Life on other planets: if life on other planets is found--especially if that life is more advanced than humans--what will that do to religions who insist that they were made in God's image? Will they still think that humans were special? If that life is radically different physically, are they in God's image, too? With evidence to the contrary right in their face, will they continue as they do now, insisting theirs is the only "true" religion?
Or will they rationalize that there is more than one "true" God? I doubt this outcome, but it would be entertaining to watch the contortions they would go through in order to justify that statement.
I think the first scenario is the more likely, and that's pretty darn depressing....it would just give them a larger platform so they could proselytize, try to convert, and start wars on an interplanetary scale (if they are able to).
Watch Ancient Aliens and read The Book of Enoch. They put it all together in a form that makes sense. The bible will make sense after you know how to interpret it. Religious people want to take it too literally. I believe that some of what they were describing was advanced technology. This should sound so radical if you know that ancient Hindu writings also describe advanced technology.
For instance, we know it is physically impossible for Noah to have put two of every species on the ark. However, the story is significant or it wouldn't have been written. It most likely was a DNA bank.
Another...... Jonah could not have possibly been swallowed by a whale and come back 3 days later to tell about it. It most likely was not a whale but was a submersible.
My take on the Jesus story is that he was not a man who ever existed. We are to ascend to the Christ consciousness. Its a loving mentality. Again, the story is significant but is only a representation.
The bible is fascinating after one learns to read and interpret it.
I think religious leaders live in great fear that we will make contact with an alien species. Anything that might question the archaic mindset upon which religions are based is a threat. However, I fear most believers would not change much, no matter what we might learn from an alien species, or how parochial our outlook would be in a universal context. They would do what they have always done: say it's not us but them. They would turn against them. I can hear the words infidels and godless unbelievers already. If religionists are immune to modern thinking and logic, why would they take any notice of what aliens had to say?
Anybody thought about a worse scenario: What if aliens turned up with their religions and Gods and wanted to convert us? Yikes! I just have to think that beings with faster than light speed spaceships and technology just had to have outgrown religious BS a long time ago.
I was raised in a faith community that actually believed in 'unfallen worlds' where other intelligent beings have always lived without sin. Having never been tempted by the Devil, who, as the story goes, was banished to this world, and to this world only, these sinless inhabitants of other star systems would not need to be converted, as they have lived in perfect communition with God. No need for interstellar evangelists, according to this system of belief!
I'm sure they'll add that to the new new revised edition of the king James fairy tales collection. Lol
Nothing will change, for a while. They are excellent at denial and circular logic. Ask Galileo.
But, like most major social changes, after a few generations, the ones that cling to ideas of the past will be a small minority, insignificant for anything other than tabloid headlines.
Religion has always superimposed facts over the observable reality around them. The existence of aliens won't change that fact. It may disuade the people who claim religion but don't really "feel" it but the core religious people won't fundementally change.
This is a very interesting question. I have though a great deal about this. I am an agnostic who leans strongly atheist. Yet, I'm not convinced that there is life beyond the Earth. My argument comes from the same place that my skepticism of God comes from. It is really the Fermi paradox: "Where are they?" coupled with the Anthropic principle.
I hope I am proven wrong and in my lifetime as this is an extremely interesting question. Nevertheless, if alien life is never found does that strengthen the theists case? Not for me but perhaps for many others it will.
The likelihood that advanced life on another planet somewhere in the universe being remotely similar to us is astronomically low. (Pun sort of intended)
The reason why life looks the way it does now is because of the chemical composition that makes up earth. Life had to adapt to these conditions in order to exist. A good example is that the earth we know now was very different millions of years ago.
The air had a lot of carbon compounds in it and thus, if humans exist then... They wouldn't exist for very long. A lot of interesting creatures took advantage of that atmosphere, such as insects and miscellaneous bugs.
Because of the high carbon atmosphere, they were able to grow to an absurd size.
If you thought mosquitos and flies were annoying now... You wouldn't want to be around back then.
That's just one example of how the atmosphere of a planet can have a heavy influence on the life that inhabits a planet.
So imagine if we did discover life on another planet... The odds of the planet being able to replicate an atmosphere exactly like Earth's is pretty much zero. (Not going to put in the actual number because I don't want to give myself more of a headache than what I already have tonight.)
That would pretty much throw a wrench into the religious belief that we are made in "God's image"
If that's the case... Then who the hell made these aliens?
What's that? Oh right... The great religious scapegoat. The one who they always use when they don't have an answer or when something doesn't fit into their little beliefs...
"The devil did it"
To me looking up to the sky with all that we can see I find it hard to believe there isn't other life. That is why I first wondered why people believe in any god. But with the way religion trys to explain away evolution I'm sure they would come up with some wild story to explain that too.
i think that it will take a long time to accept life out there for the religious at heart. I'm a little more believing that there will be some form of zenophobia, or whatever it is called for any aliens. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I sometimes wonder if aliens have already visited many of times and decided humankind is still to primitive and zenphobic to accept aliens. Who knows though.
That's a possibility.
Hell, people can't stop being racist or sexist.
I don't see humanity being very welcoming if and when the day comes for contact.
If it hasn't already happen of course.
I think that if there is life on other planets that is smarter than we human beings, I bet their going to do their darndest to stay hidden from us. I would if I were them.
Aside from the levity of my comment, I do believe that there is life on other planets. Perhaps not like we are, but other forms of sentient beings. Our universe is too large to not have something out there. We cannot be so arrogant to think we are the only ones.
If life was found, who knows what it would do to the religious. I think christianity would be blown out of the water. Questions like "is the death of Jesus just for the sins of the humans on earth, or does it cover non-Terra life?
Absolutely.
If there are aliens that are more advanced than us, I'm sure they have probes in our solar system to keep an eye on us...
I think they would call the aliens demons or the devil's work or something like that.
There is already a theory, spread by religious people no doubt, that aliens are actually interdimensional demons.