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Does life on other planets disprove the BIble

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  • Total voters
    67
EpicDude86 said:
If we can make video game engines, then a larger being can create the Universe.
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Indeed, one has to wonder what Rosie O'Donnell is able to create. :mrgreen:


I don't find that extraterrestrial life to be incompatible with the Bible, however I think it may further bolster Evolutionary Theory and therefore deal another blow to Christianity (as it has already). I'm speaking of course about the Christians who find Evolution and their Faith to be incompatible. Those who are religious and find evolution to be compatible with their faith will most likely be uninfluenced.
 
It is one of the very few things that doesn't contradict a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Korimyr the Rat said:
You know, as much as they're not incompatible, the existence of intelligent life on other planets would raise some very interesting theological questions-- especially concerning the religious experiences, if any, of the other species and what implications those religious notions would have on terrestrial faiths.
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Ray Bradbury has written several short stories based on this.
 
I voted "other" because I think the answer depends pretty heavily on what the life on other planets is.

If it's bacteria or simple plant life on other planets, big deal. If you subscribe to the Biblical creation story, there's nothing there to challenge it.

If it's intelligent, perhaps even superior life, and we find a way to communicate with it, there could be some serious blows to any and all religous beliefs.

Or not -- we could discover intelligent life on another planet and get a message back that says "Oh yeah, you were created by God. We remember when it happened. Quite a show. Only took six days, can you believe it?"
 
factorial said:
Or not -- we could discover intelligent life on another planet and get a message back that says "Oh yeah, you were created by God. We remember when it happened. Quite a show. Only took six days, can you believe it?"
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Other than completely invalidating my religious beliefs, this would be unimaginably awesome-- just think about what this would do to Young Earth Creationists, validating parts of a literal view of Genesis and then completely invalidating others. I can even picture more sensible theologians cracking under the stress of that conflict.

And that's just for starters.
 
Goobieman said:
If life -is- found on other planets, does this disprove the Bible's story of Creation?
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The bible disproves the bible, it has significant internal incoherency. That's generally sufficient for me. The idea of life on other planets, though, is just plain awesome. Unless they're the V.
 
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Catz Part Deux said:
Fundamentalists.
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And fundamentalists shouldn't be taken seriously. In the early Christian church it was considered heretical to interpret the Bible literally.
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
No, the Bible disproves the Bible. The Bible isn't consistent with scientific fact.

Fact: The world-drowing flood described for Noah....didn't happen.

Period.

That's it.

No flood.

The myth is....a myth, not true.

End of argument.
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i would say there's something to that story. too many civilizations have a similar story to discount that event entirely.
 
Korimyr the Rat said:
I find this highly doubtful. While atheism is indeed on the rise in society currently... so is active participation in religion. We're not becoming less religious overall, merely more polarized.
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Maybe, but my observation is that religious ideology seems to be entering other realms outside of an obscure unknown "power", and is becoming more apparent in taking up "causes", in which the power source is actually a man or group of men who have deemed what is right and what is wrong based on what they (the ones who think up these ideas) intend to gain in order to suit their own causes. Perhaps it has always been this way, but since I don't remember living thousands of years ago, I don't know if it's always been the case.

As far as the usual organized religions and their levels of practice in the US currently (using church attendance numbers), it seems that this has fallen over the past 50 years.
 
Scarecrow Akhbar said:
If it's not literal, it can't be taken on faith, and the whole structure of Christianity is completely dependent on the veracity of the claim that Mary wasn't getting laid.
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One of the explanations I've read regarding the virgin birth part of the story is that in the particular sect Mary was reportedly a member of, a virgin was a woman who had not yet given birth, and not a woman who had not had sex.

It seems to me that many in the Christian community have moved away from practicing religion based on the "miracle" events, and have moved toward following some of the philosophy.
 
phattonez said:
And fundamentalists shouldn't be taken seriously. In the early Christian church it was considered heretical to interpret the Bible literally.
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These days, it's considered heretical by the fundamentalists, who presently dominate the seminaries of many mainstream American religions, to be non-fundamentalist. Those who control the seminaries also control the religious congregations, because that is the perspective that will be advanced from the pulpit to the congregation. So, yes, I take the fundamentalists seriously, because they are trying, aggressively, to advance their worldview. And, I remember their hostile takeover of the Southern Baptist seminaries and colleges back in the 80s.
 
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If discovering that the earth was really round didn't disprove the Bible, nor did the discovery of a vacuum disprove the Bible then I don't think that the possibility of some aliens existing is going to disprove it, either.

I don't believe in it at all, never really did - yet I don't see those who do believe in it to suddenly not believe in it because of this current issue.
 
Catz Part Deux said:
These days, it's considered heretical by the fundamentalists, who presently dominate the seminaries of many mainstream American religions, to be non-fundamentalist. Those who control the seminaries also control the religious congregations, because that is the perspective that will be advanced from the pulpit to the congregation. So, yes, I take the fundamentalists seriously, because they are trying, aggressively, to advance their worldview. And, I remember their hostile takeover of the Southern Baptist seminaries and colleges back in the 80s.
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Who are you kidding? Fundamentalists do not dominate. Are you going to call the Catholic church fundamentalist now?
 
phattonez said:
Who are you kidding? Fundamentalists do not dominate. Are you going to call the Catholic church fundamentalist now?
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Fundamentalist do INDEED dominate in the U.S., and while populations in the mainstream faiths (Presbyterian, Anglican, Methodist) are dwindling, they are growing in the evangelical segment (Baptist, Southern Baptist, Presbyterian USA, etc.) of Christianity.

Today, with 16.6 million adherents (5.3% of the total population), Southern Baptist is the largest of more than 200[15] distinctly named Protestant denominations.[16] Of the total population, Evangelicals comprise 26.3%, and Mainline Protestants 16%.[17] The strength of various sects varies greatly in different regions of the country, with rural parts of the South (except Louisiana and the Hispanic community, which both consist mainly of Catholics), having many evangelicals but very few Catholics, while urbanized areas of the north Atlantic states and Great Lakes, as well as many industrial and mining towns, are heavily Catholic, though still quite mixed. As of 1990, nearly 72% of the population of Utah was Mormon, as well as 26% of neighboring Idaho.[18] Lutheranism is most prominent in the Upper Midwest, with North Dakota having the highest percentage, 35% according to a 2001 survey.[19
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[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States]Religion in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
Evangelists are not necessarily fundamentalists.
 
Life on other planets does not disprove the Bible (I think there are other factors that disprove the bible, but this isn't one).

According to the Christian tradition, there really has not been the connection between man and God since the time of Jesus. So, it is quite possible to fit God plopping buggers on other worlds, especially after he's seen the failure that's happened on this one.
 
factorial said:
Or not -- we could discover intelligent life on another planet and get a message back that says "Oh yeah, you were created by God. We remember when it happened. Quite a show. Only took six days, can you believe it?"
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Yes. Quite the effect -that- would have.
 
Yeah, it wouldn't really disprove the Bible since it really only speaks of God creating this world. But I can see how the Die-Hard Anti-Religion types would love its implications.
 
It disproves the most literal reading of the bible, but then again, that's been disproven dozens of times already, so it won't really change much. The figurative reading of the bible can not be disproven since it is adaptable enough to keep up with modern life.
 
teamosil said:
It disproves the most literal reading of the bible, but then again, that's been disproven dozens of times already, so it won't really change much. The figurative reading of the bible can not be disproven since it is adaptable enough to keep up with modern life.
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It's the perfect plan!
 
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