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If we discover alien life, does that disprove religion?

Your Star said:
I think this could be an interesting discussion. Do you think it would disprove every religion if we discovered life outside of our Earth? If so do you think religious belief would plummet? If you are religious would it make you question your faith?

Also, would it have to be other intelligent life or would simple microorganisms have the same effect in your mind?
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No, but I might have to give more credence to the Church of Scientology. :mrgreen:
 
Cephus said:
I don't even know if that's true. Sure, everyone would believe that God was real, but there are plenty of crazies out there who would believe things about God that were false, just because it's what they've always believed. Religion is not rational.
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What can one believe about God that can be false should he exist?

God is referenced to in the OT as YAHWEH, or "I am"/"I am who I am", does that not mean he is everything? The good, the bad, the perfect, the imperfect, the smart, the dumb, the generic, the weird, etc.?
 
No. Why would it? Our God would be their God.
 
mak2 said:
Actually i meant proof there is a God would kill faith. It would no longer be faith, God would jsut be another fact.
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How would that not be an improvement? Compared with knowledge, faith is madness.
 
Regarding unintelligent life, no problem, although there probably isn't any.

Regarding the possibility of finding humans who somehow left the Earth at some point in the distant past, no problem, although there probably aren't any.

Regarding intelligent life that could not possibly be from Adam and Eve, this is similar to the "what if they found Jesus's body" type questions, it's simply not going to happen.
 
Luftwaffe said:
What can one believe about God that can be false should he exist?
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There are more than 3000 distinct sects of Christianity, many of whom believe mutually contradictory things about the character and nature of God. Go ask them.
 
Cephus said:
There are more than 3000 distinct sects of Christianity, many of whom believe mutually contradictory things about the character and nature of God. Go ask them.
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I guess, although a huge chunk of the breaking offs originated from political reasons and personal reasons rather than not believeing-the-same-**** reasons. But YAHWEH still means what it means so whatever at this point.
 
Luftwaffe said:
I guess, although a huge chunk of the breaking offs originated from political reasons and personal reasons rather than not believeing-the-same-**** reasons. But YAHWEH still means what it means so whatever at this point.
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It means whatever individual believes think it means and there is no objective definition of it. It's all just imaginary anyhow, what difference does it make?
 
Cephus said:
It means whatever individual believes think it means and there is no objective definition of it. It's all just imaginary anyhow, what difference does it make?
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Not if that individual is in a religion that dictates its meaning according to the bible, you're view wouldn't be religious at all rather theistic or deistic. Like me.
 
Luftwaffe said:
Not if that individual is in a religion that dictates its meaning according to the bible, you're view wouldn't be religious at all rather theistic or deistic. Like me.
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Of course, if you're in a religion your beliefs are dictated to you. There is where cephus 's previous point comes in. There are over 30 000 different sects with vastly contrasting beliefs, even about the nature of god.

So no, you do not have some objective definition of god that you all agree on.
 
"God created the heavens....." or something like that the Bible says. Like Jesus, the Bible only addresses this planet. The Bible is written in vague terms and so we have so many interpretations of what things mean. An encounter with another life form would be swallowed somehow by the Bible confirming it is the word of God. Some Sunday sermons might be interesting to attend, but all in all the Christian powers that be would do everything necessary to prevent the death of the Bible.
 
in Quran Allah points out that there has always been some other creatures whom he may wish to honor with the title of the " superior one " if the humans dont obey himself.
 
I imagine their belief system, if any, would cause more problems than their mere existence. Even the more tolerant belief systems of earth would have some self exploration to do if they met an alien species that outright confronted it beliefs wise.

Even people with no belief system at all might feel challenged based on the circumstances, if the aliens were "superior".
 
The odds are if we make contact it will not be pleasant knowing human beings will deceive them somehow then try to get the drop on them and confiscate their lunch boxes.
 
faithful_servant said:
I think that you're perceptiion is screwed up. It would be the rare person of any faith who's faith would be upset by this kind of discovery.
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Okay? It's screwed up that many religious individuals don't accept the theory of evolution, and it's even more screwed up that there are quite a few individuals who think the earth is only a few thousand years old.

Thank you? I guess.
 
Tralfamadore said:
Okay? It's screwed up that many religious individuals don't accept the theory of evolution, and it's even more screwed up that there are quite a few individuals who think the earth is only a few thousand years old.

Thank you? I guess.
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So because there are people that can't resolve science and scripture, that makes it OK for you to have your messed up perceptions??? Personally, I'm an old-Earth Creationist. I believe that the world is billions of years old and that life did come to be on this planet in a long slow process. Einstienian physics states that as gravity increases, time slows. Since we have a pretty good idea o fthe mass of the universe, we have a pretty good idea of the rate at which time was flowing at the time of the big bang. IF we hold onto to that rate of time, we are now at the tail end of the 6th day since the big bang - kind of like what the Bible says. Look at the fossil record - long periods with very little change puncutated with short periods of fast change moving towards an end result of mammalian life and mankind. Changes that should have required trillions of years only taking a few hundred million years. Kind of like of there was an intelligence behind the changes. Science and the Bible in agreement.
 
Your Star said:
I think this could be an interesting discussion. Do you think it would disprove every religion if we discovered life outside of our Earth? If so do you think religious belief would plummet? If you are religious would it make you question your faith?
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It wouldn't make me question my Christian faith. Can you show me a Bible verse that says alien life outside of earth can't happen?

Alien life would just make God that much more of a Creator.

By the way, there is life outside of earth. It dwells in heaven.
 
Common sense and reason disproves religion.
 
Logicman said:
It wouldn't make me question my Christian faith. Can you show me a Bible verse that says alien life outside of earth can't happen?

Alien life would just make God that much more of a Creator.

By the way, there is life outside of earth. It dwells in heaven.
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Don't forget hell! Where all the cool people go.
 
faithful_servant said:
I don't ANYONE who is a Christian who would think that finding life on anotehr planet would make their faith less valid. Not one single person.
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I know a few Christians who hold this belief. My mother's boyfriend believes God did not create any other intelligent life aside from humans on this planet.
 
Zinthaniel said:
I know a few Christians who hold this belief. My mother's boyfriend believes God did not create any other intelligent life aside from humans on this planet.
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I didn't say that I didn't know any Christians who thought that we were the only intelligent life, I said that I didn't know who's faith would be challenged by the discovery of intelligent extra-terrestrial life. If it was found out, they would adjust thier understanding and realize that their understanding o fthe Bible is flawed and needed correcting.
 
I think a more interesting question would be the question of salvation from within the Christian mythos for far advanced aliens. Do they have souls? Would we assume that they are from a fallen 'species' as we supposedly are, or could they be absent the supposed need for salvation through Jesus? What if they had a different religion that conflicted with Christianity?
 
Dezaad said:
I think a more interesting question would be the question of salvation from within the Christian mythos for far advanced aliens. Do they have souls? Would we assume that they are from a fallen 'species' as we supposedly are, or could they be absent the supposed need for salvation through Jesus? What if they had a different religion that conflicted with Christianity?
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what if they had monitored our religions, and decided to use their advanced technology to create 'miracles' and impersonate the returned messiah? for kicks?
 
Your Star said:
I think this could be an interesting discussion. Do you think it would disprove every religion if we discovered life outside of our Earth? If so do you think religious belief would plummet? If you are religious would it make you question your faith?

Also, would it have to be other intelligent life or would simple microorganisms have the same effect in your mind?
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Well, I've never really believed in what I deem to be the parables that surround all religions. I don't think it would have any effect on my beliefs at all.

I cannot accept evolution...that all life evolved from slime. Just can't. There is some grand design. And there's no reason to believe that earth was special beyond it being capable of supporting the life forms the designer(s) had in mind.
 
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