I'd also be entertained by reactions should sentient alien beings interact with humans in my lifetime.

I wonder if they are evolving to be wholly good in spirit and deed like us humans are trying to be

I also wonder why there was millions of years for evolution, and why we went through a phase of dinosaurs.

A Case of Conscience by James Blish.

Very interesting. I wish I were more of a science fiction fan.

Is that all too many SF authors don't know much about religion. Blish was theologically literate, and Walter Miller (writer of A Canticle for Liebowitz) was as well. Poul Anderson's "The Problem of Pain" (in The Earth Book of Stormgate) is another example of good religious SF. But, for example, David Weber's At All Costs shows a basic misunderstanding of how the Catholic Church changes dogma.

I shall do no more than mention Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which are frankly atheistic (the Christian God puts in a brief appearance, as a drooling, senile fool). Admittedly, it's fantasy, not SF.

and richly imagined.
Is Pullman killing God, or is he killing religious institutions?

The controversy surrounding that trilogy reminds me of the controversy about the 1990s British movie Priest. Religious conservatives heard that the plot involved a gay priest, and without knowing anything more, they picketed it and wrote LTEs condemning it.

When I actually saw it, the audience reaction was interesting. Anti-religious people saw it as an anti-religious film, while liberal religious people thought it was a thoughtful portrayal of struggling with the difference between the reality and the rules and even had a subplot that could be called "Let go and let God." A couple of years ago, I showed it to a group of friends from church, since reconciliation had been a theme in our parish, and they pointed out that it had a lot to say about reconciliation, too.

So I wonder if the Pullman books are a similar example of religious conservatives basing their opinion of a work on a summary of its most controversial part and denying themselves and their children an introduction into a wondrous fictional world.

And I stand by my statement that it is frankly atheistic. God is presented as an imposter, now senile. The Catholic Church is presented as a tyrannical body, one that would willingly employ Lavrenti Beria in its ranks.

to believe that, since god created 'everything'.

"All Creatures of our God and King," and so on.