Opinion Editorial Archive November, 2023: Reliegion

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'Reliegion' will eventually become a real word because language evolves. The words 'region' and 'religion' have been connected for as long as there have been indigenous peoples. In 1971, Yoko Ono Lennon said: "We can never have peace unless the whole world would have total communication." I believe she understood that the word 'lie' belongs with the word 'religion.'

If you watched the 2016 science-fiction film Arrival and found it confusing, you are not alone. I watched it twice before it began to make sense to me. One of its themes is perfectly summarized in a popular YouTube comment: It is easier for humans to communicate with aliens than for governments to communicate with each other. In context, the comment echoes Ono's sentiment.

Last month, there was continued, popular interest in a sequel. The most obvious title for one is Departure. But, we don't need a sequel to know what happens three thousand years after the end of the first film. After all, the aliens' departing gift was our ability to see that future once we learned their language.

Last month, BBC Future posted a few articles on our attempts to detect and communicate with aliens. Most scientists believe we will eventually detect alien intelligence and that aliens may have already detected us. While Arrival is science fiction, it draws heavily on the academic discipline of xenolinguistics — the (for now hypothetical) study of alien language. A key question for future xenolinguists is whether an actual alien language has terms like 'war' and 'genocide.' If so, we will know that its speakers also have at least two religions.

Perhaps the focus of Departure should be the "gift" that we shouln't bring when we depart Earth to help the aliens. While Arrival says nothing about why they will need our future help, a reasonable assumption is that it is to fight a war caused by religion. If not, and we depart with our own religions, we will only cause more wars on their planet.

While it is viewed as an academic-only field for now, xenolinguistics can contribute in real ways to our present situation. For example, it teaches us that the word 'creator' has two meanings. No follower of Judaism would wage war against their creator (within its religious meaning). However, last month, Israel began waging a diplomatic war against its creator (within its political meaning). Xenolinguistics also teaches us that Ono's 1971 sentiment is incomplete: There cannot be peace until we find a cure for religion.

We know that our first communication with 'aliens' could be with human ones. Fifty years from now, perhaps, people will be departing Earth to colonize Mars. If they are allowed to take their religion with them, that colony is already doomed to fighting wars.