What if we ARE alone?

Originally posted by firebat

Originally posted by Mystery_Lady
It is a comfort to me to think such loving God created the entire universe for us.

Did you ever stop to think that the REASON you believe that crap is precisely because it "comforts" you?

Yes I agree, and conversely the reason people don't want to believe in the aliens flying around is that they find it unnerving. Tears their world as they know it upside down on its head. Same with anyone coming to grips with the material presented here on ATS.

Here for example, is a link to the history of the world from the last couple of centuries, totally rewritten and for all we know, could be 100% factual - though on the face of it, is pure fantasy:
www.xeeatwelve.net...
Now of course, reading this at first glance, a natural reaction is to roll your eyes and dismiss it as bollocks. Maybe it is. Who knows. But the unwillingness to accept that it may even be say 1% true says a lot for how deeply programmed we are in our 5 sense prison, clouded by our belief systems and indoctrination. The idea that there is nobody 'out there' would indeed be comforting to someone housed up on their 5-sense easy-chair.

On the other hand, we only use a tiny fraction of our brains, we can only see a tiny fraction of light waves out there, how ignorant of us to suggest for a moment that "that's all there is". I'd be quite happy to continue with my ordinary life, regardless if there's nothing out there.. or conversely if it's teaming with life. It wouldn't bother me either way. But I would imagine it would absolutely shatter the walls of an individual clouded by ignorance and dogma.

Originally posted by JebusSaves
What would the ramifications be, in your opinion, if we were to find out, unequivically, that we are indeed alone in the universe.
What would this mean in terms of our societal evolution, our religious beliefs, our reason to be?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It could mean that the Genesis account was not written as an overview of history.
But rather as a Prophetic roadmap of the humans future.


the human becomes the angel of creation, terraforming planets,
conducting genetic manipulation of the lower life forms indiginous to each world.
Engineering bio-spheres on each newly discovered world,
following the prehistoric eras of Earths past as models to replicate...study...
turn into global wide theme parks??

Humanity itself becomes the Angels,
then becoming 'fallen' Angels because just like in the Genesis model...
the planet earth then becomes a predatory nightmare of a world
with layers & layers of different dinosaurs which specialized in carnage,
as they were designed, engineered (by the Angels, nee; mankind) to be specialized death machines,
doing all manner of tearing/ripping/eviscerating

extrapolate that the fallen angels, nephilim, Lucifer-Satan, is actually man's
future role to mans' own "mammal-monkey-man" planetary experiment on some futuretime, terraformed world...

In the course of time, humanity realizes that he is both the created, the interloper, and the creator
...all rolled into one,
a Trinity of sorts

*do not take this as an answer to your question*

I don't think we are 'alone' but perhaps 'others' have not found our planet yet.

Just a thought.

Take care,
- Naz

Originally posted by nazgarn
I don't think we are 'alone' but perhaps 'others' have not found our planet yet.

Just a thought.

Take care,
- Naz

Yes, it IS just a thought, one thats not relevant to the conversation.
This isn's about the belief or disbelief in the existence of ET's, trust me, i'm a believer 100% no doubt, my question is what would be the effects on you, your life, the future of society, the implications on humanity and religion if we were told that We were the only life(sentient) to exist in this universe.

This isn's about the belief or disbelief in the existence of ET's, trust me, i'm a believer 100% no doubt, my question is what would be the effects on you, your life, the future of society, the implications on humanity and religion if we were told that We were the only life(sentient) to exist in this universe.

Then to answer your question, everyone is different, you and me, well the effects for me would be mixed emotions but ultimately sad we are the only ones.

But most people are too busy, wrapped up in their little lives, unaware of most things , let alone UFO's.
Probably most would take the news on the chin and carry on, with their life, end of.

But for me, it would be a very sad day.

Originally posted by Denied

This isn's about the belief or disbelief in the existence of ET's, trust me, i'm a believer 100% no doubt, my question is what would be the effects on you, your life, the future of society, the implications on humanity and religion if we were told that We were the only life(sentient) to exist in this universe.

Then to answer your question, everyone is different, you and me, well the effects for me would be mixed emotions but ultimately sad we are the only ones.

But most people are too busy, wrapped up in their little lives, unaware of most things , let alone UFO's.
Probably most would take the news on the chin and carry on, with their life, end of.

But for me, it would be a very sad day.

See thats the kind of thing.
Personally, i would 'deal' but I don't mind saying it would make me question things alot more.
For example the existence of soem divine God. If we are the only 'life' then would that be possible use of the Faiths as a means to 'prove' there is a God, as if God didnt exist, Life would be almost a certainty on other planets, somewhere.
Also, I'd have to question the meaning of life, this would be a profound comment for me.
Why would I exist, why would Humanity Exist, if its not part of some wider community, what is so special about us, this planet?

Also, I'd be far more interested in this planet.
If I have no one else to meet, then shouldnt I spend my time on this planet, uncovering all the wonders that are still left to be given, rather than seek them somewhere else.

Hmm for me I personaly think that we are not alone.But if we did find out that we were the only ones here in the universe, then I would be sad for a little while but eventualy get over it and move on.

Look at it this way if we are alone not only could we colonize the universe without having to fight other species for planets but we would have a unique opertunity.This being we could seed other planets with the building blocks of life(amino acids etc) and watch life take root.Who knows we could be the shepards of a whole new multitude of races.In a billion years or so humans could be the legendary for fathers of countless races.Just a thought.

There's a book I'm trying to get hold of which deals with this (can't remember its name though!)

It deals with an empty universe and questions whether or not just because we are the only life, should we rightly own the universe? (or something like that)

IMO if the universe was empty it wouldn't be long before non-humans started showing up.
I think that planets would become habited by us. planets that may be gas giants, or oceanic or volcanic and would force any inhabitants to undergo genetic manipulation to make them resilient to the atmosphere. These GM people will then evolve in a way which is entirely different to other GM people and that of the human race.

Eventually long after the word human has been forgotten a colont of surviving humans will be found by our descendants and treated like gods because they are the progenitors.


Or something like that!

due to the vast expanse of galaxies and star systems the chances of being alone are so remote I have trouble saying it.

The problem with observatory so far is that we can't even see everything thats out there.

I think the ramifications would be fairly unpredictable, judging from the ways civilizations have reacted to big revelations throughout history. My hope, however, would be for us to recognize our uniqueness, and for such a discovery to stir a renewed sense of effort toward preventing our demise either from within or without. It would be nice if the nations presently hostile to one another could co-exist more harmoniously upon learning that we must rely utterly upon ourselves for our continued existence or destruction.

To discover the popularion of Earth was the only life throughout the entire universe? A couple of things spring to mind:

- How would this information conclusively be discovered?..... The Universe is surely too big and technology not advanced enough to explore the entirity of it in order to conclude - the only other method I can think of discovering this information is being told so by a higher power, or God (even then, wouldn't we want confirmation that it was God and not another race/entity messing with us? ).

- And if we were the only life in the Universe, why is it so damn big?!!


Confirmation of Earth as the only place of life throughout the physical Universe, I think that would send religious belief back to the Dark Ages - There would be a lot of "We told you so!!" from the Abrahamic fundamentalists, maybe lots of prodigal children and converts running towards the safety of Christianity et all - which would have a knock on effect for other areas of old-style Christian beliefs, maybe a rejection of new and modern technologies, science, newly 'accepted' lifestyles and social conduct.

A scary thought indeed. Good job it's less likely than the sky turning yellow with purple polka-dots.

Originally posted by RiotComing
Ah well, it would be back to the Xbox 360, back to the gaming, watch some more American Idol and Survivor, have another cup of coffee..nothing's changed..

Someone mentioned that war would subside because there would be nothing left to fight for.

I think the converse ... the ideologies that cause war today would just be heightened and brought to a head. Certain religions would cease to exist, others would be forced to change, some would see it as proof of their religions being true, and yet others would be created. And war would ensue just as it is now all over the world.

War in the past might have been more about gaining resources and land, but I look around now and see just as much warring over religous philosophies.

At any rate I truly believe that this statement is not true ... but it is very interesting to see people's opinons on the other side of the issue.

As the Thread Host, i should point out that in no way do i believe we are alone in the universe, on the contrary, i fundementally believe in the existence of Extraterrestrials no one could change my mind on that, but this thread was never about those beliefs.
It was and is about the effects a discovery like this would have on every aspect of life...i think its quite an intriguing notion, one that 'Benv' managed to convey with its creepiness.

What if we ARE alone?

It's so hard to conceive as a reality due to many characteristics of everything that interacts with our daily lives. Aspects like Astrophysics, General Physics, Quantum Physics, why humans have an individualized route of personality, how we think the way we do, the chance of humans even having the traits they do with the rest of the animal kingdom still primitive, and all else of the unknown.

In my mind and realm of reality, I can't focus on such an aspect, there's just so much out there to me that proves otherwise or leads to the possibility otherwise.

If we truely were alone..

..I'd curl up in a ball and start playing World of Warcraft 24/7

Originally posted by JebusSaves
What would the ramifications be, in your opinion, if we were to find out, unequivically, that we are indeed alone in the universe.
What would this mean in terms of our societal evolution, our religious beliefs, our reason to be?

We're not alone. There are 6 billion plus of us and counting. We don't need anybody else to talk to until we've talked to everybody here.

Originally posted by JebusSaves
What would the ramifications be, in your opinion, if we were to find out, unequivically, that we are indeed alone in the universe.
What would this mean in terms of our societal evolution, our religious beliefs, our reason to be?

I think there is a bigger probability for this world to be in the movie the matrix, than for us to be the only intelligent life form in the universe.

Originally posted by SilverSurfer

I think there is a bigger probability for this world to be in the movie the matrix, than for us to be the only intelligent life form in the universe.

Probably because our society today mirrors the world of the Matrix, the edge of absolute control.

Originally posted by JebusSaves
What would the ramifications be, in your opinion, if we were to find out, unequivically, that we are indeed alone in the universe.
What would this mean in terms of our societal evolution, our religious beliefs, our reason to be?

I think there would be no ramifications, because I think most people want to believe that we're alone anyway. I say that, because if there was unequivocal proof that intelligent life DOES exist elsewhere, humanity, as a whole, couldn't handle the ramifications of THAT, IMO. Humans are a very emotionally weak species, so the prospect of intelligent life out there would probably frighten a lot of people.

Social evolution, religious belief, reason to be, I don't know, I think it's of no consequence. However, maybe religious beliefs would be fortified, if we are alone, because I don't know of any belief system that has ET's in the text. Although the fact that there are so many religions that contradict most of the others should throw the whole validity of "religion" in question as it is. But that's just an idle thought.

Anyway, it's not like we presently gear our existence or society on the condition that making contact with intelligent life is only a matter of time. I'd say that every action in the world is done with no regard of ET life being out there. I assume it'll be like that 10, 100, and 1000 years from now.

I think eventually, assuming the funds continue to be there, we will explore and colonize other planets, regardless if we are alone or not. And "why are we here" will always be the paramount question, regardless if we are alone or not as well.

All IMO, naturally.

if were alone whats the point..we'll figure out all the technology and jst sit around with it bored.definatley other races.after all eeverything was planned.