Why Contact with ETI Would Undermine Religion

The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) would have great implications for humanity. While we may one day discover ETI which possesses lesser technological development than our own civilization, for the purposes of this essay I will only be discussing ETI that is technologically superior — that is, ETI which has advanced to the point where they (or it) can traverse the distance between stars, or communicate scientific / practical knowledge that is more advanced than ours. (Note: all following uses of “ETI” should be taken to imply “advanced ETI”).