The Search for Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial Civilization Stability

Interstellar communication evidently requires civilizations with long lifetimes. That is, they must be stable.

On Earth, major civilizations originated with a religion, suggesting religion provides stability. There are many examples. They include China, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Arabia. Two examples show the role of religion in creating and stabilizing civilizations.

First, during the Seventh Century, the Arab Tribes around Mecca and Medina converted from polytheism to the monotheism of Islam. Under polytheism they were dispersed desert tribes on the fringes of Egypt and the Sassanian empire. Under Islam, within a hundred years they became an empire that absorbed the other states, and stretched across North Africa to Spain.

Second, an example showing how removal of religious strife within an empire improves its stability.

To hold his empire together, the Roman Emperor Constantine decided he had to unify Christianity under one creed. He called warring bishops to Nicaea to draw one up.  When they had done this to his satisfaction, he gave tax exemptions to only those Churches following the new Nicean Creed. His eastern empire lasted for over a thousand years.

However, religions are also a source of war.  Furthermore, civil rights campaigns in the US and the Arab world show religion is not enough. Universal rights and personal dignity are essential. More generally, I see a single, common belief system as needed for stability. And a single, planet-wide, extraterrestrial belief system may not necessarily be religious.