If aliens were discovered, how would they fit with your religious beliefs or philosophies on live?

Question

Would the intelligent alien animals have souls? What about the dumb ones? Would alien animal cruelty be immoral? What about ones that seem to experience emotions, sadness, pleasure, pain...?

Would they be God's creation?

I'm imagining a scenario, not where the aliens hop out of their ship one day, but more where we improve our space transport (let's say in a decade or two) through some advance that let's us go far enough to find some planet that has life on it. Imagining now, there is a tropical rainforest of life there, with various species - possibly something as smart as a human. The alien humans might not have created technology yet, but they might be just as smart as us.

Would a buddhist want to avoid harming even the "dumbest" alien, since they are also sentient (feeling)?

Would it be our duty to convert them to Islam/Judaism/Christianity? Do the holy texts refer to the Earth as a bounds for this sort of activity?

Answer 1

There is no such thing as aliens. Aren't there enough strange people on earth to fill any personality and behavior you could ever wonder about?

Answer 2

Well technically, we (humans) are aliens.
After the earth was formed, there was a great meteor shower in our galaxy (the evidence is seen on the moon (earths past)) and many of those meteors hit the earth. In those meteors, they contained, the element Carbon. When the meteor slammed into earth the different elements were pushed together, so to say.
(I'm not going to explain evolution to you today, if you don't know; go do the research and look it up; you'll be glad you did! :)
We, are Carbon based life forms, it has been shown through core samples of the earth; that in the beginning stages of the earth's existence, there was no carbon................
What a coincidence that this Carbon, that is in our very makeup, came from a rock---a rock from where???

So, technically we are half from this planet and half from....... somewhere else.
To me, seeing aliens would be like waking up, or going to bed everyday.

Your question about alien animals?
In talking about aliens being animals, or having animals........your assuming that humans are-----not animals?
We are you know.. :)
So, would we change our views on morality and ethics? Would the aliens not be animals like, we are (?); and all the other species of animals on our earth? Who are we to say anything, about something no one, has ever experienced?

Answer 3

The Bible states that God created the heavens and the Earth. To me that means that if God decided to put life forms on other planets, that's His business. We are a part of His creation, just like any and everything else that exists, and we were created to worship Him, and more than that, by our own choice. God breathed the breath of life into man, which is what our soul is. It is manifested within our bodies, and will return to God when we die. Who can argue that God didn't decide to create other creatures on other planets to worship Him as well? Is there intelligent life on other planets? I say, it's possible, but what does that have to do with us? We only need to be concerned with our own relationship with our Creator, and not so concerned with whether He has created life on other planets, and whether they have a relationship with Him. Do they have souls? That would soley be up to God. As far as alien animal cruelty, I would imagine God has rules for life forms on other planets, just like He does for us on Earth. By the way, I'm not a preacher, in case you were wondering, but I have studied the Bible, and am also something of an imaginitive thinker on matters like this.

Answer 4

Meeting aliens would not interfere with my religious beliefs at all since I am not egotistical enough to think that God stopped after creating this one world and our species.

The question about alien animals puzzles me. All animals have souls and it is only the depth of that soul that varies from one species to the next. I don't see aliens as being any different.

Of course they would be God's creation. They may call him by a different name or even multiple names, but they will know God.

Answer 5

People would either adjust their religious beliefs to account for the aliens, or perhaps (as is the case with evolution and anything else that seems to conflict with their beliefs) would just deny that they exist.

As for myself, I'm an atheist. While I don't believe that Earth has been visited by aliens or UFO's, I would be very, VERY surprised if it turned out we were alone in the universe.

Your followup questions point out the folly of religions--having to decide whether and what types of aliens might have souls. Those of us who do not believe in such superstitions do not face the task of trying to justify our beliefs in the face of something new which could not have been known by the barbarians who first came up with these beliefs.

Answer 6

If you could be given the answers for these six questions, can you imagine how many more questions you would come up with? That is the nature of the universe. We are miles from being able to live with each other on this planet, so how do you expect that it would be different over there? As history repeats itself, whoever got over there first would plant their flag and claim ownership as we did in the past. If that meant subjugating the indigens, then subjugate them they would, all in God`s name.

Answer 7

Personally, my personal philosophy would be more cosmological than religious - basically a Unitarian Universalism one. Mankind's religious texts were written for our various societies' adolescent stages and eventually science & religion will have to evolve into new forms.

Aliens fit into my philosophy. Since life is refuses to be pigeon-holed, pre-judging their religions, cultures, and sense of ethics seems highly counter productive. Morally speaking, they could be more moral, less mortal, or have a physiology so alien that our sense of morally doesn't apply to them.

We could be the demons and they could be the angels. We the heathens and they the real children of the universal creator. Or everything could be reversed.

Answer 8

It would not really affect my faith, since God created the universe, and it said he created all living things. It might strengthen my ideas, since it might back up the ideas of Eden, and the lost countries often heard about. It might get my cynicalistic senses going, since I believe that all people have motives and there is no such thing as a selfless act. So if they wanted peace, I may question why, since they're so advanced they managed to find us, and yet want peace. In my mind, they would just be wierd looking humans, with souls, needs, desires, and motives.

Answer 9

aliens might not even want to deal with us... they fly over rural areas for a reason, and they probably see whats going on in the world... as for having souls... do we as humans even have souls?? what is the true defintion of a soul? and i'm pretty sure there would be "dumb aliens". i'm not sure if they'd be God's creation. but... what makes you think humans are ready for such a discovery? i doubt this will happen in our life times. hope you liked my answer, it was simple and to the point :D

Answer 10

according to some theories, aliens are the evolution of mankind in the future. their existence will not affect my faith nor my philosophy in life, because anything is possible.