Representatives of world confessions have different attitudes towards the UFO phenomenon. The existence of extraterrestrials often does not fit into the worldview of believers, who are increasingly turning to their spiritual mentors for clarification.
"Demons" by Vsevolod Chaplin
Orthodox Christians see a demonic nature in UFOs. The priests base their reasoning on the epistle of the Apostle Paul and the work of the holy fathers, who claim that the aliens are a manifestation of demonic forces that have deliberately reincarnated into humanoid, but harmful creatures.
“False apostles, crafty workers take the form of Christ's apostles, and no wonder: Satan himself takes the form of an angel of light. Therefore, it is not a great thing if his servants take the form of ministers of righteousness,”says the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians.
In addition, the official Orthodox Church, referring to the words of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, asserts that the desire of people to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence is a manifestation of a weakening of faith, to which a demon is drawn through the temptation of knowing a person. In the event of a UFO sighting, the Christian is commanded to cross himself and pray.
In one of his interviews, the head of the department for relations between the Church and society of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, stated that there are no UFOs, and eyewitnesses often mistake angels and demons for aliens.
“We know that the created world is not limited to material beings. There are angels and demons - they were often mistaken and are still mistaken for the so-called aliens. These are real beings, a person comes into contact with them, they periodically reveal themselves. Everyone should know and remember about the reality of their existence,”he stressed.
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Place in a bottle for aliens
Islam is a religion younger than Christianity, and this should help its representatives to tolerate the existence of an alternative world. However, the views of Muslims are not too different from those of Orthodox believers. They believe that UFOs are a manifestation of the life activity of genies, which, according to myths, should live in a bottle, and not on other planets.
The Qur'an says that jinn are by nature creatures that emerged from fire, so they give off a slight glow. UFO eyewitnesses often talk about dim light that comes from a "flying saucer" or other object. This fact finally convinced Muslims that aliens are genies and do not pose a real danger.
Jews are even less interested in the problems of extraterrestrial civilizations. In the opinion of the Jewish clergy, the church should not pay attention to such issues. Perhaps this attitude to the UFO phenomenon is due to the fact that the Torah emphasizes the anthropocentricity of the universe: regardless of the presence of other civilizations, God created only a person who is in the center of the world.
Reasonable Vatican or tolerant Buddhists
Against this background, Buddhists seem to be the most tolerant of extraterrestrial civilizations. According to several polls conducted by British scientists, more than half of all Buddhists admit the existence of life on other planets. About 40% of them say that scientific confirmation of this fact will not affect the strength of their faith in any way.
Similar questions were asked to Catholics, 60% of whom said that it would be a great shock for them to learn that there are other civilizations in the Universe. Pope Benedict XVI, who recently left office, stated that science, like faith in God, is necessary to preserve life on Earth, therefore Catholicism is trying to cooperate with science and direct its discoveries in the right direction. The official Vatican has recognized the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial beings.