{"id":698,"date":"2026-06-18T12:10:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=698"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:10:02","slug":"what-disclosure-day-misses-about-aliens-and-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=698","title":{"rendered":"What Disclosure Day Misses About Aliens and Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Late in Steven Spielberg\u2019s new film, Disclosure Day<\/em>, a former nun-to-be calls the abbess of the convent she left behind. The world is about to learn that aliens have been living on Earth for decades. Although Jane, the onetime novitiate, is no longer religious, she still thinks that the idea<\/em> of God is what \u201ckeeps whole civilizations together.\u201d She\u2019s worried that when people find out that humans aren\u2019t the only intelligent beings in the universe, they\u2019ll lose their faith, and society will crumble.<\/p>\n

Read more A Close-Up Look at the Waste of Modern Life<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGenesis says we\u2019re his supreme creation,\u201d Jane begins, but Sister Maura interrupts her: \u201cOn Earth,\u201d the nun clarifies. \u201cIt says we are God\u2019s supreme creation on Earth<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, Jane shouldn\u2019t be afraid. The existence of aliens does not necessarily conflict with belief in God. As Sister Maura says later in the conversation, \u201cWhy would he make such a vast universe yet save it only for us?\u201d Jane seems not to have heard this perspective before, and it reassures her. But centuries of Catholic writing and thinking about the universe demonstrate that Sister Maura\u2019s view on God and aliens is hardly novel.<\/p>\n

Although the Catholic Church takes no official position on the existence of extraterrestrial life, past and present Catholic figures have explored the possibility and not found it threatening. The 15th-century cardinal Nicholas of Cusa surmised that \u201cnone of the other regions of the stars are empty of inhabitants\u201d and even that some said inhabitants might be \u201cbrilliant, illustrious, and intellectual.\u201d In 1821, the Catholic philosopher Joseph de Maistre puzzled over the fact that some of his contemporaries regarded other planets as \u201cmere globes, destitute of life and beauty, which the Almighty has launched into space, apparently like a tennis-player, for his amusement solely.\u201d And in a 2010 interview, the former head of the Vatican Observatory, Brother Guy Consolmagno, said that he would be \u201cdelighted\u201d if humans were to discover intelligent life beyond our world.<\/p>\n

Consolmagno\u2019s reasoning helps explain why proof of extraterrestrial life hasn\u2019t shaken the faith of many Catholic thinkers. \u201cI love the physical universe, and I\u2019m not embarrassed to be in love with the physical universe,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cCreation is the place where we find God.\u201d This same conviction was part of what drove the Austrian priest Gregor Mendel to study garden peas and lay the foundation for modern genetics, and the Belgian priest Georges Lema\u00eetre to pioneer the Big Bang theory. If Earth and the heavens reflect the \u201ccreative freedom of God,\u201d as another head of the Vatican Observatory put it, then exploring them is a way to witness that creativity.<\/p>\n

Read more Atlantic Trivia: RIP 747<\/a><\/p>\n

This attitude also applies to considering the existence of aliens. Theologians have gone so far as to wonder how Catholic teaching would apply to hypothetical extraterrestrial life. Some of these thinkers have suggested that if aliens existed, they might not commit original sin, or if they did sin, they would be saved by Christ, or by a yet-to-come incarnation of God in their universe. These are speculative questions for Catholics, yet Christopher Baglow, the director of the Science & Religion Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, has written that they are useful because they can prompt the faithful to reflect on humanity\u2019s relationship to divinity.<\/p>\n

In Disclosure Day<\/em>, Jane\u2019s worrying is curious, coming from someone who meant to become a nun. She shows little familiarity with Catholicism\u2019s long history of comfort with the supernatural\u2014with angels and demons, miracles and apparitions\u2014that could make some believers especially prepared to accept the arrival of unfamiliar life from other worlds. The Catholic astronomer and Harvard professor Karin \u00d6berg has proposed that the existence of aliens doesn\u2019t affect God\u2019s relationship with humanity any more than the size of humanity affects his relationship with a particular human. \u201cIf we end up having alien \u2018siblings,\u2019\u201d \u00d6berg said in a 2022 lecture, \u201cthat does not mean that God cares or loves us any less.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to Disclosure Day<\/em>\u2019s release, Breitbart<\/em>, The Babylon Bee<\/em>, and a barrage of conspiracist anons accused Spielberg of making a film intent on having Christians \u201csecond-guessing their faith.\u201d They\u2019re wrong. Disclosure Day<\/em> is a movie for believers: believers in empathy, transparency, aliens (of course), and, yes, religion\u2014for its ability to help many people in their search for truth. It\u2019s strange, then, that the film spends so much time treating alien life as a threat to believers\u2019 trust in God. Just as Spielberg has in so many of his films, Catholics throughout the centuries have looked around at the cosmos not in fear, but in awe.<\/p>\n

Read more What Did You Expect?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Spielberg\u2019s new film treats extraterrestrial life as a challenge to faith. It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Disclosure Day Misses About Aliens and Religion - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Disclosure Day Misses About Aliens and Religion - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Steven Spielberg\u2019s new film treats extraterrestrial life as a challenge to faith. 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