Late in Steven Spielberg's new film, Disclosure Day, 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 of God is what 'keeps whole civilizations together.' She's worried that when people find out that humans aren't the only intelligent beings in the universe, they'll lose their faith, and society will crumble. In other words, Jane shouldn't be afraid. The existence of aliens does not necessarily conflict with belief in God. As Sister Maura says later in the conversation, 'Why would he make such a vast universe yet save it only for us'' 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's view on God and aliens is hardly novel. Although the Catholic Church takes no official...
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