquers the Martians
• Getting needlessly messianic
• Through An Orbital Mirror, Darkly
• The Shape of Kingdoms to Come
• Back to reality