Religious peoples' beliefs about Aliens

[Glass Cowcatcher]

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.

Any smart alien race would look at the state of things on Earth and stay the hell away. :lol:

ETA: Do keep in mind that theoretically, any type of planet could contain "life--" but there are precious few that could support life in the form that we know it.

[figuring it out]

I believe in aliens and my sect says that there are untold numbers of worlds populated by untold forms of life, some of which we might not even recognize as living. It wouldn't shake my faith at all. In fact, it might deepen it because an encounter with ETs would be tangible evidence of something I take on faith, well faith and logic. I mean, its pretty narcissistic to think we are the only life in the universe. Oops, I forgot to mention that I am Christian, although a pretty unorthodox one.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

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.

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.

True. Good point. As for the trinity, you're right that the Bible never uses that term. But it does explicitly link God the father and Jesus the son as one person, and I believe it implicitly links the Holy Spirit with them, as well. Anyway, just answering Athena's question not trying to push doctrine.

[JesusFightClub]

I am an atheist, but I am fairly sure there are other life forms than human out in the universe and it stands to reason that some will be "intelligent".

I don't believe they got here yet, though, and I don't know if they ever will. Honestly it seems unlikely. And if they do, I am not sure they will be in a form we comprehend. It's like China Mieville's descriptions of "aliens" - imagine one with a beetle thing for a head and a human body? Or one you can only get close enough to describing in human terms by saying "a horse-bird with tentacles"?

As an atheist it doesn't affect my nonbelief one way or another. When I was a Christian, it didn't affect my belief, because you can't know the mind of God. So if he made a whole bunch of aliens, there would have been a good reason undoubtedly.

[valsa]

I'm an atheist and I believe it's statistically likely that there are several planets in the universe with the proper conditions to be capable of supporting life and, statistically, that several of those planets are likely to have some sort of life forms on them. Now, as to whether those life forms are single cell organisms or super advanced beings- I have no clue.

When it comes to religion and aliens, the only thing I really wonder is how you could tell a sufficiently advanced alien from a god? I mean, how do we define "god"? What if an alien race came down that could heal the sick and bring people back to life? What if they could control water (parting the red sea) and fire (pillar of fire/ fire and brimstone from the sky)? What if the original single cell organisms that evolved into all the life on our planet originally came from their planet? Wouldn’t that make them “god�

[elliesmash]

While I might hand a bag of cat poop/slam the door on someone who is "soul winning" - what would an alien culture do?

You...you hand bags of cat poop to people who come a-soul winnin' to your door?

:D

[Glass Cowcatcher]

I don't believe they got here yet, though, and I don't know if they ever will. Honestly it seems unlikely. And if they do, I am not sure they will be in a form we comprehend. It's like China Mieville's descriptions of "aliens" - imagine one with a beetle thing for a head and a human body? Or one you can only get close enough to describing in human terms by saying "a horse-bird with tentacles"?

I'm almost done reading Perdido Street Station now. Excellent book! :mrgreen:

[Witsec7]

...

You...you hand bags of cat poop to people who come a-soul winnin' to your door? :D

Actually I'm the one that did it :D

But if the bible lady said she was an alien from another planet I may have reacted differently.

[samithemage]

I was raised Catholic, and while I don't follow most of the beliefs I was taught, I still vaguely believe in some sort of creator and would probably describe myself as deist if hard pressed. Even when I was hard core Catholic I believed in extraterrestrial life, because I figured that God was a busy sort of chap and that "our creation story" was just that, the story of our creation. It never had anything to do with the story of any other life that God created. It never seemed threatening to my beliefs at the time.

[ilovetchotchkes]

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.

This. So much this.

[Dinaberries]

Well, my mother is a bit of a wanna-be fundie and she always taught me that the aliens are actually demons. Actually, my mom would also say that evidence of evolution was planted by the Devil, and that dinosaurs were created by the Devil as well. I think that a lot of fundies just say something is from the Devil when they can't understand it. So I think that a lot of fundies would just say that aliens are either demons or creations of the Devil.

[browngrl]

Actually I'm the one that did it :D

But if the bible lady said she was an alien from another planet I may have reacted differently.

Thanks for the idea! I loved it. As I have two cats with a healthy digestive system I look forward to handing the next soul winner who comes to my door a little gift.

[Lainey]

I think that a lot of fundies just say something is from the Devil when they can't understand it. So I think that a lot of fundies would just say that aliens are either demons or creations of the Devil.

So much this.