If extraterrestial life was found...

b318isp

If some from of extraterrestrial life was conclusively found, what do you think the reaction would be from:

- Theists
- Deists
- Humanists
- Atheists (perhaps including agnostics)?

CerebralCortex

b318isp wrote: »

If some from of extraterrestrial life was conclusively found, what do you think the reaction would be from:

- Theists
- Deists
- Humanists
- Atheists (perhaps including agnostics)?

I would expect rationalisations form all the groups except the atheist group, we tend to look at the evidence first then make our conclusion. For the record do you mean e.t. intelligence or just life. The latter would have little or no impact.

MagicMarker

No reaction from me except excitement.

The Mad Hatter

b318isp wrote: »

- Deists

Hey, cool!

b318isp wrote: »

- Atheists (perhaps including agnostics)?

Hey, cool!

b318isp wrote: »

- Humanists

Hey, cool! Though we might have to change our name...

b318isp wrote: »

- Theists

It's just a theory!

AhSureTisGrand

Assuming it's intelligent life:

1. "Oh shít! Extraterrestrial life!"
2. "Wow! Extraterrestrial life!"
3. "Wow! Extraterrestrial life!"
4. "Wow! Extraterrestrial life!"

magicbastarder

i, for one, would welcome our new alien overlords.

Turtwig

Gregor Samsa

In reverse order...

Atheists: "Hey, aliens. Interesting news!"
Humanists: "Hey, aliens. Interesting news!"
Deists: "Hey, aliens. Interesting news!"
Theists:"Hey, aliens, have you heard the Good News?"

b318isp

CerebralCortex wrote: »

For the record do you mean e.t. intelligence or just life. The latter would have little or no impact.

Let's say for the sake of argument that it is intelligent, even humanoid. Would the idea of a theistic God fall apart?

robindch

b318isp wrote: »

If some from of extraterrestrial life was conclusively found [...]

Assuming the extraterrestrial life could think + communicate, I'd be far more interested in its reaction to theists, rather than vice versa.

CerebralCortex

b318isp wrote: »

Let's say for the sake of argument that it is intelligent, even humanoid. Would the idea of a theistic God fall apart?

The idea of a theistic god already falls apart but the religious rationalise it, I don't see why they wouldn't do the same in the case of contact.

krudler

b318isp wrote: »

Let's say for the sake of argument that it is intelligent, even humanoid. Would the idea of a theistic God fall apart?

no because nothing about aliens is in the bible, christians have their asses covered that way.

b318isp

My thinking is that it fit fine into deistic/agnostic/atheist views of the world. For theists, I think a number of points creep up:

1. It would undermine the central role of humanity and earth as we are no longer the sole purpose of God's plan. However, this could be countered by saying that God is free to create other worlds with life and what goes here, goes there too.
2. It would undermine much of the old testament, such as the story of Adam & Eve, God's chosen people, etc. However, this can be countered that the OT only refers to the creation and establishment of earth and its peoples. God had no need to describe other worlds to us at the time.
3. It would undermine the purpose of Jesus. It can countered that God sent Jesus to earth 2000 years ago for a specific purpose, and that Jesus may be sent to other worlds at other times as necessary.
4. I would undermine creationism on the basis that life can exist outside of the earth. However, creationists could use this to conclude that God is continuously populating the universe (and that evolution on other worlds would be hard to prove).
5. If the lifeforms were very simple, then they could be perceieved as a sub religious species and ignored. If they are highly evolved, they may be seen as the new messangers from God (unless the ETs point out otherwise ).

I suppose the point is that if extraterrestial life is found, it is unlikely to resolve the differences between atheists and theists.

It would interesting to see what (if any) religion(s) the extra-terrestials follow...

AhSureTisGrand

b318isp wrote: »

My thinking is that it fit fine into deistic/agnostic/atheist views of the world. For theists, I think a number of points creep up:


4. I would undermine creationism on the basis that life can exist outside of the earth. However, creationists could use this to conclude that God is continuously populating the universe (and that evolution on other worlds would be hard to prove).

How so?

Undergod

As far as I'm concerned, the existence of extraterrestrial life has no bearing on the question of whether there's a god. It may impact on specific religions, but not on whether there's a god in general.

Wolfe Tone

Start shootin'

b318isp

AhSureTisGrand wrote: »

How so?

How so what? Either life can evolve on other worlds or life can be created on other worlds?

Beruthiel

b318isp wrote: »

If some from of extraterrestrial life was conclusively found, what do you think the reaction would be

Depends.
Are we talking:
amoeba
Borg
Ancients

My reaction would be different to each one of the above.

AhSureTisGrand

b318isp wrote: »

How so what? Either life can evolve on other worlds or life can be created on other worlds?

How would evolution on other worlds be hard to prove?

The Mad Hatter

Love this:

chin_grin

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Love this:

AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh, my eyes. But yes. Very interesting!

bazman05

b318isp wrote: »

If some from of extraterrestrial life was conclusively found, what do you think the reaction would be from:

- Theists
- Deists
- Humanists
- Atheists (perhaps including agnostics)?

Almost certainly Theists, denying it's existence claiming it was planted evidence.

If you mean intelligent life, they will be busy with their crucifixes and bibles ready for a major conversion session.

Theists are never happy unless everybody and everything believes what they do.

b318isp

AhSureTisGrand wrote: »

How would evolution on other worlds be hard to prove?

A method to gather evidence would be needed.

AhSureTisGrand

b318isp wrote: »

A method to gather evidence would be needed.

Such as the methods we already have?

Zillah

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Love this:

I can't believe he didn't mention prime numbers. All you need is a solid surface to bang out the prime numbers and right there you've demonstrated intelligence.

seamus

To bastardise a famous phrase about the web:

Religion interprets factual errors as damage and routes around them.

Theists won't have any specific problem because they'll just reinterpret their own beliefs to fall in line with the evidence that's been presented, and then later claim that their scripture prophesised it because it falls so neatly in line with reality.

The only people who will have difficulty are creationists because it kind of craps on their literal interpretation of creation, and they'd have to take a leap into interpretation to fit aliens into their worldview. Though given the level of conceit and mental gymnastics it takes to rationalise their worldview, if anyone can do it, they can.

If the aliens are atheist, then that proves that we are God's chosen people because he never revealed himself to the aliens.

If the aliens worship something, then they can say that's the manifestation of God to those aliens, but it's all the one God. They're not mentioned in the bible because humans "weren't ready" for it, or some other nonsense. Ultimately they'll say that the existence of aliens is not inconsistent with the bible teachings and they'll carry on.


Taking an objective view of religious belief as a social construct, it's incredibly resistant to attack because once simple refutation of fact became impossible, it developed simple mechanisms of adaptation to fit the facts.

Of course as someone once said, if all you're doing is defending, then you've already lost the battle.

Zillah

seamus wrote: »

Religion interprets factual errors as damage and routes around them.

This is poetry.

NecroSteve

This, I think, would provoke the most entertaining reactions from religious people: a species, or multiple species working together even, who had developed the technology to seed planets with highly adaptable lifeforms, build ecosystems from scratch and so forth.

Seifer

Zillah wrote: »

I can't believe he didn't mention prime numbers. All you need is a solid surface to bang out the prime numbers and right there you've demonstrated intelligence.

To the left of image with the dots counting from 1-11 he mentions prime numbers

Dades

NecroSteve wrote: »

This, I think, would provoke the most entertaining reactions from religious people...

If by entertaining you mean frustrating. :pac:

Standman

If they were intelligent atheistic beings then maybe the religious leaders of the world could challenge them to an inter-galactic debate on religion. Their vastly superior intelligence and debating skills would result in immediate atheism in anybody within earshot.

Wolfe Tone

What if the aliens come here on a crusade!

axer

Im sure the scientologists would be out saying "I told you so!"

Liamario

Dades wrote: »

If by entertaining you mean frustrating. :pac:

You nailed what I would feel about it. Complete frustration. The religious groups will never concede that there is no god. They'll only reinterpret the teachings so they can continue to justify their beliefs.

I almost feel like I'd want to leave earth and move in with the ETs. There is too much ignorance and stubbornness to change on this planet for my tastes.

johnmcdnl

what if the aliens believe in god too... then we're surely ****ed.. it'll be proof that god has spoken to the entire universe :eek: :eek: :eek:

and why would the aliens be any different to us - before they got clever they'd have asked questions like why does the sun rise and set... why is it windy today and raining tomorrow...

why does everyone just assume that if we find intelligent life they're going to be way smarter than us

MagicMarker

johnmcdnl wrote: »

why does everyone just assume that if we find intelligent life they're going to be way smarter than us

We'll if we're ever visited by an alien species then they'd obviously have to be far far more intelligent to have developed the technology capable of travelling such distances.

If we just receive some form of radio signal as first contact then there's no reason, based on that alone, to think they'd be smarter than us.

nozzferrahhtoo

b318isp wrote: »

If some from of extraterrestrial life was conclusively found, what do you think the reaction would be from:

- Theists
- Deists
- Humanists
- Atheists (perhaps including agnostics)?

Just in case it interests you, when Atheist Ireland launched it was around the time that certain possible indicators of life on mars were found. We asked people like Kenneth Miller and James Randi what they think this would mean for people, theists and atheists alike.

We thought it would be a nice way to open the AI blog and they were happy to answer. You can read their responses here and here and also the answer of Atheist Ireland Chairman Michael Nugent here.

OneArt

phutyle wrote: »

In reverse order...

Atheists: "Hey, aliens. Interesting news!"
Humanists: "Hey, aliens. Interesting news!"
Deists: "Hey, aliens. Interesting news!"
Theists:"Hey, aliens, have you heard the Good News?"

That's hardly fair to tar all Theists with the Christian brush. What about the Oprah Worshippers?