Speculation about extraterrestrials is not all that new.
There was a vibrant debate in 17th-century Europe about the existence of life on other planets.
And if other planets were like Earth, then they most likely also had inhabitants.
An illustration showing the solar system planets.Illustration: NASA
But his speculation on such matters proceeded from the doctrine of the divine plenitude.
Others were much less confident in speculating on the nature of alien lives.
To Fontenelle, there was an infinite number of planets and an infinite number of inhabited worlds.
The frontispiece and title page of the second edition of Francis Godwin’s Man in the Moone.Illustration: Wikimedia
But it was also the result of the fecundity of the divine being from whom all things proceed.
The seed of Adam
But there was a significant problem.
If there were intelligent beings on the Moon or the planets, were they men?
He was convinced the Moon was inhabited.
But he was quite uncertain whether the lunar residents were of the seed of Adam.
Wilkinss simple solution was to deny their human status.
In the end, Fontenelle was also to adopt this solution.
He only wished to argue, he wrote, for inhabitants which, perhaps, are not Men.
This was intellectual space in which only the theologically braveor foolishdared to travel.
It was much easier to reject the humanity of the alien.
Thus, our modern belief that aliens are not like us originated as the solution to a theological problem.
They became alien, literally and metaphorically.
And, therefore, threatening and to be feared.
A product of the divine?
We no longer live in a universe that is seen as the product of the divine plenitude.
Nor one in which our planet can be viewed as the center of the universe.
In the early modern period, aliens were not looked upon as threatening to us.
They were, after all (even if they were not men), the product of divine goodness.
As projections of our own alienation, they terrify us, even as they continue to fascinate us.
Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought,The University of Queensland.
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license.
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