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Would you stop believing in God?

Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
Lets imagine that some aliens entered the solar system, who obviously would be much more technological advanced than us and were currently in orbit around Earth and us being unaware of their intentions.

1. How would that make you feel about God, would it make you feel less "special" as to why these aliens seems to have been created along time before us and that now the whole human race survival depends on these aliens intentions?

2. If it turned out through some advance technology that these aliens were able to speak any Earth language and you asked them about God and they told you that they had never heard or observed anything like that, in their travels around the universe, would that in anyway change your views?

3. Would it surprise you that there are no mentions of aliens in the bible and now they were suddenly here and why God would not have prepared humanity for this encounter?
 
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Quintessence

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
For the first, it would change nothing. If by "God" you mean to limit consideration to the god-concept of the Abrahamic religions, it would change nothing because I do not worship that god. If by "God" you mean to include all other theologies including my own, it would still change nothing. The gods are not an instrument of human hubris in polytheism.

For the second, it would change nothing as well. If by "God" we again mean to limit consideration to the Abrahamic variety, I frankly wouldn't ask them about that because that isn't my culture. If I asked them about my gods and they told me they somehow hadn't observed them, I would assume there's been a failure of communication just like I do with atheists. In any case, it would hardly change my views. Why should it? This is kind of like asking why someone doesn't abandon their culture and way of life just because they learn about a new one. That's kind of silly.

For the third I don't care. The Bible is no sacred text of mine and I do not ground my life in it.
 
Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
Quintessence said:
For the first, it would change nothing. If by "God" you mean to limit consideration to the god-concept of the Abrahamic religions, it would change nothing because I do not worship that god. If by "God" you mean to include all other theologies including my own, it would still change nothing. The gods are not an instrument of human hubris in polytheism.

For the second, it would change nothing as well. If by "God" we again mean to limit consideration to the Abrahamic variety, I frankly wouldn't ask them about that because that isn't my culture. If I asked them about my gods and they told me they somehow hadn't observed them, I would assume there's been a failure of communication just like I do with atheists. In any case, it would hardly change my views. Why should it? This is kind of like asking why someone doesn't abandon their culture and way of life just because they learn about a new one. That's kind of silly.

For the third I don't care. The Bible is no sacred text of mine and I do not ground my life in it.
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Im not really sure what you believe in? Do you see it as a religion or more as a way of living?

I don't see why its a silly question, if you believe that we are made in the image of God and therefore we must assume that we are special in his eyes, shouldn't that also be evidently visible or observable?
 
74x12

74x12

Well-Known Member
Nimos said:
Lets imagine that some aliens entered the solar system, who obviously would be much more technological advanced than us and were currently in orbit around Earth and us being unaware of their intentions.

1. How would that make you feel about God, would it make you feel less "special" as to why these aliens seems to have been created along time before us and that now the whole human race survival depends on these aliens intentions?

2. If it turned out through some advance technology that these aliens were able to speak any Earth language and you asked them about God and they told you that they had never heard or observed anything like that, in their travels around the universe, would that in anyway change your views?

3. Would it surprise you that there are no mentions of aliens in the bible and now they were suddenly here and why God would not have prepared humanity for this encounter?
Click to expand...
Well angels aren't from earth. If "aliens" come and tell you anything against the Bible it's because they're liars. And I believe it will happen soon enough. The Bible doesn't say that if it were possible even the elect would be deceived for nothing. The deception that is coming is going to be great.
 
Windwalker

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Nimos said:
Lets imagine that some aliens entered the solar system, who obviously would be much more technological advanced than us and were currently in orbit around Earth and us being unaware of their intentions.

1. How would that make you feel about God, would it make you feel less "special" as to why these aliens seems to have been created along time before us and that now the whole human race survival depends on these aliens intentions?
Click to expand...
I would not be surprised, and their confirmed existence in the world I live in would expand my understanding of God and the universe, even if they were planning to eat me. I wouldn't like that so much though.

Nimos said:
2. If it turned out through some advance technology that these aliens were able to speak any Earth language and you asked them about God and they told you that they had never heard or observed anything like that, in their travels around the universe, would that in anyway change your views?
Click to expand...
You'd have to ask the right questions about the nature of Divine or Absolute Reality. Local deities like the ones our anthropomorphic systems create, would probably not be how they envisioned that. I'd ask them questions that would probably be more universally accessible, assuming they had any sense of higher consciousness beyond, "food, eat".

Nimos said:
3. Would it surprise you that there are no mentions of aliens in the bible and now they were suddenly here and why God would not have prepared humanity for this encounter?
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Of course it wouldn't surprise me. There's a crap-load of stuff we know to be true that isn't in the Bible. Why would it be? They lived over 2000 years ago.

However.... there are those UFO devotees who do swear they are in the Bible already.... angels, Ezekiel's wheel, etc. I find it interesting to watch us already grappling with such questions as you ask, and the thoughts people have about them.
 
The Reverend Bob

The Reverend Bob

Fart Machine and Beastmaster
People are so far deep in their own echo chambers drinking their favorite brand of Kool-Aid of course they are not going to give up their belief no matter how much evidence you present. Shin Godzilla could invade Tokyo tomorrow and people will still go on preaching Jesus
 
dybmh

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
No change at all. How is the situation described in the OP relevant to belief in God?
 
Quintessence

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Nimos said:
Im not really sure what you believe in? Do you see it as a religion or more as a way of living?
Click to expand...

The notion of religion being about what one "believes in" is a particularly Protestant Christian notion and I am neither of those things. "Religion" as it is understood by most Westerners is something of a modern artifice that may describe Abrahamic religions relatively well, they don't describe things outside that very well. Outside of the Westernized artifice, religion is one's way of living. It is much more about what one does and who one is than what one "believes in."

Nimos said:
I don't see why its a silly question, if you believe that we are made in the image of God and therefore we must assume that we are special in his eyes, shouldn't that also be evidently visible or observable?
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I'm sure the question makes sense for particular traditions. It doesn't make much sense for traditions that do not posit humans were "made in the image of God." Isn't that specifically an Abrahamic teaching? In any case, my tradition doesn't teach that, nor doesn't claim humans are "special" in the eyes of the gods. If anything, it teaches the opposite.
 
Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
dybmh said:
No change at all. How is the situation described in the OP relevant to belief in God?
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Obviously it doesn't matter if you don't think humans aren't special at all and you agree that we share a common ancestor with other apes. Then I would agree.

However we are talking about other conscious beings, which knowledge and intelligence would be far greater than humans and for any being to reach such state of advancement, it would be expected that they were also capable of advance morality as humans are, and therefore might know the difference between right and wrong. Which could suggest that if you believe in the bible at least, that some alien being either received or ate from the tree of knowledge, making human perhaps not as special in the eyes of God as people think.

Obviously you could do as The Reverend Bob wrote
The Reverend Bob said:
People are so far deep in their own echo chambers drinking their favorite brand of Kool-Aid of course they are not going to give up their belief no matter how much evidence you present. Shin Godzilla could invade Tokyo tomorrow and people will still go on preaching Jesus
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And that it makes no difference and God, just created the aliens for fun or whatever. If they haven't heard about him, in the way that people here on earth talk about him at least. And that these aliens just came from somewhere else. I think it raises a lot of questions about the connection between God and the Jews etc. as to why there would be some advance aliens flying around.
 
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PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
Nimos said:
Obviously it doesn't matter if you don't think humans aren't special at all and you agree that we share a common ancestor with other apes. Then I would agree.

However we are talking about other conscious beings, which knowledge and intelligence would be far greater than humans and for any being to reach such state of advancement, it would be expected that they were also capable of advance morality as humans are, and therefore might know the difference between right and wrong. Which could suggest that if you believe in the bible at least, that some alien being either received or ate from the tree of knowledge, making human perhaps not as special in the eyes of God as people think.

Obviously you could as do as The Reverend Bob suggest

And that it makes no difference and God, just created the aliens for fun or whatever. If they haven't heard about him. In the way that people talk about him. And that these aliens just came from somewhere else. I think it raises a lot of questions about the connection between God and the Jews etc. as to why there would be some advance aliens flying around.
Click to expand...

The difficult premise is here. What does it mean to "believe in the Bible"?
 
Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
Quintessence said:
The notion of religion being about what one "believes in" is a particularly Protestant Christian notion and I am neither of those things. "Religion" as it is understood by most Westerners is something of a modern artifice that may describe Abrahamic religions relatively well, they don't describe things outside that very well. Outside of the Westernized artifice, religion is one's way of living. It is much more about what one does and who one is than what one "believes in."



I'm sure the question makes sense for particular traditions. It doesn't make much sense for traditions that do not posit humans were "made in the image of God." Isn't that specifically an Abrahamic teaching? In any case, my tradition doesn't teach that, nor doesn't claim humans are "special" in the eyes of the gods. If anything, it teaches the opposite.
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Ok that was also how I understood it :) So basically in that sense you are an atheist? or do you believe in a God(s)?
 
Nimos

Nimos

Well-Known Member
AT-AT said:
The difficult premise is here. What does it mean to "believe in the Bible"?
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That is obviously for people that do believe in it to decide. If one believe that we are created in the image of God, I would personally find it strange what the hell aliens more advance than us were doing here, never having heard or observed anything like God in the Universe or their own culture, whatever that would be.

Its obviously just a thought experiment, with some very small chance of actually being possible in the future :D

But also if we find just alien life forms on other planets. which most scientists expect will happen in a not so distant future. Not necessarily intelligent life etc. I think it raises some interesting questions.
 
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