How would the discovery of alien life change religion?

[syo]

Do you think if we ever discovered alien life that religion would change? Would this maybe cause some creationists for instance to turn away from this way of thinking? What about pagans, would this change paganism at all?

nope

 

[jonathan180iq]

Do you think if we ever discovered alien life that religion would change? Would this maybe cause some creationists for instance to turn away from this way of thinking? What about pagans, would this change paganism at all?

It only affects certain dogmas and literalist interpretations of some religions. It shouldn't change much at all - but it will.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Do you think if we ever discovered alien life that religion would change? Would this maybe cause some creationists for instance to turn away from this way of thinking? What about pagans, would this change paganism at all?

Not immediately, and not for everyone. I expect it would be similar to all the other things we've learned about the world/universe over time: it slowly shapes and changes the views, on average, over time, but there will always be people that will deny or contextualize information to suit their pre-established views. Facts and information, for many people, aren't valuable in and of themselves - but rather are merely tidbits to be fitted into a desired way of seeing things.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Do you think if we ever discovered alien life that religion would change? Would this maybe cause some creationists for instance to turn away from this way of thinking? What about pagans, would this change paganism at all?

I do not think anything would affect / change anything for over 90% of faith followers (Especially Monotheistic)

There are a lot of things which unproved the written. "Earth is spherical and it is not just our solar system": These were proved long ago and nothing changed.

I would be willing to accept the implications, that mankind is not necessarily the primary intended beneficiary of creation.

Meanwhile, I'm also willing to accept the opposite implication, that of observed reality, we appear to be alone as far as we can tell

 

[Sudy Rao]

I would be willing to accept the implications, that mankind is not necessarily the primary intended beneficiary of creation.

Meanwhile, I'm also willing to accept the opposite implication, that of observed reality, we appear to be alone as far as we can tell

I would like to think (rather, Dream) of this happening:

"Aliens find us and try to occupy and rule, humans around the world put their religions aside. Understand and realize that we are Humans first and religions don't help us with the fight in any way but just United Humanity. And, win the fight resulting a new world order of Humanity flourishing with a belief system of love and respect with understanding of one God, united Humans with true human Values." (Not fighting again who that one God is, again

Hmm! Dream on...

 

[arthra]

Do you think if we ever discovered alien life that religion would change? Would this maybe cause some creationists for instance to turn away from this way of thinking? What about pagans, would this change paganism at all?

I don't think in the case of the Baha'i Faith it would change anything if "we were ever discovered alien life". The Baha'i Writings suggests that there is life on other worlds already...

Wert thou to ponder in thine heart the behavior of the Prophets of God thou wouldst assuredly and readily testify that there must needs be other worlds besides this world.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 157)

and

The learned men, that have fixed at several thousand years the life of this earth, have failed, throughout the long period of their observation, to consider either the number or the age of the other planets. Consider, moreover, the manifold divergencies that have resulted from the theories propounded by these men. Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 162)

 

[Nietzsche]

Meanwhile, I'm also willing to accept the opposite implication, that of observed reality, we appear to be alone as far as we can tell

The problem is that our "observed reality" is infinitesimally small compared to just how vast our universe is. It's like saying there are no fish because you can't see any in the nanoliter of water you're looking at.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

The problem is that our "observed reality" is infinitesimally small compared to just how vast our universe is. It's like saying there are no fish because you can't see any in the nanoliter of water you're looking at.

That nanoliter of water is teaming with microorganisms that somehow managed to colonize all the world's oceans. Colonizing the galaxy is a relatively meager task in terms of scale and time, yet has never happened. (ancient alien theories not withstanding!)

The direct observation concurs with the cold hard math, the universe is way too small to make another Earth probable

 

[Nietzsche]

That nanoliter of water is teaming with microorganisms that somehow managed to colonize all the world's oceans. Colonizing the galaxy is a relatively meager task in terms of scale and time, yet has never happened. (ancient alien theories not withstanding!)

I'm gonna need some evidence here.

The direct observation concurs with the cold hard math, the universe is way too small to make another Earth probable

And here too.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

I'm gonna need some evidence here.


And here too.

The galaxy is only 100KLY across, yet billions of years old, just one single civilization with tech. little better than our own, could have colonized the galaxy many times over by now, and we only invented powered flight a very very short time ago.

But the 'great silence' of the galaxy in contrast, is exactly what we would expect from the math, the universe is way too small, far less the galaxy to overcome the odds of another Earth.

We are continually discovering new hurdles for habitats supporting complex life, never mind it originating in the first place, - while the number of estimated stars remains the same, not nearly enough

 

[Nietzsche]

The galaxy is only 100KLY across, yet billions of years old, just one single civilization with tech. little better than our own, could have colonized the galaxy many times over by now, and we only invented powered flight a very very short time ago.

But the 'great silence' of the galaxy in contrast, is exactly what we would expect from the math, the universe is way too small, far less the galaxy to overcome the odds of another Earth.

We are continually discovering new hurdles for habitats supporting complex life, never mind it originating in the first place, - while the number of estimated stars remains the same, not nearly enough

You're making a lot of assumptions about life, here.One, there could very well be Galaxy-spanning civilizations. But they may not be "life" as we recognize it. They may not even be carbon-based.

Two, there could have been countless civilizations in various portions of the galaxy...and they were wiped out by *insert means here*. We'll only ever know about those civilizations through their ruins, if we find them.

Three, there is far more than just our galaxy out there.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

You're making a lot of assumptions about life, here.One, there could very well be Galaxy-spanning civilizations. But they may not be "life" as we recognize it. They may not even be carbon-based.

'Life Jim but not as we know it', yes that's great material for sci fi, but imagining this is actually probably real- is not assuming anything?! The universe all came from the same place and hence is all made of the same stuff, our own planet and solar system represents most possible conditions and habitats, in an ideal setting, and complex life can only just survive in a very very very narrow margin within this.

Back in the days of Verne and Poe, we wondered what sort of people lived on the moon, we'd be amazed at a fossilized microbe on Mars today, precisely because science has revealed how very special Earth and humanity is

Two, there could have been countless civilizations in various portions of the galaxy...and they were wiped out by *insert means here*. We'll only ever know about those civilizations through their ruins, if we find them.

Three, there is far more than just our galaxy out there.

Yes, but like microbes colonizing the ocean, the more planets colonized, the more resistant to being wiped out entirely. Perhaps alien colonists never quite reached the tipping point, beyond which they became immune to extinction.. That's always possible, but now we are walking a pretty fine line- as we often hear; the universe is teaming with just enough intelligent life, to make humanity insignificant in a very intellectually gratifying self deprecation- but just not quite abundant enough to have ever actually taken off to the extent of a logically inevitable colonization

again we have barely started to come to grips with leaving the surface of Earth, over little more than a single lifetime, and already we have craft leaving the solar system- in BILLIONS of years.. no one single civilization ever took this to it's logical conclusion? why not?


On the number of galaxies, yes there are lots, but ours is an exceptionally large, organized, hospitable, and dare I say, beautiful one- if we are alone here this does not bode well for life in the vast majority of scrappy tumultuous galaxies. Just as being the only intelligent life form on Earth, does not give Pluto great odds for changing that distinction

 

[Confucian Mormon Buddhist]

The galaxy is only 100KLY across, yet billions of years old, just one single civilization with tech. little better than our own, could have colonized the galaxy many times over by now, and we only invented powered flight a very very short time ago.

But the 'great silence' of the galaxy in contrast, is exactly what we would expect from the math, the universe is way too small, far less the galaxy to overcome the odds of another Earth.

We are continually discovering new hurdles for habitats supporting complex life, never mind it originating in the first place, - while the number of estimated stars remains the same, not nearly enough

LOL, what? ONLY 100,000 light-years.

How are you supposed to even colonize outside your own star system unless you have faster-than-light? And there's no evidence that faster-than-light is possible. It's a big assumption to assume that we'll figure out a way. It could just be straight-up impossible, no way to do it.

In which case you'd have, like, trillions of intelligent species being born, living, and dying without ever knowing of one another's existence.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

LOL, what? ONLY 100,000 light-years.

How are you supposed to even colonize outside your own star system unless you have faster-than-light? And there's no evidence that faster-than-light is possible. It's a big assumption to assume that we'll figure out a way. It could just be straight-up impossible, no way to do it.

In which case you'd have, like, trillions of intelligent species being born, living, and dying without ever knowing of one another's existence.

lots of love to you too!

As above, the distances are not very great relative to the timescales of 100s of millions of years, it could have been done may times in this span with tech. little better than our own, and we have only just gotten off the ground in barely a lifetime..

10% light speed is already considered feasible, but of course radio communications do travel at the speed of light, which means we already have an ear on an entire galaxy- and still nada.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

I think the discovery of sentient alien life capable of interstellar travel would change the religious landscape noticeably. For starters, I think it would throw the anthropocentrist view of the Abrahamic religions into serious question. Why would God allow other sentients to evolve to a point where they can traverse the stars and potentially colonise or invade other planets if he's going to pull the plug just because of what happens on our little blue dot?

I think such an event would also give rise to a number of newer religions; some Earth or human-centric, others not so much. The 90s TV show Babylon 5 touches on this quite well. It mentions a couple of religious movements:

• Adamism which is kind of human purist religion an that sprung up on Earth after first contact with alien life (specifically the Centauri Republic);
• Foundationism which is kind of like Bahaism in space. It's core doctrine is that there's at least a grain of Truth in all religions - Earth & alien - that they're all communicating the same message about the same divinity or something.

 

[metis]

Do you think if we ever discovered alien life that religion would change?

Not one iota.

See my signature statement at the bottom of my posts for why this is the case.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

For starters, I think it would throw the anthropocentrist view of the Abrahamic religions into serious question.

To be fair, not all sects/denominations/whatever of the Abrahamic religions have any problem with extraterrestrial life. True, there are some that are gung ho against the idea, but I think it's probably a small portion of the approximately 4 billion Abrahamic followers...