Do you think the discovery of intelligent life/extraterrestrials would affect people's religion?

Question

I saw this show about Roswell last night and it said that a poll showed that 80% of Americans feel that their religious beliefs would not be affected by the discovery of intelligent life. That number seems very high to me...Aren't there still alot of fundamentalists in our country who insist on following the Bible word for word and take it all literally? The fact that aliens aren't mentioned in the Bible wouldn't do anything? Hard for me to believe when some people still refuse to believe in dinosaurs because they aren't in the book. What about the idea that aliens would either a) have completley different beliefs about higher powers and their own creation~ what if it contradicts ours? what if they're similar?do you think people would embrace their ideas? or b) they have evolved past the point of religion and have their existence fully understood, so there are no more questions.

What if they had answers about our existence, and it had nothing to with God, would religions believe it?

Gummy-but how would you know that they are speaking to the same God in the Bible?
Obviously they would have never heard of the Bible.

Alot of Christians can't accept the fact that they worship the same God (basically) as Muslims do.

I'm talking about religion really, how would it affect organized religion I should say. How would fundamentalists react?

I know alot of people think God created aliens-but what if they disagree? And have their own existence proven and it had nothing to do with God? What then?

Ok, well what if they proved that there is a higher power, but that organized religion was what's getting in the way of peace and tolerance and that it's not needed. What if they claim that church, bible, all that is uneccessary? Would people give up their organized religion?

** I do have Bible knowledge...I know the Bible says women should be quiet in church and that we're considered evil during our times of the month and should be kept away from people...

Yeah, common sense can get in the way of faith huh?

Laura D: I went to a Christian school up until highschool...I left Christianity because most of you guys are crazy. A muslim told me that they believe they worship the same God as Christians do...I actually love that idea. The idea that there is one God and several prophets makes more sense to me. The fact that your faith depends on an old book is disturbing and sad. (It was written by ordinary men....200 years after Jesus died...think about it)

CMW- you're obviosly nuts. Stalking people is a sign of a crazy person...did God tell you to do it?

Answer 1

I think most of the religious people responding to that poll haven't thought it through clearly, or haven't been told by their pastor what to think so they are a little more open to the idea. Also these people generally don't want to express doubt about their religion because according to their ancient myths doubt will land them in hell. But the appearance of intelligent alien life would shake many religious people to their foundations...

Not only would aliens violate the principles of the bible and god creating man as the "only" intelligent life and the chosen people, but they would have vast knowledge that would directly contradict and disprove many of our superstitions. Aliens arriving on Earth would be like a scientist from today going back to the middle ages and trying to explain the fact that germs cause sickness (not witches or demons), that we evolved,that the planets revolve around the sun (not the earth), the concepts of quantum physics, etc.

What would be most interesting is if they documented our evolution and showed us how we changed over incremental steps over long periods of time. More fascinating would be if they themselves had originally put the strands of life on the planet as an experiment to see what would develop.

Most likely the aliens would be atheists (their comprehension of science and technology would suggest this) or they may have their own religion (and their version of "god" may have told them that humans were put in the world for their benefit (food, amusement, pets, whatever)). Either way, anything the aliens shared with us in terms of science, reality, evolution, mythology, etc. would cause outcry in the fundamentalists religious community which would rapidly spread to the moderates through pastors and soon the aliens would become the "work and minions of Satan" meant to deceive the believers and a sign of end times. Like the scientist in the earlier example they would probably be attacked and killed for their claims.

I suspect if there are aliens watching us, the fact that we still cling to outdated, inaccurate and incredibly violent/hateful/murderous and intolerant religious views may be among their primary reasons for not announcing themselves. I also suspect that if there ever were a war between humans and aliens, the religious humans would initiate it.

Answer 2

Didn't God make the stars too? I believe angels are extraterrestrials in this galaxy and in other galaxies there are different angel-like beings. God made all the galaxies. Angels have divine technology, so do the demons. Is the government working with them to experiment mind control? Are Grey's just robots and their dimension just hallucinations? That's another conspiracy theory. We'll just have to wait and see. There's a similar conspiracy theory of a union of church and state, a sunday law with mind control and stuff...it's scary.

Another thing to remeber is that just because one seems religious doesn't mean they're right with God.

There are many other topics about things that supposedly conflict the bible. Sometimes does, like the doctrine of the eternal soul. I personally believe in conditional immortality of the soul and that it's merely the mind. Another thing is dinosaurs. I believe that if humans lived so long before the flood, they must have been giants and had a better atmosphere. Animals and plants would have been huge too.

I believe that the aliens we might be looking for are from other galaxies becasue the ones in this one are just angels and demons. The problem is... how will we reach the other galaxies? I think that when we ever do, we'll find out that they aren't little hideous creatures with big heads.

Answer 3

This would not affect my religious beliefs unless they had good hard proof that I was wrong, but I don't think they would be able to prove that the earth wasn't created because no matter what there will be more speculation as to the accuracy of the methods used to "prove" it. It would not contradict the bible as the bible talks nothing of extra terrestrial life (out side of God). The bible talks about Earth and animal life on Earth, but not dinosaurs leading some to believe that they didn't exist at all.

Answer 4

Here you are again professing to know all about the Bible on the same page that you state that dinosaurs are not mentioned in the Bible (they are) and that the Bible is an old book, written, you think, 200 years after Jesus died. The Bible was written by multiple authors over more than 2,000 years and scientifically-dated parchments of the books were found in the 1940s. They're called the Dead Sea Scrolls. For example, one copy of Isaiah dates to 335 BC. You're still going on about women in the Bible, when all you did was pick a couple of words out of context and ignore everything else about women. Maybe you should modify your claim regarding your expertise on the Bible.

Answer 5

When people say that Extraterrestrial life has no effect on the Christian religion, they are mistaken. In a way, Christianity will continue whether there are aliens or not, but for the individual believer, this might destroy Christianity for him or her. One Christian belief is that Aliens are Spiritual beings. Honestly, there is a lot of evidence (not really proof) that this is true. All of the abilities of these beings we see (walking through walls, telepathy, mind control, coming at night in your dreams, etc.) were powers and abilities first designated to angels and demons. In the 6th chapter of Genesis it talks about the Sons of God taking women and having babies through them. This is also detailed heavily in the Book of Enoch and in many other mythological tales thoughout the world's ancine civilizations. There is so much to examine here and I wish I instilled enough curiosity for you to research this.

Answer 6

I think most religions would not fall apart as a result. Scientology would probably fair the best and get a whole bunch of new recruits.

If Aliens came to earth with a powerpoint slide show that proved that we were created by them, it might cause a few religious issues. But I am guessing most religious people would then call the Aliens, Lucifer and choose to continue on with their belief structure anyway.

Answer 7

We are space seed. We are here to play out a scenerio to prove a point and settle an issue that has been going on for millions of years.. Many ET races are observing the outcome. The time is coming soon when this will all be out in the open once again. Then, regardless of what we all believe, it will be apparent that this is the truth.We need to know which side of the issue we are on however.

Answer 8

From what I've been able to gather, there are two camps of extraterrestrials. One claims that THEY created us, and there is no god. But they've been lying to us since 1947. The other says that there IS a God who they don't really know much about. They say that our minds are closer to the Creator's than any other beings in the universe. They are anxious to see what is about to transpire here on earth for this reason.

So apparently, angels and demons are just other terms for ET's. I don't see how that CAN affect religions. We are on the verge of affecting THEM.

Answer 9

wooo - wait a minute, here. First of all, if you want to read of the dinosaurs, read Job.
Secondly, there aren't any unidentified flying saucers with God. God knows whats up there.
Also, God has vehicles - Read Ezekiel 1:1 -
He even has the Ark of the Covenant and His throne aboard when He travels. God is very natural, in fact, SUPER natural. These vehicles existed in the last earth age, and they still do, in Heaven. Also, the manuscripts state that satans favorite place in the Universe is the planet Saturn. It was named for him.
It may just be that when you see a UFO that its just one of those vehicles. I wouldn't be surprized if Antichrist didn't arrive in one of them when he comes on the scene....
You don't have a whole lot of Bible knowledge, I guess.
What would i do if aliens came from somewhere and they told us about how life came about, and it didn't involve a "God"??
It won't happen, except perhaps in your day dreams.

Answer 10

Dinosaurs are in the Bible. Read the Book of Job.

80% of the American people are correct.

What if your extraterrestrials were from the second heaven where Satan lives that God tells us that they are coming down to us? They could tell me anything, but I believe God. God destroyed the earth with a flood before because of them and their wickedness and violence. Some were even giant in size. They use their intelligence now to get people to sell their soul to the devil. Ask any drug user who hallucinates and he'll tell you he has seen demons. As wickedness increases they will reveal themselves more and more.