Baha'i Library Online

See original version at bahai-library.com/weintraub_religions_extraterrestrial_life.

COLLECTIONBook excerpts
TITLEReligions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?
AUTHOR 1David A. Weintraub
DATE_THIS2014
PAGE_RANGE199-200
ISBN13_THIS978-3-319-05056-0
PUB_THISSpringer International Publishing
CITY_THISSwitzerland
ABSTRACT2-page excerpt from a 5-page chapter on the Faith, in a book covering what world religions believe about alien life.
NOTES The following two pages, 199-200, are offered as a free sample of Chapter 20, "Bahá'í Faith," pages 199-204, from the publisher's website.
CROSSREFCompilation on Extraterrestrial Life
TAGS- Interfaith dialogue; Extraterrestrial life
 
CONTENT

1. About the book
(from springer.com)

In the twenty-first century, the debate about life on other worlds is quickly changing from the realm of speculation to the domain of hard science. Within a few years, as a consequence of the rapid discovery by astronomers of planets around other stars, astronomers very likely will have discovered clear evidence of life beyond the Earth. Such a discovery of extraterrestrial life will change everything.

Knowing the answer as to whether humanity has company in the universe will trigger one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in history, not the least of which will be a challenge for at least some terrestrial religions. Which religions will handle the discovery of extraterrestrial life with ease and which will struggle to assimilate this new knowledge about our place in the universe? Some religions as currently practiced appear to only be viable on Earth. Other religions could be practiced on distant worlds but nevertheless identify both Earth as a place and humankind as a species of singular spiritual religious importance, while some religions could be practiced equally well anywhere in the universe by any sentient beings.

Weintraub guides readers on an invigorating tour of the world’s most widely practiced religions. It reveals what, if anything, each religion has to say about the possibility that extraterrestrial life exists and how, or if, a particular religion would work on other planets in distant parts of the universe.

2. Excerpt, OCR-ed PDF
(free-sample images loaded into PDF and converted to text)

download PDF

3. Excerpt, original images
(2 pages, 199-200, provided as free sample from publisher's website)

VIEWS3508 views since 2015-10-14 (last edit 2015-10-14 00:32 UTC)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-05056-0
PERMISSIONfair use
LANG THISEnglish
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