How will that effect religion? I know I'm being general. Will there be religous hybrids? How do western religions explain that God/Gods/LGM made the Earth? Will there be clashes? What are the chances that other civilizations also have monotheistic religions? Would religions have to rewrite themselves (becuase some only take Earth in consideration)? What else?
2007-10-31 13:01:40 · 9 answers · asked by Mitchell 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I think the last estimate of the # of stars in the universe is on the order of 10^22. That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. And a medium sized fraction of them have planets. And a medium sized fraction of those are in the habital zone (all 3 states of water). And a large fraction of them should have complex life. And a fraction of them should have some intelligent life. So It's almost certian that we aren't alone. Just in solitary confinement imposed by lots of nothingness.
2007-10-31 13:11:33 · update #1
If we truly believe that God is everywhere then he must have sent prophets to them too.
2007-10-31 13:05:10 · answer #1 · answered by ammaryusuf 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The chances of that are very slim.
Even tho there are other planets in the universe where life could have or did evolve, the possibility that life evolved in those location at the same time as it has on earth are slim.
Life in the universe is opportunistic. It will develops anywhere when the conditions are right. As example, if you never clean your shower, within a few million years you'll have quite the ecosystem in your bathroom loaded with all kinds of creatures that evolved in that environment.
In the course of time in the universe, mankind has evolved and will disappear in less than a blink of an eye. If all time was condensed into 100 years, mankind has been in the universe for only the last 2 seconds.
In the billions of years the universe has existed, it is likely that millions or hundreds of millions of intelligent life forms have come and gone.
Life development in the universe is similar to blinking ligths on a Christmas tree. If you watch these lights, they all come on and go off at different times. Very few are on at the same time. Most often the lights that are close enough together to notice one another will not be on at the same time long enough to be notice by either one.
Even given the age of our own planet, which is about 3.5 billion years, intelligent life may have existed here 2 billion years ago. We have no way of knowing because the earth's surface swallows everything up in a couple hundred million years.
There is little chance that we will ever find another intelligent life form in the universe. The most we may ever find is fossil records, million year old ruins, or bacteria (the start of life.)
2007-11-01 08:36:30 · answer #2 · answered by Perplexed Bob 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is is inevitable that Earth will have contact with an ET civilisation that desires contact with us. That will eventually happen - publicly and openly...
Of course world religions have to go through a phase change when this happens - own up to their mistakes in thinking, etc etc or else face huge public disappointment and withdrawl of public support, etc etc etc. The lies will out in the public eye for all to see...
It is inevitable the clash with religion(s) will happen.
Another likelihood (instead of the ET meeting) is the enlightenment about what actually happened here on Earth - in biblical times and beyond - the knowledge of what did happen? Who exactly was the God of the Bible - an ET? Yes. As too all gods of other cultures were also ETs.
And there is the discovery and confirmation of a lost civilisation on Mars - that there were in fact two other worlds, in this solar system, that also had advanced civilisations on them.
2007-10-31 21:09:16 · answer #3 · answered by TruthBox 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A very interesting question.
Christianity has not had a threat like that since Rome and there are enough
Mine will say "hey guys nice to meet ya!"We arnt limited like the christians are. Sorry guys but its true. My religion openly wlecomes science and the rest of the universe. If you dont want to experince life join a monostary/ create your own version and we promise we wont make you come with us when we have to ditch the earth (for whichever reason)
What it means to your faith is really up to the majority and to yourself.
Same for the Aliens
2007-10-31 20:14:27 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not at all or greatly. I'm not sure.
But then, what are the odds that the extremely impossible accidents that supposedly took place on this planet to bring about life, could ever take place in a gazillion years on one of a gazillion other planets in a gazillion other solar systems in a gazi...?
2007-10-31 20:06:16 · answer #5 · answered by Gypsy Priest 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
depends on how certian the contact is. if its a vague message, we *could* conculde that they were god's people as well.
If we were able to make meaningful contact(which some believe to be as likely as if we could communicate with dolphins) then who knows what beliefs they could teach us about. morality, economics, government (or alternative to?) social structure, customs, religion?!?
Will aliens have developed religion? Will ours be tolerant of theirs? would they tolerate us? How differently could alien beliefs be? Could there ever be an interstellar crusade?
crazy things to think about
2007-10-31 20:12:47 · answer #6 · answered by AlCapone 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, that did happen. When the Europeans came to the Americas, and found the Indians, they deemed them heathens and killed them all, or at least a whole lot of them. IF we find aliens, as I assume you are implying, there will be a huge war, and whoever wins will dominate.
2007-10-31 20:08:15 · answer #7 · answered by YouCannotKnowUnlessUAsk 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only if our Earth-dwelling theist brothers and sisters don't try to murder them for being heretics.
2007-10-31 20:07:42 · answer #8 · answered by Pull My Finger 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its not going to happen. There are no other civilizations. Nothing has to be "rewritten".
2007-10-31 20:05:39 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋