Extraterrestrial Religion

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I disagree. We have been speculating on the possibility of encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence for over a century now. The natives of the New World were not in any way expected.

No, most of that relates to a human Judeo-Christian belief system. The aliens don't have to do anything, and for all we know, they may not have a concept that really fits what we consider "religion". Their existence just creates questions that are difficult to answer.

I am not saying we haven't been speculating, the real issue is whether aliens are compatible with the Christian revelation in a meaningful sense. The New World natives have no issue, but an alien life form would. Now... as I already stated, I think Christianity would survive, I just don't think the Christian answer will be a credible one.

Actually, it wouldn't be meaningless, and a religion very easily COULD talk about the millions of other worlds as part of its cosmology. The Biblical cosmology though, portrays a world that does not really cohere with this well. I mean, it really doesn't cohere with heliocentrism well either, but aliens just magnifies that issue.


Well, ok, but the problem with invoking "free will" is just that there is not evidence of human beings actually acting in an acausal manner, nor are their mechanisms that suggest the ability. Even if we claim we have that, we can't really compare our neurology to the alien neurology to find the difference.

I think that either answer you give would be somewhat problematic. Organization in religion does not seem to be a side-note for the Bible, but rather the idea of spiritual leaders was instituted for both Judaism and Christianity in an official sense. And excluding religion involves a lot of problems for the damnation of these creatures, especially given that unless we have Christ dying 300 million times, they'd have no option to be saved, and having Christ die 300 million times in different bodies would just be an absurdity.

Well, on the "surprise" front aliens would definitely be less of a shock. We've anticipated their existence, and people have already been contemplating the theological implications. Not so with the Native Americans.


They were a pretty significant theological problem at the time.


So? You don't think it is credible in the absence of aliens either.

We really do think along very different lines. I suppose using your logic, you would then be fine with letting my Catholic brethren run every family planning service, so long as they are qualified?

Catholicism is more than a career, it is an ideology, and that's the difference. An undertaker may be presumed to "want people dead", but I really doubt that in practice they would actually go around letting folks die or killing them. A Catholic family planner though, really may actually feel the need to push for something, but it really depends on the Catholic. If a lot of these Catholics are liberals and the sort that the main church would want to expel, then there might not be an issue at all.

ETs in the Bible?: Read Gen 6: 1 - 4.

ruveyn

Ah, the speculation on the nature of the Nephilim. I have heard of this before though I don't know too much about the Bible to be perfectly honest so I can't speculate with any real authority on that subject
On another note, I have read a few 'ancient astronaut' theories that try to explain religious experiences as early encounters with extra terrestrials. Unfortunately I also notice that people who support ancient astronaut theories also tend to think aliens built the pyramids or introduced civilization to early man; which I think is a silly under-appreciation for our species' capacity for intellectual growth, and also inability to recognize that situations analogous to each other (multiple civilizations built pyramids... big deal) can exist despite no relation. It is actually pretty obvious throughout history that simple geometric patterns such as triangles are often the first artistic works of a given civilization

There is no reason God couldn't have created life on other worlds and just chose not to let humans know about that little fact.

^ Its very true. It seems to me that an omnipotent being would have better things to do then tell one of its creations about all its other creations. A God probably doesn't need to boast after all

Or it may be he felt humanity wasn't ready to know about life on other planets, it could also be that it was forgotten by humans when we were cast out of the garden and we weren't ready to know about life on other worlds when the Book of Genesis was written.

And for a good reason. The triangle is an essentially rigid structure. Its sides completely determine its angles. That is why all construction is ultimately based on triangular bracing of some sort. Friction by itself will not do since all frictional joints will loosen up over time. But a triangle is rigid as long as the linear members remain intact.

The discovery of the triangle is as important to the human race as the discovery of the wheel, the wedge and the lever.

ruveyn

"As near as i can tell they are fighting over which religion is the most peaceful"



If a higher being did create us, they would perhaps love the atheists more for not believing all the BS which was written about them.

Religious people often tell me since i do not believe in god i have something wrong with my brain literally for not understanding "god"

I think many religious people have just discovered their spiritual self and found a stronger sense of peace with themselves and the world around them. (this is the view i hold regardless of religion)

ET life would probably share the same spiritual views if you ask me.

thats very arrogant to assume that on this galaxy where there are hundreds of thousands of solar systems and even more planets and hundreds of thousands if not millions of galaxies that we were the only planet to develop intelligent life

in fact, NASA has already found aliens on Mars there are microscopic organisms they may not be intelligent yet but they are 100% aliens cuz they originated on Mars and not Earth which already disproves your "if any" statement

personally i think discovery of intelligent alien life could disprove the view of the universe through the bible after all it says its only 6-12 thousand years old(look up Young Earth Society) there is also a christian society called the Flat Earth Society they believe that the earth is coin shaped which allows it to be flat but still let you travel around it those literalist christians deny every bit of evidence and science even actual pictures of the earth saying its all fake a big conspiracy to spite them or something like that

Swap hundreds of thousands for billions and millions for billions and you are a bit closer. That is a load of potentially habitable solar systems.