If we found that the human race was the only life form that exists in the entire universe...?

Question

....would we still be so keen on killing each other and destroying the planet or would our attitude to existence change?

that's INTELLIGENT life form

Answer 1

We would still be so keen on killing each other and destroying the planet

Answer 2

Let's put it this way (to bring out the moral importance of the question):

We have zero evidence that other life (intelligent or not) exists anywhere in the universe. Until we do have any such evidence, we ought to assume no other life does exist. It does not follow from this, of course, that we ought to stop looking - quite the contrary.

Our morally required assumption, then, is that we are alone, that all life on this planet is alone in the universe, and might be, for all we know, the only life that ever has or ever will exist. What follows, morally, from this assumption?

Nothing, unless we also place a very high value on life - which we clearly do, since the ultimate purpose of both religion and science is to deny death.

So now, what follows morally from the assumption that this planet's life is all the life there is, and the ultimate value of life?

One main moral conclusion follows: the absolute immorality of any behavior that might endanger the survival of life on this planet. This moral principle makes both war and environmental destruction absolutely immoral.

Answer 3

As most people are selfish and egotistical I doubt that it would make any difference. People go about their daily lives regardless of having any proof of other existences, and even if an alien landed in your town some people would still continue as if nothing had occured. WE HUMANS TEND TO THINK THE UNIVERSE EXISTS FOR US WHEN IN REALITY WE EXIST BECAUSE OF THE UNIVERSE. Sad to say we as a human race, would I fear, continue down the same slippery and dangerous slope towards distaster.... You know the Hopi Indian saying:

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Then man will know that money cannot be eaten!!

The Native American Indians knew what we were in for centuries ago....

Answer 4

That's probably the best question Ive heard so far, u know our mindsets would change but whether its for the better or for the worse is a matter of many a sequence of events that we obviously cant determine. The main thing would be if the alien life was hostile, friendly, helpful or deceptive. one scenario would be the lifeforms having a meeting with the ambassador of earth, who would be earths ambassador? would that bring about more fighting and turmoil? Or even if they were to far away to make contact with how much money and science would be expend on trying to reach them? I really dint think on that last scenario that we would just stop and start to change the world, i think the last thing we need are ideas having to do with other "worldly problems".

Answer 5

of course we would, we dont consider if there is any other life forms in the universe before we choose an option to create or destroy.
we are animal, just like all other animals on earth, we are just another species which does what it does.

no different than a dog or a cat or ape or camel or whatever they do what they do, it's just not what our species does.

man will keep on being jealous, deceiptful, murderous, cruel, and kind, loving, caring, constructive, positive, etc etc they are all part of mans long list of attributes.

but he is one major asshole day in day out, and what for, what is the reason we are living each day. to what end, does anyone know that?

a creature living on a planet, wakes up, presumably washes itself, eats something, goes to do manual things for another creature, gets some paper and metal, takes it to a building and exchanges it for some food it needs to survive, gives out more of it to have its own cave (as it were) gives out more to have light at night time, and run some useful tools to cook and entertain. it does this each day between 5-7 days of the week.
and what is it doing it for. what is the end product of all this activity done by this creature.
in most cases it is no more significant than the 48 or 72hrs or whatever length it is for a housefly to be born live a life and die.
its existence is as important as ours. we are just another whatever on this spinning ball.
end of story.

Answer 6

!!!

crikey. lemme think a minute about this one. I assume you mean "advanced intelligent tool-making life"

OK your answer to my question says we'll never be in that position. But hypothetically, I think it would not help; rather, I think the opposite would help more. Random killing and destruction are often perpetrated by those who believe that our mortal lives are just an obstacle course test for eternity, and so any suffering inflicted on others is irrelevant in comparison to that. In the main, these people don't have a chapter on life on other planets in their books of truth. Finding support for that would give them a confirmation that, frankly, they wouldn't use wisely.

Those who believe that extra terrestrial intelligent life is possible, or even extremely likely, tend to be those that value the here and now, and are more inclined to look after it. Meeting extra terrestrials, or at least getting to see their TV shows, would cause everyone on the planet to re-appraise their place in the universe. That would be a good thing. Yay for the little green men.

PS elitetrooper459 - I wish I had her succinctness

Answer 7

If we found out that the human race was the only INTELLIGENT life form then the entire universe would have to be full of pretty stupid life forms.

Answer 8

We would still be at each other's throats because society does not look at the bigger picture, which would be existence. Everyone is equal and touted as such, but for small plights pertaining to oil or nuclear weapons, the human race is killing itself off. If everyone looked at SURVIVAL instead of just "Survival of the fittest" the world would be one grand economy. However, a utopia will never come.

Answer 9

I am not keen on killing anyone. I do think it won't matter to much in a little while anyway. WE will not destroy the planet but eventually God will do away with most of it and create the NEW JERUSALEM

Answer 10

Wouldn't change a thing. Human beings are pretty self-centered creatures. We're not especially keen on war and destruction; we're just keen on our own values and goals, and war and destruction are the natural side effects.