HELLO FUTURE: What Happens to Religion if Aliens Exist?

What would faith look like if we weren’t alone in the universe? In this episode of HELLO FUTURE with Kevin Cirilli, Kevin sits down with Dr. Lance Gharavi of Arizona State University — a leading scholar of artificial intelligence, emerging tech, religion, theater, and space exploration — to explore how the discovery of extraterrestrial life could transform belief as we know it. From ancient creation stories to future Martian colonies, they discuss how religions might adapt, what role ritual could play in helping humanity process contact, and why the question of aliens might be the most spiritual one of all. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
If you're like me, you go down many YouTube rabbit
holes when you can't sleep, and you go on YouTube
and you start searching for religion and aliens. What happens
with religion and spirituality? What if the aliens exist? What
does it mean to religion? And I came across this
guest from Arizona State University. He moderated some talk on

(00:29):
this topic like three years ago when I couldn't sleep
one night and I was like, I got to interview
this guy. Hello Future, It's me keV and this is
a dispatch from the Digital Frontier. The planet is Earth,
the year is twenty twenty five, and my guest today
is Lance Garavi. We are talking about all things today
about what happens to religion. I'm gonna say when proof

(00:51):
of life elsewhere is proven to exist. So, Lance, have
I told you about that video that I watched? But
tell me a little bit before we zoom into God
and aliens, tell me about how you ended up where
you are because you have this fascinating mix of arts
and science that is really really interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm I'm a theater artist and scholar of theater and
performance studies, and a lot of my work is that
intersections of art, science and technology. Wow, you mentioned ASU's
Interplanetary Initiative. I was part of that right from the

(01:33):
get go and from twenty twenty I was appointed have
been serving as the associate director there, the only non
scientist or non engineer in the leadership.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I love this stuff because as someone who also is
not a scientist, but who wants to go to space
and to come back, I think we need more people
who are not necessarily science based, but are great translators
and storyteller in this field. What does ASU's Interplanetary Initiative do?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
So the Interplanetary Initiative which was recently shut down, but
what its mission was was to essentially imagine, design and
build the future of humans in space. Yes, and you
know you raise the point that you think they need
more artists in this space. I think they need more
artists and more journalists and philosophers and theologians, social scientists.

(02:29):
Here's the thing. Space exploration is really, really hard. It
is one of the most ambitious endeavors our species has
ever engaged in. Because it's so difficult. It's bigger than
any singular field or discipline can contain. We need all

(02:50):
skills all knowledges, all voices, all perspectives contributing to this
immense and inspiring endeavor.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
So Lance, let's now just dive into it. I remember
when I was growing up, a huge question was you know,
I'm Christian and I don't force my religion on anyone,
but I remember having conversations as a kid quite literally, oh, well,
if there's aliens, what does that mean for God?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
What does that mean for religion?

Speaker 1 (03:20):
And the reason the government isn't telling us that there's
aliens is because it would mess up religion. Like that
was very much in the zeitgeist of culture back then.
And I flash forward to twenty twenty five when NASA
just discovered potential biosignatures on Mars, and it was not
I mean, people still want to church on Sunday, you know,
And I guess what would happen to religion? And how

(03:44):
is your answer to that question evolved over time and
in the academic space.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Let me give a couple of caveats. First, one, this
particular question of what happens to religion, as you put it,
if we discover extra christial life has not been a
particular focus of mine, you know, in terms of the
creative and scholarly work I do on religion. That said,

(04:12):
I think I guess my second caveat would be it
depends because, for several reasons, one religion is not monumental.
There are many religions, so I don't think it makes
sense to say this is what will happen to religion,
because religions are too varied to give one monumental answer.

(04:36):
So it depends on sort of the faith tradition. Christians
on the whole may react very differently than Buddhists or
Islam or new religious movements, new age movements.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
I would say, like, do you think it would actually
even change? In all honesty, When people discover a new
species on planet Earth, that doesn't really change anything. And
so if you're discovering an alien species on another planet
and you believe that a creator made the planet, then
I'm not really sure how that changes anything. Likewise, if
you don't believe that there's a higher power that created everything,

(05:14):
then I don't think it really changes your belief system either.
So I just I'm wondering does it change anything? Is
it just a non issue now? I mean, I would
argue it kind of is in terms of how its
impact on religion would be especially for you know, the
large religions, because I just think people kind of assume
that it's already out there, and then beyond that, I
also just think it's just not that big of a

(05:36):
deal anymore. I think it's become mainstream. I mean, when
Congress is having hearings and there's biparties an agreement on
UAP's and UFOs, it's kind of like a non issue anymore.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I don't know that there's bipartisan agreement on UAPs
and UFOs. We've had some curious testimony and that is
inflamed a lot of conspiracy theories. But I don't agree
that there's consensus on this.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think I'm going to politely push back and say that, actually,
I disagree. I think that there are some heavy hitters
in the Republican and Democratic parties who are giving credence.
The fact that these hearings are even occurring is of
itself and acted by partisanship. As someone who has covered
more than twelve years of Capitol Hill in the White House,
I can tell you that it is very rare for

(06:28):
the committee structures and powers that be. It's a more
widely accepted topic for serious non conspiracy based journalists like
myself to talk about and to bank the future of
their careers on.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Okay, I think I misunderstood the point you were making. Great, Yes,
there is bipartisan agreement on hmm. This is something we
should look into. This is something we should seriously investigate
and consider what is in fact going on. What I
thought you were saying that these UFOs are evidence that

(07:02):
extraterrestrial intelligence is visiting us.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Well, I also find it's interesting. I didn't realize this
until it came across my headlines just the other day
with the new Pope ap news. Poplio marks the fifty
sixth anniversary of moon landing with an observatory visit and
a call to buzz Aldrin. This according to the Associated Press,
Poplio marked the anniversary after praying at a summer retreat.

(07:25):
Leo headed to the Astronomical observatory located in the Pontifical Villa.
So immediately, as someone who covers all of this and
talks about this, I said, wait a minute, the Vatican
has its own observatory. And then I went down that
rabbit hole, and they've had. According to the BBC's sky
at Night magazine. The Pope and the Planets, the impact

(07:46):
they've had this observatory for hundreds of years.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, the director of the Vatican Observatory is a wonderful
guy named brother Guy Consulmak Know you mentioned the YouTube
video where you saw me interviewing some experts about alien intelligence.
Guy Consulmagno was one of our guests on that series,

(08:12):
and my collaborator Mary Jane Rubinstein, and I, who put
together that series, are shortly soon going to be releasing
an edited anthology of articles about religion and space exploration,
and Guy is one of the contributors to that. There's
also a chapter in there specifically about UFOs and extraterrestrials

(08:36):
and religion.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
So what can you tell us about the Pope's interactions
and historically about the planets.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Well, I mean that goes back to Galileo and before,
but the Vatican has made some statements historically about extraterrestrial life,
explicitly saying that it does not contradict Catholic faith. One
of the previous directors of the Vatican Observatory suggested that

(09:03):
extra trustoral life would be quote part of creation. So
I think that the Catholic Church has wrestled with these
issues before, and I think they would frame the discovery
of extra trustraal life in terms of a newly discovered
part of God's creation. Now, you asked me what would

(09:24):
happen if we discovered extrastrial life. I do think the
world's various religions and people representing them and people just
not necessarily representing them but within them, would have thoughts
and express those thoughts and opinions and perspectives, and there
would probably be from various religions quote unquote, official statements

(09:48):
about that discovery.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
I want to keep on this conversation.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
So that's part one of our conversation with Lance Garavi,
and we're talking all things about space exploration and its
impact on religions and aliens and the pope and the planets.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
So plants to stick around for Part two