“She says we’re going to find life, we’re going to find habitable planets and things like that. So that gives this type of religiosity a far more powerful bite than the traditional religions, which are based on faith in things unseen and unprovable.”

Our most recent reading “E.T. and God” by Paul Davies illustrated how the discovery of life outside of Earth would affect already existing religions, but not how it could spark new ones. In his article, “The New American Religion of UFOs,” Sean Illing describes this new religion’s differences compared to older ones. Obviously, instead of a God or gods, these people believe in extraterrestrial life. However, the fundamental belief system is different from other religions in the past. Rather than believe that something has happened such as how Catholics believe that Jesus died on the cross and that Moses parted the Red Sea, these people believe in the future. They believe that their religion is something that will be proved and undeniable.

Works Cited

Illing, Sean. “The New American Religion of UFOs.” Vox, Vox, 4 June 2019, www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/4/18632778/ufo-aliens-american-cosmic-diana-pasulka.