You seem to forget one thing about Traveller, Pundit - the first "aliens" encountered - were Humans! (Well, Vilani, but still human). If the first "aliens" we discover are human beings, that will REINFORCE the Monotheists, since although Earth might not be as "special" anymore (or actually, that now makes the entire planet the Garden of Eden and the cradle of the galactic human civilization), its clear (at least until the Vegans show up) that mankind is spread among the stars. That won't dissuade anyone, and will reinforce many.

Again, once the clearly non-human types show up, things could get shakey. But true believers will never be convinced otherwise, no matter how much evidence is presented.

Why do you think a big part of the huge political brouhaha on the Solomani Rim is based on human supremacy? There's more than a little religious element in there, IMO.

If the first "aliens" we encountered were actually  humans, then of course the massive crises that would emerge would have less to do with metaphysics and more to do with the questions of the origins of humanity (assuming that human life did begin on Earth as we believe now, I figure that it would probably be manageable for the protestants); and then of course the world as a whole would become obsessed with the Human-aliens religiousness or lack thereof.

IF the human-aliens had no religion, that would cause a massive crisis of faith in many religions (again, with the monotheist judeo-christian ones suffering most); especially if they're more advanced and seem generally happy without religion.

IF the human-aliens had religions that weren't visibly like any of ours, there'd be huge conversions through the world as people got on the bandwagon of whatever cool new religions these guys brought with them, and there'd be massive calls for religious missionary work and holy wars against the demonically-influenced human-aliens and their evil space-religion.

IF the human-aliens happened to have a religion that seemed very similar to a given religion on Earth this would lead to massive triumphalism on the part of whatever religion they might resemble ("Look... they're Space-Mormons! Moroni was real all along!!"), and of course every other monotheist religion or sect declaring that these human-aliens were part of a satanic trap and urging holy war at all costs.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditIf the first "aliens" we encountered were actually  humans, then of course the massive crises that would emerge would have less to do with metaphysics and more to do with the questions of the origins of humanity (assuming that human life did begin on Earth as we believe now, I figure that it would probably be manageable for the protestants); and then of course the world as a whole would become obsessed with the Human-aliens religiousness or lack thereof.

Actually, a big chunk of the Solomani unrest is, essentialy, Earth-Firsters who point out that the Ancients took Earth stock of humans and other speciaes (dogs to make Vargr, etc.) to seed the Galaxy. If I remember my canon correctly, it has been established that Vilani ARE direct decendants of Earth proto-humans, so its not a theory in the 3rd Imperium. While many of the human supremacists admit it was a hyper-advanced alien race that did it, I can easily see the religious handwaving that and having it be God who did so. Its not much of a stretch, really.

Quote from: RPGPunditIF the human-aliens had no religion, that would cause a massive crisis of faith in many religions (again, with the monotheist judeo-christian ones suffering most); especially if they're more advanced and seem generally happy without religion.

Actually, I think this would be taken as a positive for religionists on Earth. "Look, they're human, but they haven't heard the Word of God, so our commission has expanded beyond our wildest dreams!" After all, it worked in the Americas, right?

Quote from: RPGPunditIF the human-aliens had religions that weren't visibly like any of ours, there'd be huge conversions through the world as people got on the bandwagon of whatever cool new religions these guys brought with them, and there'd be massive calls for religious missionary work and holy wars against the demonically-influenced human-aliens and their evil space-religion.

Why? Novelty? People don't seem to be inclined to flock to current religions much these days. As for conversion work and such, of course that'd be a goal of the Religious - its what they do here, so again, their commission would just be expanded greatly.

Quote from: RPGPunditIF the human-aliens happened to have a religion that seemed very similar to a given religion on Earth this would lead to massive triumphalism on the part of whatever religion they might resemble ("Look... they're Space-Mormons! Moroni was real all along!!"), and of course every other monotheist religion or sect declaring that these human-aliens were part of a satanic trap and urging holy war at all costs.

Of course! We embrace the familiar and reject the unusual, mostly, as a species. That said, of all the mainstream Christian faiths, I think the Mormons would be the least-impacted by the discovery of ANY alien race, despite potential differencesin/lack of religious faith.

And of course, if the space-alien religion IS very close to any of the Monotheistic Earth faiths, then maybe there really IS something to it. Its always a possibility.