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Discovery Of Advanced "Alien" Life & Religion On Earth

Wouldn't affect my beliefs one bit.Modern westernized Taoism doesn't have a problem with the concept of other lifeforms across the universe.I basically asked the same question as the OP on another thread on this subforum last night.
 
Dragonfly said:
Suppose the Earth is visited by a highly advanced, and obviously superior life-form from another galaxy.

How might that alter your religious beliefs?

If it's beyond obvious that we humans are inferior, on many different levels, to the visiting life-form would you question your beliefs more?
Click to expand...

No, I wouldn't question my belief; my belief would be strengthened by further evidence how how great and mighty the Creator is. But then, my belief in God isn't based on the types of life-forms He has created but, rather, on the infinity of His imagination.
 
Dragonfly said:
Suppose the Earth is visited by a highly advanced, and obviously superior life-form from another galaxy.

How might that alter your religious beliefs?

If it's beyond obvious that we humans are inferior, on many different levels, to the visiting life-form would you question your beliefs more?
Click to expand...

The only belief I'd be questioning is the belief in defending ourselves against more advanced, invasive species. But would this end religion? Likely not. It could alter it in someways, but it will evolve to keep most of its tenets intact while adapting to the new information.
 
Ikari said:
religion...will evolve to keep most of its tenets intact while adapting to the new information.
Click to expand...

Everything evolves. This is especially true of spiritual conceptualizations. Interestingly, the major religions that have influenced the world are based around a divine incarnation (Horus, Krishna, Buddha, Christ) or a prophet (Abraham, Moses, Sri Sankaracharya, Muhammad, Sri Ramakrishna). There are 6 major, current religions: Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. There are many archaic religions (Egyptian, Norse, Zoroastrianism, Greek, Roman). If you look at the ontological contents in comparative religion, there are many similarities, alongside many differences. There is an abundance of Trinities, from Isis/Osiris/Horus...Vishnu/Divine Mother/Krishna...Yin/Yang/Dao...Sangha/Dharma/Buddha...Father/Holy Spirit(Virgin Mary)/Christ. There are core absolute moralities. Each has a core creative principle (Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love). There are descriptions of the steps one takes to reach higher, spiritually, and become more enlightened. Some earlier systems are polytheistic. Some are mixed, they are so broad in their protestant interpretations (Hinduism).

There is an evolution in thought, both within a particular religion, and between the religions. This thought is in the realm of psycho-spiritual magic (chants, rituals, prayers) as well as fundamental conceptualizations of creation and our place within it, where the understanding of the performance of the psycho-spiritual magic is intimately tied into the conceptualization of creation and our place in it.

Each forms a complete, bounded, describable system. The fact that a particular system of religion is describable underscores the fact that while they each provide a complete description of spirituality, they are not the only way to describe the infinite. In fact, each religion states that the real Truth is indescribable. This is in effect an admission that a particular religion's description is not the only valid one. And so all religions are true.

The advent of "aliens", more advanced than the mass of the disbelieving humanity, is going to be quite a shock to the system. Every one of the 6 major, current religions describes the evolution of the system, and the people within it.

Sheep on the right and goats on the left. Sucks to be a goat...been there, done that. Keep an eye out for that silver Hearst.
 
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reefedjib said:
Everything evolves. This is especially true of spiritual conceptualizations. Interestingly, the major religions that have influenced the world are based around a divine incarnation (Horus, Krishna, Buddha, Christ) or a prophet (Abraham, Moses, Sri Sankaracharya, Muhammad, Sri Ramakrishna). There are 6 major, current religions: Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. There are many archaic religions (Egyptian, Norse, Zoroastrianism, Greek, Roman). If you look at the ontological contents in comparative religion, there are many similarities, alongside many differences. There is an abundance of Trinities, from Isis/Osiris/Horus...Vishnu/Divine Mother/Krishna...Yin/Yang/Dao...Sangha/Dharma/Buddha...Father/Holy Spirit(Virgin Mary)/Christ. There are core absolute moralities. Each has a core creative principle (Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love). There are descriptions of the steps one takes to reach higher, spiritually, and become more enlightened. Some earlier systems are polytheistic. Some are mixed, they are so broad in their protestant interpretations (Hinduism).

There is an evolution in thought, both within a particular religion, and between the religions. This thought is in the realm of psycho-spiritual magic (chants, rituals, prayers) as well as fundamental conceptualizations of creation and our place within it, where the understanding of the performance of the psycho-spiritual magic is intimately tied into the conceptualization of creation and our place in it.

Each forms a complete, bounded, describable system. The fact that a particular system of religion is describable underscores the fact that while they each provide a complete description of spirituality, they are not the only way to describe the infinite. In fact, each religion states that the real Truth is indescribable. This is in effect an admission that a particular religion's description is not the only valid one. And so all religions are true.

The advent of "aliens", more advanced than the mass of the disbelieving humanity, is going to be quite a shock to the system. Every one of the 6 major, current religions describes the evolution of the system, and the people within it.

Sheep on the right and goats on the left. Sucks to be a goat...been there, done that. Keep an eye out for that silver Hearst.
Click to expand...

Not only do all things evolve, but nothing is infinite. Not language, not religion, not culture, not the universe. As such, I have no doubt that should an advanced alien culture come to Earth, that religion would evolve to assimilate that. I had a conversation with another physicist several years ago. I remarked that if ever we were to find organized religion in advanced alien civilizations that it would disprove religion as a "truth" and illustrate it more as a side-effect of intelligence. Wherein her response was more along the lines that she thinks it would prove religion as a truth as other species not of earthly origin would have religion as a doctrine. So I guess it wasn't the open and shut case that I had thought. But goes to show the malleability of religion and its adaptability to new information.
 
Dragonfly said:
Suppose the Earth is visited by a highly advanced, and obviously superior life-form from another galaxy.

How might that alter your religious beliefs?

If it's beyond obvious that we humans are inferior, on many different levels, to the visiting life-form would you question your beliefs more?
Click to expand...



My faith would be untroubled by the existence of aliens.

On the contrary, I would find the whole thing quite interesting.
 
Dragonfly said:
I am keenly aware of gigantic invisibility cloak that many religious people put around the lack of any mention in the bible of dinosaurs and the actual age of the planet and the general solar system we are a part of.

But doesn't the bible state that man is made in the image of god?
The heavens and earth created in 6 days and rested on the 7th?
Did the bible forget to mention that on the 8th day god made something even better some place else?

Is there anywhere in the bible or other holy writings of Abrahamic religions that might suggest there are other intelligent life-forms outside of Earth itself?






I understand some people will say that nothing could ever alter their religious faith.

I just wonder if there's a limit to that "nothing".

If "man" is not the pinnacle of all life-forms in the universe, does that suggest that our concept of religion and god might be flawed as well?
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I see your point but the possibilty of an alien race reaching Earth from 1000's of lightyears away is so far fetched that it approaches the possibilty that there is a God.
Indeed if they somehow found a way they probably would be Gods themselves in our eyes.
 
Goshin said:
My faith would be untroubled by the existence of aliens.

On the contrary, I would find the whole thing quite interesting.
Click to expand...

Here's one for you: If the aliens were possessed of a moral sense and 'human' qualities such as compassion and grace... would you say that they were also created in God's image, or is that the exclusive domain of humanity?
 
Viktyr Korimir said:
Here's one for you: If the aliens were possessed of a moral sense and 'human' qualities such as compassion and grace... would you say that they were also created in God's image, or is that the exclusive domain of humanity?
Click to expand...


I take "created in God's image" in the sense of humanity being mind, body and spirit, rather than appearance or biology. I would tend to assume, unless there were good reason otherwise, that aliens were also part of God's creation, and that intelligent aliens with morals and spirituality were also made by God "in His image".

I would also tend to assume, without good reason otherwise, that God had already given them their own unique path/faith/religion to salvation and divine fellowship; converting them to my own religion would probably not be on the agenda.
 
Ikari said:
Some certainly say.
Click to expand...

In fact, language, religion, culture, and the universe are infinite as well.

But what are you doing talking about religion with another physicist and hoping for good answers? It reminds me of the frog allegory lecture, posted below, but that the 2nd frog also comes from a small, narrow well.

You need to speak with someone who is from the sea to get profound answers to your questions, unless you aren't really looking to answer a question, just feeling smart for making observations about religious doctrine within society. Disbelievers feeling so smart about themselves...

http://callistohouse.org/lectures.html
 
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