We know that all religions are false and whatnot. What I am wondering is, when we find life on another planet/ moon, intelligent or not, the life will have evolved completely different from earthlings.
I see this as "the end of days" for religion.
What do you suppose the religious will do?
2007-06-21 01:03:47 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Blue,
When we address someone in English the title is followed by a comma. As this post is to Atheists, that statement isn't for you.
2007-06-21 01:17:39 · update #1
nicky,
Bhuddists and Doaists are not atheists.
2007-06-21 01:39:14 · update #2
I imagine we will find a planet filled with creatures that have a belief in another God and there will be wars fought over which species has the right God.
2007-06-21 01:07:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
There is just as likely a chance that they will have religion as they will not. Some interesting work has been put forth about religious belief being evolutionarily beneficial to our species, as a method of congregation and control, unity of purpose and so on. Further, "believing in the unseen" seems to be beneficial in proto-historical years, as a ruselling in the bush might or might not be a sabre toothed tiger, it would be beneficial for the one who "believed" and didn't take that chance. Given that, there is every reason to suspect that if there were intelligent life forms, they might have religion too. Could go the same way religions have here, creating a fight over who's God (s) is (are) right. A silly example would be the video game Halo, where humans encounter a race (actually several races combined) of religous zealots, who start a war with them.
It is fun, but not entirely useful to speculate on the future of religion based on assumption of life on other planets. Something tells me that some bible verse, or koran verse, or some bit of archaic lore will be brought forth to say "see, we preditcted this too!"
2007-06-21 08:13:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I don't think establishing contact with an alien civilisation would be bad for ALL religious people. Quite a lot of religious people readily accept the possibilty that we are not alone, it's the fundamentalists who take their "sacred" texts as the infallible word of their god who will have the problem.
Can you imagine what would happen if aliens performed the proverbial "landing on the Whitehouse lawn" and established publich contact with humanity? How long do you think it would be before some fundamentalist crackpot attempted to assassinate the aliens, claiming that the aliens are the anti-christ or something? Carl Sagan described a similar scenario in 'Contact'.
Maybe that's why they haven't shown up yet?
2007-06-21 08:16:38 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Nice selection of sweeping generalizations there. I think what would hurt mainstream faith more is if we stumbled across intelligent life somewhere, and there WERE humans in the mix. That’d really screw up some of the belief systems. I don’t think it would be the end of days for ALL religion. Personally my beliefs would remain unthreatened. What would happen if you find these hypothetical aliens, get communicating with them, and lo- you discover them to be a pretty spiritual bunch. They are devout in the belief that the universe itself is sentient, and it’s this collective energy that we all come from. Moreover they can show you data and research supporting this theory. Would you be threatened?
2007-06-21 08:18:30 · answer #4 · answered by Goddess Nikki 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
very good question -something I've often pondered myself
I wonder how many will actually realise their god belief is false and how many will desperately try to fit the aliens into it eg something along the lines of - yes evolution is true (which most xians at least believe) but we're "god's" chosen people.
2007-06-21 11:28:40 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rationalize.
Religion is not based on evidence or reason. It is based on emotional attachment to the idea. So, new evidence won't change its stance. They'll just rationalize it away or reinterpret their old books and claim that it was mentioned in them.
This is the opposite of science, which will change its stance if given new evidence.
2007-06-21 08:08:28 · answer #6 · answered by nondescript 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
"We know that all religions are false and whatnot".
I'm sorry, not me. Just because one does not believe in God, it does not mean one cannot have a religion.
Edit:
"Atheism, as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods[1] or rejects theism." I am not stupid, I know what atheism is. Just because I do not believe in God, it does not mean I don't have a religion.
Edit:
Thank you nicky :)
Edit:
Fine, its a matter of opinion so we can agree to disagree. But Buddism and Jainism (my religion) generally do not believe in God or god (their Western definitions anyway), because they don't believe there is a god that can act.
2007-06-21 08:11:26 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Who knows, sometimes I think I understand religious people, then they confound me again.
Miss Pink is a sweat heart, full of Christian love.
2007-06-21 08:12:39 · answer #8 · answered by hunter 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We will Bless You and send you on your way to the other planet!
You are gonna have to learn an Alien Language though before you go... just a warning.
He He!
Am I bad?
*smiles*
Heidi the Christian Swiss Girl from South Africa!
2007-06-21 08:11:21 · answer #9 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
what Blue meant was that "atheist" doesn't always refer to a person without a religion.....there are atheistic religions such as Buddhism,Taoism...etc...u don't HAVE to believe in God to have a religion
2007-06-21 08:26:23 · answer #10 · answered by nicky 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋