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Beyond Peripheries : The Methodologies, Implications and Limitations of Studying Extraterrestrial Religions

VENCÁLEK, Matouš

Basic information

Original name

Beyond Peripheries : The Methodologies, Implications and Limitations of Studying Extraterrestrial Religions

Authors

Edition

Religion on the Periphery: 14th ISORECEA Conference, 2021

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Presentations at conferences

Field of Study

60304 Religious studies

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

is not subject to a state or trade secret

References:

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

religion; extraterrestrial life; xenology

Tags

International impact, Reviewed
Changed: 15/2/2023 19:43, Mgr. Ivona Vrzalová

Abstract

In the original language

Ten years ago, Stephen Hawking said: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." He was referring to the fact that scientists estimate there might be a hundred billion galaxies in the universe, and for example our galaxy itself, the Milky Way, contains at least a hundred billion stars – each of them being orbited by, on average, at least one planet. The possibility of extraterrestrial life logically raises questions about the nature of aliens and about the possible scenarios of contact and its impact. In the past decades, those questions have led to the creation of various protocols on both national and supranational level, as well as to the formation of new (sub-)disciplines of various fields of both life and social sciences. This paper, however provocative it may sound, aims to open the discussion about what implications and challenges would extraterrestrial contact pose to the scientific study of religions – by the means of methodology, ethics and limitations.