Would the discovery of intelligent life on other planets cause chaos here on earth among athiest & christians?

Question

Do you think NASA & the goverment have already found life in other places like Alpha Centauri, but they wont reveal this information to the public for fear of global jihad?

Answer 1

Questions like this have an underlying assumption which is unspoken. That is, that NASA and the US in general do all the space science in the world. Believe it or not, several of the extra-solar planets that have been discovered in the past twenty or so years have been found by Swiss / European / Canadian etc astronomers and no US citizen or NASA has had direct involvement.

If intelligent life was found by German / French / Chinese / Australian etc astronomers they would announce it. They have no interest in the ratbag fundamentalists of the USA.

http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/public/

http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/

Even if some US government agency did find the thing first, there is nothing to prevent people from other countries finding it later, and more than likely it would be pretty soon after, the technology behind advanced astronomy has a habit of spreading round the world. Several countries are capable of launching space telescopes for instance and one or two other than the US already have.

As for Christians, I expect those who would find themselves in deep doo - doo would be the fundamentalists. These are mostly US based and keep on screaming that they are "Christians" and every one else is not. Virtually every leading creationist can be traced to the US or a US based Baptist, Assembly of God etc congregation.

I have a feeling that Roman Catholics, Anglicans / Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and the Orthodox churches would absorb the facts just as they have mainly absorbed the facts of the Sun centered solar system and evolution among others. It is not important to their belief system whether the Universe is 4.5 billion or whatever years old or whether apes and humans had a common ancestor. The message of Jesus is for humans on this planet and where ever else they might be.

I have a feeling that Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists would have little trouble with the fact either.

Answer 2

I'm an atheist, and I know quite some more like me, that wouldn't be surprised if there was life on other places that earth. Maybe it would disturb some of the religious folks. I don't think it would cause chaos, unless there are aliens that want to do us harm. But of course there are people that panic about everything, and with the knowledge what the press can do to get their ratings, there would be a lot of frightened people in tv.
I also don't think the NASA and FBI have any evidence of any intelligent life outside our earth. Considering humans intelligent of course. It's only what the public wants to see.
The global jihad is already there. Watch the Middle East and what some brainwashed berserker are doing in the west by blowing up as much innocent people as possible. These people are very alienated, but no aliens as you mean I suppose.

Answer 3

Some Christians, particularly from among certain right wing fundamentalists, will not be able to handle it. It will wreck their belief in man's privileged place in God's creation. Fundies of some other faiths may be equally distraught over this additional uncomfortable truth, like evolution.

I don't think there would be an atheist anywhere who would be disturbed by it.

As for government control of such information, it may not serve the government's interest in any way to conceal it. As for NASA, it would probably be the biggest possible boon to their program. But it is also likely that the US government won't be the first to discover such a thing because I don't think they have funded such research as much as the private sector and international academic community. And the US government would be utterly unable to suppress this kind of information.

Answer 4

Why would such a discovery bother atheists? Most of them already expect there is probably life elsewhere in the galaxy.

Some christians might be bothered by the discovery, but most see no reason God would not have created life elsewhere as well as here.

I don't think the announcement would cause much of an uproar in that regard. It would, however, be intensely interesting, and likely spur much more public interest in the sciences. There is no compelling reason a government would wish to keep such information secret.

Answer 5

1. chaos, yes (and not just among atheists and christians).
2. NASA & Governments? no. Governments certainly do not have facilities to discover life at that distance (and that's only the nearest star).

They (at least the gov't part, not NASA) have already started a jihad. So I don't see your point.

Answer 6

it will certainly change life on earth and if i was someone in the government responsible for these issue, i would certainly keep it secret. for many reasons, primarily because humans are still more or less animals and anything given to us by these extra terrestrial beings is a power in a dangerous hands. if you give a monkey a gun and teach it how to use it, the monkey will kill all of his fellow moneys for more food and breeding. well guess what, humans are monkeys. there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that life exists else where in the universe. but having made contact with extra Terrestrial life forms is something i wouldn't bid on. and if i was the one who made the contact i would keep it secret, especially from the governments.

Answer 7

Ask this in the religion section. Astronomy deals with the science of the cosmos, not myths and legends. Religion has nothing to do with it. Anyway there already exists chaos - it is even a necessity.

Answer 8

highly possbile, but information, BIG information tends to leak out. esp if you can't hide the stars/planets/life

yes christians would flip out I'm sure.
they might claim that it was "heaven"

I have to state that if aliens were HERE on earth though, not only would the info leak out, but so would the aliens.
if they were held captive, I'm sure the mother ship would come back to investigate and we'd probably be dealing with them for a while.

Answer 9

I doubt that's the reason why they'd keep it from us. I'm sure there would plenty of debates, but I think the government just wants us all to be ignorant. I think we have a right to know if they have found life outside of Earth.

Answer 10

Why would it ?? Wouldn't really change anything for Christians , Dont know about any one else.I doubt if there is life of our kind or any other but on planet earth .