If a Man came from Heaven ...

If we made contact with aliens how would religions react?

Excerpt:

[M]any scientists ... now argue that the detection of extraterrestrial life is more a question of when, not if.

There are several reasons for this confidence, but a main one has to do with the speed at which scientists have been discovering planets outside of our own Solar System. In 2000, astronomers knew of about 50 of these ‘exoplanets’. By 2013, they had found almost 850, located in over 800 planetary systems. That number may reach one million by the year 2045, says David Weintraub, associate professor of Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, and author of Religions and Extraterrestrial Life. “We can quite reasonably expect that the number of known exoplanets will soon become, like the stars, almost uncountable,” he writes.

Comment: Observations and comments. But first a note on the image. A still from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" . Kathee, my sister and I are doing a detailed study of the Gospel of John. We have had 39 studies and we are just past the mid-point (end of John 12). There is a theme in John of what I will call "the man from heaven". Note the chiasm in John 16:28:

John 16:28 is not the first reference to "sent" or "return" in John's Gospel. Note the following: (this list is not exhaustive. See this search on "sent"

• For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17)
• For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. (John 3:34)
• “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34)
• Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him (John 5:23)
• “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
• By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. (John 5:30)
• I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. (John 5:36)
• For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. (John 6:38)
• I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me. (John 8:18)
• Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. (John 9:4)
• what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? (John 10:36)
• but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ (John 16:5)
• that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:21)
• Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
• Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God (John 13:3)
• The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Back to the linked to article which  hypothesizes at mans' response to an alien encounter: This science-so-called is a religion unto itself which misses the obvious: God came from heaven with a message of hope and salvation. His name is Jesus!