Religious peoples' beliefs about Aliens

[Athena]

http://www.space.com/10670-extraterrestrial-life-religious-beliefs.html

Here is an article titled: Could Extraterrestrial Intelligence Sway Religious Beliefs?

This has been a question of mine since I was a child. I was raised Catholic and always wondered if aliens believed in god. Now I am an atheist and wonder if the mere confirmation that other life exists would be enough to disprove the idea that we are the centre of god's universe.

A study was conducted with 1300 people of varying beliefs and here are their findings:

They found the vast majority of religious believers — regardless of religion — were overwhelmingly confident that they wouldn’t suffer a collapse in faith in the face of evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. In addition, roughly one-third of religious people thought that the faith of other religions would be threatened, while two-thirds of nonreligious people thought that aliens would sway the faith of the religious as a whole.

It was finally the understanding of just how enormous the universe is that changed my mind about god and religion. I wanted to present this topic here because there is a great diversity in beliefs and cultures represented and I'd like to know:

Would the discovery of an alien life form change your mind about religion or god? Would it make a difference if the life was intelligent?

[debrand]

Some people have a strong need to believe in something. Religion would change to fit the alien's presence. Either they would be seen as evil beings that we need to destroy or they would be viewed as creatures that should be converted to our faith.

It would be ironic if the aliens wanted to convert us to their religion, though.

[celestial]

I'm not a Christian and don't believe in their type of god, but I do believe in some sort of "creative life force" for lack of a better term. I believe that such "life force" was the creator of the whole universe, including any other solar systems and life forms, whether intelligent or not. So, the discovery of aliens wouldn't sway my spiritual beliefs. In fact, I think there most likely are other forms of life out there somewhere, but the odds that we will find each other in such a vast universe are extremely slim.

[GeoBQn]

When I was in Hebrew school and the teacher was talking about how the dead would be resurrected when the Messiah came back, we would always ask if dead aliens would be resurrected as well. As you can imagine, we never got an adequate answer.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

Hmm. Well, I used to think it was likely that there was intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, but now I am more inclined to believe we're it. (And that if there is life out there, it would not be intelligent.) This is for a few reasons. One, the Bible doesn't mention it. Two, if we are created in God's image then would they be also? And three, if they were they would need a savior, as well. But there are only three persons in the Trinity, and Jesus already had the savior gig with us. I'm just sort of thinking out loud, there is so much I don't understand. If life, intelligent or not, was found to be elsewhere in the universe, I really don't see it affecting my Christian beliefs, other than to wonder why God didn't tell us about them. And I don't think Christians in general would try to evangelize to them. I do think it would be pretty freaking exciting, though :)

(I'm sure some of you think I'm ridiculous. You don't need to tell me what a moron I am, thanks.)

[Athena]

Lol GeoBQn! I would imagine that beliefs would at least change for the most part and stories would be reinterpreted to fit the new reality. I'm thinking we'll discover some kind of micro-organism at least.

Babycakes: I think your views are pretty par for the course with most believers! I don't think you're a moron you just obviously follow your beliefs. That's why I think discovering other life (or being discovered) would be such a game changer. I'm not sure about other religions but I know Christianity preaches that humans are special and this could disprove that.

[tankgirl]

I am not Christian, but the possibility of life on other planets is already included in my personal beliefs. I mean it seems ridiculous not to figure in ailens of some sort with how huge the universe is. Ailens would not effect my personal beliefs at all. But I see some others freaking out if ailens came knocking.

BTW the idea of them coming to sell their religion is hilarious! But I would close the door on them too :)

[GeoBQn]

BTW the idea of them coming to sell their religion is hilarious! But I would close the door on them too

*tankgirl opens door.* "Good marklar, marklar! Have any marklars told marklar about the marklars of marklar?" *closes door*

[celestial]

*tankgirl opens door.* "Good marklar, marklar! Have any marklars told marklar about the marklars of marklar?" *closes door*

:lol: This really makes me giggle, as I just had some Mormons at the door. I kind of wish they'd been talking about marklars instead!

[HijabiLady]

I am not sure if my answer will be what you were looking for since I am Muslim not Christian. I believe it not only is possible but probable that there is intelligent life out there in this vast universe. Our religion states that there were over a hundred thousand prophets but we only have a handful of their names. Who's to say they were human? I'll be honest, if we came in contact with aliens and they had no belief in a god (the entire species) it would shake my belief. Just being honest here.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

I am not sure if my answer will be what you were looking for since I am Muslim not Christian. I believe it not only is possible but probable that there is intelligent life out there in this vast universe. Our religion states that there were over a hundred thousand prophets but we only have a handful of their names. Who's to say they were human? I'll be honest, if we came in contact with aliens and they had no belief in a god (the entire species) it would shake my belief. Just being honest here.

That's really interesting. What, exactly, would it make you question?

Thanks, Athena :)

[Athena]

I am not sure if my answer will be what you were looking for since I am Muslim not Christian. I believe it not only is possible but probable that there is intelligent life out there in this vast universe. Our religion states that there were over a hundred thousand prophets but we only have a handful of their names. Who's to say they were human? I'll be honest, if we came in contact with aliens and they had no belief in a god (the entire species) it would shake my belief. Just being honest here.

I'd love to hear from all different religions and that's very interesting about the prophets! I think that's a great way to think of them. I really appreciate your honesty and I can understand why you'd say so. That was my question as a believer: if god created the universe then all beings should believe in him, no?

[HijabiLady]

That's really interesting. What, exactly, would it make you question?

Thanks, Athena :)

Well in Islam we are taught that all beings are born with a certain disposition which defaults to belief in God. If an ENTIRE species of intelligent beings had no belief in god(s) then this would be a direct contradiction of my beliefs.

[VintageJen1984]

I'm a Christian and I've always believed there were aliens out there, though of course we have no physical evidence. We do have evidence of other planets, both in this solar system and in others. Why should this be the ONLY planet with intelligent life? It hasn't affected my religious belief at all, because I figured Jesus came for Earth/human life. If there are intelligent beings on other planets God probably has a whole different plan for them. It wouldn't shake my beliefs even if they did not believe in God. I mean, there are atheists and religions which don't believe in an omnipotent, omnicient God right here on Earth and that doesn't shake my belief. It would be pretty arrogant to assume that my experience on Earth should mirror at all the experience of a different kind of intelligent being on a different planet in a different solar system. Perhaps God invented those intelligent beings without a need to believe in Him. Perhaps those beings do not die. Perhaps when they do die, that's it. My belief in God and my belief in a need for a savior is pretty tied into my human residing on Earth status.

[jenny_islander]

I asked a Russian Orthodox priest once. He explained that if we found intelligent extraterrestrials, our first priority would be to determine whether they had fallen or not. If not--put radio buoys beaming DO NOT APPROACH all around their solar system and stay away, because sin is contagious. If so--they had either been visited by their own incarnated Savior, or not yet, and in either case we were not to proselytize, although discussion of comparative religion might be illuminating.

[ilovetchotchkes]

I had a Christian tell me once that aliens DID exist, and their purpose was to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. This was my look back to him: :shock: as I backed away VEEERY slowly.

[No Fun My Babe]

I'm an atheist, but I do believe that there is life, intelligent life, out there somewhere. The universe, or multiple universes for all we know, is/are large, and I don't think we're all that special.

My dad is pretty religious, though thankfully not too preachy about it. He thinks aliens/other beings are supported by the bible. Stuff coming out of the sky... He thinks it was written in a way people of the day would understand.

But when I read the title of this thread, the first thought that came to mind was this:

I AM KORTON UMMMMM!

*tankgirl opens door.* "Good marklar, marklar! Have any marklars told marklar about the marklars of marklar?" *closes door*

:lol:

Edited for content.

Edit

[emmiedahl]

I am Jewish and I believe in the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.

The Torah/OT was written not about the entire world, but about one tribe in one time and place. It does not address what happened in North America, so why would it address other planets? The Torah deals with one ethnic group and only other groups as they interacted with us. So there is a lot left out because it is the perspective of one group of people.

Hmm. Well, I used to think it was likely that there was intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, but now I am more inclined to believe we're it. (And that if there is life out there, it would not be intelligent.) This is for a few reasons. One, the Bible doesn't mention it.

The Bible also does not mention gravity, house cats and many things that we know existed at the time it was written. It also never mentions or even hints at the trinity.

[Witsec7]

I can only get to sleep listening to a radio, since KGO changed formats the only station I get at night broadcasts a show called Coast to Coast (Art Bell used to host it). Its a right wing fringe kind of station . They have Whitley Strieber on a lot and psychics etc, always a lot of talk about extraterrestrials and close encounters.

A wide range of the UFO 'experts' on the show are Christians, not always born agains. I've noticed a lot of them have a theory that the nephilim are actually extraterrestrials.

As an atheist, who doesn't believe in creation myth, I do think that there is possibly life outside our solar system. I also think that they probably have visited us, and probably observe us.

[darareaksmey]

I"m Christian, and I don't discount the possibility that there are ETs out there. If there are, I'll just figure it's one of zillions of things, like cell phones and drivers' licenses, not discussed by the writers of the Bible.

[CustardTart]

My Catholic church must be one of the cool ones because the priests here say if it was proven there were ETs, it wouldn't dispute the bible or our beliefs at all. God made them, too. ;)

[browngrl]

I'm an atheist and I do believe there is life elsewhere in the universe. I believe that if we ever do come into contact with alien SENTIENT lifeforms - it may be quite difficult to tell if they are "fallen" or if they believe in God (as we know it) - in fact I think it may be a challenge to communicate. I think that people on Earth today find it quite difficult to communicate with other races/nationalities/religions much less a life form that we may not even share nucleic acids with.

The fact that aliens may be quite alien will not be endearing to many fundamentalists. Fundamentalists don't seem to like any thing that is "other" or that is not specifically mentioned in the KJV of the Bible. I don't think they will try and accept an alien culture. I suspect they will choose to hate or reject the aliens at worst and try and evangelize at best. If fundamentalists do choose to "share" their religion - I wonder if the aliens will find that as deeply irritating as I do. While I might hand a bag of cat poop/slam the door on someone who is "soul winning" - what would an alien culture do?

edited to add punctuation

[BayLee_10]

Since there is no other planet in our solar system capable of sustaining intelligent life and it is a whole lot of light years to any other solar system I have an issue with imagining how aliens would have gotten here. Evidence has not yet been produced that aliens lived here unless it's true that Mayans were aliens. If there is proof of that, I haven't heard about it. Never-the-less, I suppose anything is possible, if not probable. Perhaps I lack imagination? If, in fact, the world begins to end in December, Christ returns, and the faithful disappear, I will freely admit I am wrong. Or perhaps I will just be thankful to live in a world of plagues, floods, water turning into blood and whatever else, not to have to listen to 'This country was founded on Christian Values' any longer. It's gotten tiresome!

[Sax Russell]

As an atheist and sci-fi fan (as my username suggests), I'd like to point out that, while of course we don't know how many stars are in the universe, one estimate is that there are about 300 sextillion stars, or 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. (I think I put the right number of zeroes in - a sextillion is 10^21.) Of course not all these stars could support life, much less intelligent life - some stars burn out too fast, and intelligent life might be tricky on planets around red dwarfs (such planets would probably become tidally locked). But even if we knock off a few zeroes from the figure above, we still are left with a pretty big number!

Unfortunately it's tough to go faster than light speed. (Understatement) But it is very strange that we see no evidence of aliens, or at least we think we see no evidence of aliens. I have no idea why this is so.

If you think anything I just said is interesting, you might be interested in the Drake equation.

[Athena]

As an atheist and sci-fi fan (as my username suggests), I'd like to point out that, while of course we don't know how many stars are in the universe, one estimate is that there are about 300 sextillion stars, or 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. (I think I put the right number of zeroes in - a sextillion is 10^21.) Of course not all these stars could support life, much less intelligent life - some stars burn out too fast, and intelligent life might be tricky on planets around red dwarfs (such planets would probably become tidally locked). But even if we knock off a few zeroes from the figure above, we still are left with a pretty big number!

Unfortunately it's tough to go faster than light speed. (Understatement) But it is very strange that we see no evidence of aliens, or at least we think we see no evidence of aliens. I have no idea why this is so.

If you think anything I just said is interesting, you might be interested in the Drake equation.

Wow! Lots of indepth, interesting information in your links there! My theory for why we haven't found anyone else is because humans are like angry killer african bees. Nobody wants to mess with us; we have bombs that can obliterate all matter and we use them on ourselves let alone another species. I think we're too much of a risk...

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that most believers wouldn't change their beliefs if we were to find alien life. I think most religious texts were written before the new world was found and so many other new discoveries with regards to our planet and physics and science in general really. I mean, Galileo even had to recant his discovery because it didn't jive with contemporary beliefs. Religion will always adapt to keep itself relevant I guess.