It's common to hear Religious people or even some atheists say that Aliens won't be a big deal for Religion. Because certain Religions like Hinduism featuring non-human creatures. Or saying the Bible has Angels or Demons could be considered Aliens.
The biggest plot hole in this argument. Is that people are going off this big assumption that Aliens will already have advanced technology to get to Earth. And be able to influence our Religions. For all we know most Alien races can just be dumb cavemen or even similar intelligent races that just don't about space travel.
It's the Ancient Aliens BS theory. Another plot hole in this argument is. Why did the Aliens stop interacting with us then? Since throughout mythology (Greek, Norse, Christianity, etc) we constantly see non-human creatures interact with humans via worship, paintings, or wars.
Why would these Aliens just conveniently disappear, when our cameras or technology got better?
Angels, demons, devas, jinn, etc. are metaphysical entities tied to a religious cosmology, not biological organisms evolving on another planet. Calling them “aliens” is just wordplay. A spacefaring species with DNA, culture, and technology raises completely different questions than supernatural beings created by a god.
u/PassengerCultural421, your post does fit the subreddit!
I feel like every religion would undergo major alterations if extraterrestrial life was discovered. Religions were designed just for earth creatures and God's. The discovery of non-Earth creatures would shake all religions to their core, and new religions would crop up.
Like they underwent major alterations when atoms were observed, when we discovered evolution, genome, flight…..
They always retcon the interpretation of holy text.
Speaking for christianity, if we hypotetically start having contacts with aliens like we have with people of other countries it will be relatively easy to prove they are physical beings and so not demons or angels, then the question will be more on if we are supposed to consider them animals or not, if they are actual intelligent lifeforms most likely it will go as it went when we discovered new world people: after a while we will realize they are humans too and treat them as such, otherwise it can happen that while they are intelligent they think in a wildly different way to us, specifically our senses of morality would be completely incompatible, in that case they might end up being classified as animals
It's a silly argument but that doesn't mean the core premise is wrong.
I.e
You don't have to speculate — A plurality of organized Religions have outlined stances on alien life most of which are tacitly favorable to outright accepting of the possibility.
There's absolutely faiths that are stringently anthropocentric but it's neither all nor most of the big ones.
A few that I know of even mention other words created by God
For all we know, the aliens were our creators. "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."
To an aborigine, an iPad is supernatural.
Well in Hinduism specifically, they already have explained the atom, quarks, gluons, the Higgs boson, etc to fit it into the definition of “smaller than the smallest observable particle” to describe the fundamental “atman” that is all-pervasive. It’s not really contradictory if we do get the technology to observe it.
Secondly, the reason the “gods” don’t visit us anymore is because we’re in kalki yuga. This was written way before we entered that yuga. If you believe in that sort of thing.
Thirdly, the whole point of it is that the whole gods and earth and whatnots are an illusion meant to distract you from your awareness of existence and keep you tethered to this mortal coil and worldly desires. So it doesn’t matter anyway if aliens fit within that narrative or not. They are nothing too, once you die you go back into the cosmos as raw materials. It’s the circle of life.
I’m using the example I’m most familiar with, but yeah there’s a pretty good explanation for it in scripture that was written way before they knew photography would exist that doesn’t contradict itself.
Just go about your life trying to be a good person and not be too greedy. That’s what most religions boil down to. If you seek to make meaning out of every mythological story in a religion, you’re barking up the wrong tree. The point is that none of that matters. I say this as an atheist who believes aliens are real, we just haven’t encountered them yet.
Edit: this is hella boiled down, but I can expand more if needed
On another note, in revelations, when Jesus comes back, the armies of the antichrist gather together to fight him. I wonder if they are told he's some kind of alien to think they can fight the creator of everything with conventional weapons lol. I think it says then he says one word and all the flesh flies off their bones.