Would ET Discovery Destroy Religion?

[Garrdor]

Makes perfect sense to me

Thank you medival scholars and self-righteous kings!

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Well put Arathena. Whether our insatiable curiosity was bestowed upon us by evolution or a higher power, it makes no difference. We have the need to question. One of the first words out of a small child's mouth is 'why?'

If whatever higher power has a problem with me asking questions, he/she/it should've made all the answers plainly obvious. Until God answers my emails or the aliens produce a 'God detector' that shows a false indication, I'm just going to assume that I'm pretty much on my own as far as answers to the big questions go. A lot of very smart people have come up with their own answers, and we'd be silly not to take the accumulated wisdom of mankind into consideration when deciding these big questions. But to say that any single person/group has all the answers is equally silly. Maybe the aliens will clear things up a bit. But to think that the great adventure of life stops with a single book is a sad, sad thought indeed.

[Xican]

Until God answers my emails

You ever try to teach someone in their 70s how to use a computer, the internet, or e-mail? Dude is over 2,000 years old give him a break!

I wonder how religion would accept ET? I mean, what if ET has his own beliefs and they clash with ours? I'm just gonna throw this out there... In the past, this has not yielded positive results.

[Ddrak]

I mean, what if ET has his own beliefs and they clash with ours? I'm just gonna throw this out there... In the past, this has not yielded positive results.

It's been very positive, at least for the religious. Spain got very rich converting South America.

Dd

[Kulaf]

Unfortunatly most people equate religious actions with the actions of the Catholic church. Since I was raised Lutheren I do not put much stock in organized religion and prefer to find God in my own way.

[Arathena]

Unfortunatly most people equate religious actions with the actions of the Catholic church.

Where? Latin America?

[Kulaf]

Unfortunatly most people equate religious actions with the actions of the Catholic church.

Where? Latin America?

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Unfortunatly most people equate religious actions with the actions of the Catholic church. Since I was raised Lutheren I do not put much stock in organized religion and prefer to find God in my own way.

Well said Kulaf.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Unfortunatly most people equate religious actions with the actions of the Catholic church. Since I was raised Lutheren I do not put much stock in organized religion and prefer to find God in my own way.

Being raised Lutheran will do that to you.

[jookkor]

Intelligent life doesnt mean that a civilization can zip across space to say hello or that it is capable/willing to send out a signal powerful enough for us to recover and decipher. If we actually ever do find evidence of extraterrestrial life the "proof" will likely be so tiny that most religious people who feel that it is in conflict with their faith will simply disregard it.
These people let ancient mythology define reality for them, I doubt that anything short of a physical interaction between our two species would even remotely have an impact on their beliefs.

[Mukik]

What if this intelligent life form looks at us like mere animals? I mean you see a duck quacking , do you engage it in conversation, or just ignore it?

[Klast Brell]

My co worker got an ant farm.
I see a metaphor there. An alien so advanced that to it we do not fulfill it's definition for sentience. I think we would be treated the same way we treat animals and insects. Trained to do their menial labor, like horses. Kept for entertainment like pets. Or if we caused problems, Exterminated like pests.

[Ddrak]

Until Johnny Goodboy Tyler would come and rescue us in a hail of cliches!

Dd

[jookkor]

My co worker got an ant farm.
I see a metaphor there. An alien so advanced that to it we do not fulfill it's definition for sentience. I think we would be treated the same way we treat animals and insects. Trained to do their menial labor, like horses. Kept for entertainment like pets. Or if we caused problems, Exterminated like pests.

Thats a definate posibility. But its just as plausable that a different civilization from a different planet with a different ecosystem did not advance in technology and culture due to an evolving symboisis with other many species in the same manner as we did. To an alien the idea of a beast of burden might seem completely foreign. Or perhaps they would think that we are hot and fly around gangraping us with serrated genitalia. Who can say?

[Ddrak]

Or, more likely, would not recognize us as a lifeform at all and we wouldn't recognize them either.

Dd

[Partha]

Or, more likely, would not recognize us as a lifeform at all and we wouldn't recognize them either.

Dd

No, the whole spacetravel thing would be completely missed by us.

[Alluveal]

Until we know what a truly "evolved" species looks like, we have no idea how they will regard us. Do they speak with their minds? Do they evolve beyond language? Do they do the Vorlon thing and turn into beings of light and energy?

Either way, I doubt that any advanced species would suddenly "forget" how to communicate with those lesser than them. We have written and spoken language. We understand mathematics (if we're going to go the Carl Sagan/Contact route and assume that this is a universal language that all civilized races are able to maneuver and understand.) I don't buy the whole, "omg, you cluck like a chicken you humans. Therefore, we are not capable of communicating with you." If they're capable of space travel, I'm going to say they're smart enough to find a way to communicate here. It may not be instantaneous, but it's doable. If we can decipher languages from the Rosetta stone, then I imagine we could find a common ground between two space-faring (or dimensional-faring) species.

[Harlowe]

If we can decipher languages from the Rosetta stone, then I imagine we could find a common ground between two space-faring (or dimensional-faring) species.

I agree.

[Ddrak]

The Rosetta Stone is an incredibly bad example given it was the exact same text in three languages which makes it, uh, easy to develop a translation. If we found some stone tablet with english and whatever passes for permanent storage to the alien then of course we can translate. Remember, WITHOUT the Rosetta stone we were virtually screwed in translating Hieroglyphs, and we still have no clue how their spoken language went.

Anyway, the problem wouldn't necessarily be communication. That's relatively easy once you determine the thing you're attempting to communicate with is living. How do you determine the mile wide fluctuations in that gas is living or not? What if it's life timescale is orders of magnitude different to us? If we literally shrivel and die before it can finish a sentence, or vice versa? What if it lives in a different mode of matter than the one we do? How about if it has no ability to see what we consider "visible" light and can only detect wavelengths at which we're transparent (say, radio)? What if it doesn't use photons at all for sensing and sees neutrinos or something equally exotic?

We may be surrounded by aliens every day and be completely unaware of each other and completely incapable of ever meaningfully interacting.

Dd

[Partha]

As the old equation goes, the chance of only one Earthlike species in the universe is so small as to damn near be zero. I'm not worried about looking for aliens who live in different material states which only exist as hypotheticals anyways. Let's find microorganisms on Mars or in Titan's sea and work from there, hmmm?