Could an ALIEN species develop science BEFORE it developed religion?

Question

Our distant ancestors did not understand the world in which they lived. They saw female animals giving birth, and probably concluded that the universe itself was 'born' out of a female God - the pagan Earth Godess. Later, as men took charge of society, Gods replaced, or were added to, the Earth Godess myth. Other cultures worshipped the Sun as the bringer of life. Still others developed strange variants of their own.

BUT, could an intelligent alien species bypass these tens-of-thousands of years of mythology and develop a purley scientific explanation of existence WITHOUT going through the 'religious age' first?

Can you offer a path of cultural development an alien species would need to take in order to reach, say, our own level of scientiic knowledge without having developed religion? A culture in which spirituality has ALWAYS been satisfied by science?

Or, is this process - religion first, then science later - the only logical path an intelligent species can take?

Answer 1

yes.

but in a kind of way, science is a religion. i know we can discuss this a lot...

also how could we figure what happen to a form of existence we dont even know they exist. Religion probably emerge because of the way the brain is made and behave.

just figure an alien spicies like super intelligent ant. they will not see their existance and react to death the same way. no family scheme like human have. Maybe they will have no spirituality in the way we have it.

maybe...

Answer 2

Science and Religion are two in the same. Just two different perspectives looking for answers to all the same questions. They both came from our earliest Human nature to ponder, explore, attempt to understand, and to survive the world in which we lived (and live in now), and to give us a footing of where we stand in it as self-aware beings in our world. Self-awareness, there's an interesting concept to question. What weren't we happy about rummaging for vegies through the sludge that inspired That to come about?? Fear of the unknown and the things we couldn't control sparked the invention of Gods, and Worship. Those within the group fearless enough venture behind the Wizard's curtain and find the midget controlling all the smoke and lights, and from it figure out how to do something better ways than before, became the scientists, which sparked the intelligence evolution of inovation that brought us to the tune we see today. Who's to say Religion and Science didn't emerge together? Perhaps they sparked one another from a single abstract idea. Or perhaps they emerged as seperate concepts by two different people at the same time. There are no records of early mankind as of yet found to debunk either possibility. So your question, as it it asked, can afford no answer outside of mere speculation. Science, Religion, It's all relative to basic Human abstract thought no matter how you try to slice and dice it into little tiny pieces for endless debate within one prefered frame of understanding. Logicality, which is neither scientific nor religious, is born from and dwells only in common sense. Common Sense comes from discovery through trial and error. What role Religion plays in logicality can only stem from the perspective one places on the discovery. And so common sense is subject to what you can make of it from what direction and level of evolution (learning) your own mentality has expanded to at any time, which happens to be the very inspiration for Debate amongst Humans all alike since no two people think exactly alike. So what came first - the Chicken, the Egg, Science, Religion.... What came first? The Need came first. What happened after that only Nature can tell at this point. Here's a new question for anyone pondering this issue... Imagine just for a moment if, for the earliest of Religion's sake, someone listened to the volcano brimsrone lecture from the old man shaking the stick at everybody... ...and put the flint back... What would you be debating now?

Answer 3

good question! from the beginning of time as we know it we have been visted by ufos, some say.is god an alien? if so where did they come from?(or he /she)religion is a personal thing, ask 100 people get 100 different aswers.i would say yes to your question because aliens may not have a religion as some people see it.what they see may totaly different than us.just look at all the different religions we have here.is there a god?who knows?

Answer 4

well, if the race was extremly observant and noticed things hum,ans could not, then it could be possible. if said alien race had extreme magnifying abilities with their eyes, then they may be able to see molecular structures and therefore wonder about them and observe them till they discovered the purpose of the molecular structures.

however, i think it would be highly improbable for an alien race to develop science before it developed religion due to the common idea that religion acts as a catalyst and helps motivate the race of whatever to achieve things.

Answer 5

I agree with you to a certain point.

Yes, religion first, then followed by science THEN followed by religion again!!

Answer 6

don't know