Probably how they saw how easily Christians used the Bible to justify enslaving others, and they use Jesus as a moral excuse to enslave earthlings.How did they end up being fans of Jesus?
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Probably how they saw how easily Christians used the Bible to justify enslaving others, and they use Jesus as a moral excuse to enslave earthlings.How did they end up being fans of Jesus?
Forget aliens.I think there have probably been threads about this previously but another won't hurt....
If we met an alien civilisation and it turned out they were big fans of Jesus would you consider the chance that God exists to be more likely, less likely, or the same. Why?
Just adding more beings who believe in an idea that rational humans can't judge true is a form of the fallacy of argument via popularity. It doesn't matter how many believe X. What matters is: did the mob make their judgment via facts and reason, or through some other process, like emotion, cultural influence, stress reduction, etc.
Oh, so the aliens had their own revelation. Well that would be impressive, but only if they can show they actually did have it independently from earth.To play devil's advocate for a second... this is not just about "amount of people that believe".
This rather is about multiple groups of beings, independently coming to the same conclusions.
If the hypothesis is that abrahamic religion is a cultural invention of middle eastern civilization, then it follows that these myths and legends shouldn't be known in cultures that never had any contact with them.
So finding an alien civilization that literally has an exact copy of the bible, would be evidence that would not support this hypothesis.
I am off course assuming that we can be certain somehow that they gained their bible independently from that middle eastern culture.
So such a discovery would demand an explanation. And the running hypothesis would be insufficient.
As you noted remote civilizations have oddly never heard of Jesus until Westerners showed up and killed them for being heretics.
Really? My first suspicion would be that they had received some radio signals from Earthly televangelists, and thinking that they were "messages from beyond," that much more likely to credit them.I would definitely be more inclined to think the myth has some truth behind it.
The proposition is remarkable imprecise.I think there have probably been threads about this previously but another won't hurt....
If we met an alien civilisation and it turned out they were big fans of Jesus would you consider the chance that God exists to be more likely, less likely, or the same. Why?
It's octopuses (most commonly used today and favoured in dictionaries) or octopods (original Greek and favoured by me) but never octopy or octopi (which would be a Latin plural of a Greek word).octopy
I think there have probably been threads about this previously but another won't hurt....
If we met an alien civilisation and it turned out they were big fans of Jesus would you consider the chance that God exists to be more likely, less likely, or the same. Why?
Really? My first suspicion would be that they had received some radio signals from Earthly televangelists, and thinking that they were "messages from beyond," that much more likely to credit them.
I think there have probably been threads about this previously but another won't hurt....
If we met an alien civilisation and it turned out they were big fans of Jesus would you consider the chance that God exists to be more likely, less likely, or the same. Why?
That's an interesting point I hadn't considered.(It may be that their Jesus seeded ours rather than vice versa, of course.)
How did they end up being fans of Jesus?
Was it that they picked up our TV signals and the televangelists really resonated with them, or did they already think before they encountered humanity that Jesus had visited them?
so we delete the only really possible explanation and have to choose between jawdropping coincidence and supernaturality?That's an interesting point I hadn't considered.
Let's assume that their ideas about Jesus arose independently. Does that update your belief about God?
I've seen a lot of theists claim nothing could change an atheist's mind and this question gets to one of the relevant issues on the matter. At least it does for me. Do we willingly and dispassionately engage with the evidence?so we delete the only really possible explanation and have to choose between jawdropping coincidence and supernaturality?
Well, at least we know jawdropping coincidence is possible, however faintly.
I'm with those theists. I'd formulate it a bit different, though: No argument could change an atheist's mind. We have heard them all and found all of them lacking. And I've yet to meet an atheist* who converted to theism through reason.I've seen a lot of theists claim nothing could change an atheist's mind and this question gets to one of the relevant issues on the matter. At least it does for me. Do we willingly and dispassionately engage with the evidence?
Well, in this case the proposition is notably unspecific and requires the onlooker to choose what to imagine in order to create the scenario. If there really were such aliens, and they had gods, I doubt we'd be able to identify the alien Jesus in their pantheon. He'd have been born an alien and have lived and died in an alien civilization, which might be an ant in an ants' nest or something more exotic. But I guess it's not impossible, just hugely unlikely.I've seen a lot of theists claim nothing could change an atheist's mind and this question gets to one of the relevant issues on the matter. At least it does for me. Do we willingly and dispassionately engage with the evidence?
So would finding an alien civilisation that believed the Jesus myth be evidence of God?I'm with those theists. I'd formulate it a bit different, though: No argument could change an atheist's mind. We have heard them all and found all of them lacking. And I've yet to meet an atheist* who converted to theism through reason.
(* An atheist who isn't just an ignorant atheist, like a child, but has considered the evidence and the arguments.)
I may be swayed by new evidence or even a new argument, but there hasn't been any for centuries. So the theists are really complaining about reality and their inability to come up with something new.
Yip, it's supposed to be an unlikely scenario.Well, in this case the proposition is notably unspecific and requires the onlooker to choose what to imagine in order to create the scenario. If there really were such aliens, and they had gods, I doubt we'd be able to identify the alien Jesus in their pantheon. He'd have been born an alien and have lived and died in an alien civilization, which might be an ant in an ants' nest or something more exotic. But I guess it's not impossible, just hugely unlikely.