SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
God and ET are having a moment, sort of. First, there was the release of the so-called UFO files by the Trump administration in May, which sparked a wide range of reactions from religious Americans. Then there was a new blockbuster summer movie, "Disclosure Day," where extraterrestrial life is presented as a direct threat to religious belief. It turns out religions have been thinking about aliens for centuries, and they have some surprising theories. To tell us more, I'm joined by Jack Jenkins from Religion News Service. Hey, Jack.
JACK JENKINS: Hey. How are you doing?
DETROW: I mean, it seems like a lot of people, apparently including film director Steven Spielberg, believe the existence of aliens would cause people to lose or at least deeply question their religious beliefs.
JENKINS: Yeah. So obviously, if aliens were revealed to the world today, that would be a huge deal for everyone. But it turns out faith leaders have been thinking about extraterrestrial life for longer than you'd think. In the early 15th century, a German Catholic cardinal was already insisting on the prospect of life living around other stars. And back in the early 1700s, Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather was postulating that God was so great that life simply must exist elsewhere. Then there was this surge of religious discourse around aliens in the 20th century, particularly during the space race. And you had rabbis writing in the 1960s that Jewish texts have pointed to the existence of other worlds for centuries.
DETROW: This is interesting. But, I mean, isn't it fair to say, though, that the existence of sentient life elsewhere would raise some pretty big religious questions?
JENKINS: Oh, absolutely. In fact, a big question for Christians is, if intelligent aliens exist, did Jesus die for their sins too? What if aliens all have their own alien Jesus? It's a whole thing. But some religious traditions have arguably always embraced aliens. Indiana University professor Paul Gutjahr, who is actually publishing a book this year called "Faith In Space," told me that Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist tradition, actually wrote about aliens extensively back in the 1800s.
PAUL GUTJAHR: One of her takes was, the Earth is the only fallen planet. There is life elsewhere, but none of it fell, OK? Only Earth - and so Earth was the only planet Jesus needed to die on to redeem humanity.
JENKINS: Gutjahr went on to explain that according to White's theology, aliens are watching Earth in this sort of giant cosmic amphitheater, and we function as a sort of, as he put it, visual aid to the entire universe, teaching aliens about God's mercy.
DETROW: I mean, given all of this, is it fair to say that a lot of religious people are fairly willing to accept aliens?
JENKINS: Well, a few years ago, Pew Research polled Americans of all faiths, and they found that people who are more religious are less likely than Americans who aren't affiliated with a faith tradition to believe intelligent life exists on other planets. But more than half of Protestants and Catholics still said that their best guess is that intelligent life is out there. And among faith groups that polled, the only outlier, really, was white evangelicals, only around 40% of whom assume intelligent life exists. But there are pretty notable exceptions to that too. Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee is one of the most vocal believers of - in UFOs in Congress, and he also happens to be an evangelical Christian. And he told me he sees evidence of UFOs in scripture.
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TIM BURCHETT: First chapter of Ezekiel, he saw the wheel, and the wheel at that time was the most technologically advanced mechanized item that they had. And he described basically what I would say a traditional flying saucer.
JENKINS: I reached out to Burchett about those ideas more recently, and he's actually articulated it again as these new UFO files have come out.
DETROW: We've talked about a lot of different religious beliefs here and a lot of different people within them. So obviously, there's a wide variety of beliefs. I mean, the one other thing that's been in the headlines recently - didn't Vice President JD Vance recently claim that he thinks UFOs are actually demons?
JENKINS: Yeah, that's a pretty controversial belief actually, particularly within Catholicism, which is Vice President Vance's faith. The idea got a lot of attention also after news broke earlier this month that Cardinal Robert McElroy, who oversees the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., had removed a local exorcist. McElroy cited the exorcist's claims that UFOs are demons as part of the reason for his removal, saying such statements were, quote, "gravely undermined," end quote, in church teaching. So yes, there's a pretty wide spectrum of beliefs out there.
DETROW: That is Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service. Jack, I think that's the first time the concept of an alien Jesus has been discussed on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Thank you so much for your reporting on this.
JENKINS: Thanks for having me.
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