Will Aliens Destroy Earthly Religion?

Will Aliens Destroy Earthly Religion?

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Peters is currently conducting a survey of public opinion on aliens and religion; you can take it here (and hurry, as it closes Tuesday!) And if the subject piques your interest, I recommend some other documents that my reporting has turned up: NASA's final report from its Workshop on the Societal Implications of Astrobiology, SETI research Douglas Vakoch's "Roman Catholic Views of Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Anticipating the Future by Examining the Past," the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences' “Reconsidering the Theological and Ethical Implications of Extraterrestrial Life,” excerpts from NASA historian Steven J. Dick's superb The Biological Universe and an excellent bibliography, "Theology, Religion and Artificial Intelligence."

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Does anyone here still believe this--That there would complete chaos and unraveling of the major religious organizations if disclosure of intelligent life is anounced? I personally think that many of the major religions have been hinting towards acceptance of this, and that it would NOT end them, but cause them to reinterpret many facets of their understanding of things that were written centuries ago...

Thoughts?

A few quick observations: Christians, and the Catholic church in particular, have given quite a bit of thought to this; of people predicting that extraterrestrial contact would destroy Earthly religions, nearly all are atheists; there's broad consensus among theologians that Christianity would adapt to contact, though opinion about the nature of that adaptation varies.

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[edit on 10-6-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

Christianity has a long standing history of adapting and absorbing other cultures and their beliefs, sometimes forcefully. SO I figure it aught to survive.

Religion will survive.

Some people are too stupid to know the truth.

The Bible states that this has occured before like in the times of Noah and Moses where Giants, crossbreeds, Angel/humans tried to do it their way and God had to wipe them out. It could happen again but this time the religion is faith in Aliens a new approach the anti-Christ way.

Just cause there might be aliens from other worlds doesn't mean that God didn't make them too. The universe is beyond huge anything and everything is possible from God's hands and thoughts.

However the Anti-Christ will do what it takes to make sure there will only be one world religion for the short time that he will reign, so that might be a reason people are looking at it that way... maybe that's how the AC will do it... /shrugs

I'm a Christian, have been my whole life, maybe more so now verses my teenage rebel years, but I welcome other beings into our world, just like I welcome other cultures in my world, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop loving and thanking God for all He has done for me.. I'll just change up my prayers a little to add the newly added beings to our planet, cause they too need prayer.. maybe their flux capacitor is broke, maybe God will hear my prayer and send in an engineer that knows all about the flux capacitor to fix their issue.

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That's just alittle tid bit of my thoughts, opinion to the OP here. Take it how it is, pick it apart, do what you feel you need to.. but remember, it's not how we pick apart people, it's how you do it from your heart.

The Bible says that Jesus will take his own away before the worst happens, so basically true Christianity will not exist anymore in the times of Anti-Christ. People will have to know what it is and die as martyrs. And when members of other religions see them coming down to Earth I assume that they cannot really resist it if they don't know the absolute truth of what it is. I believe that the miracles will be so great to be able to turn anyone left on earth into the New World Religion.

I have a lagging suspicion that aliens will be used for religion 2.0, where global elitist try to herd us under some newage contact psuedospiritual false mantra complete with holographic lights in the sky, fabricated technological artifacts and genetically engineered psuedo aliens.
This is just how I see the world working, people with (some) knowledge trying to keep people without it even more than ignorant, trying to keep them mislead. This is why I am open to illuminati type conspiracies. I say type because im not convinced the illuminati is an autonomous entity. Elitist slimeball covers it better imo.
I was listening to yesterday (monday 9th june 2008) coast to coast and the I kept having the feeling that the Marshall Vian Summers talking about the allies of humanity was in fact trying to cut us off from aliens by launching suspicion, and he was using the authority of supposed friendly aliens against the supposed psuedo friendly ones that want to enslave us (as if we don't spend enough time trying to do that to ourselves already, as if it's something new). And there was this way in which he was talking and the memes he was using that makes me think he's just another tool of whatever global elitist group that sees themselves as our controllers. I don't know the reality of the situation of course, but these days trust is hard and talk is cheap, so I guess I am going to use fly by intuition more. It is beyond obvious to me now that there are people who wish to keep is from making individual alien contact, and the classical reasons of biocontamination and national security seem to fall short from a reality which could be that there are people here on earth that want our very souls
Religion is a great viehicle for fear, fear of not beeing on the right path, and fear, as I've said before, is the only real control mechanism there is on a free mind, something we all have. So, if you believe the bullcrap, don't be surprised to see grays replacing the saints at a church near you.

It would be sad if it were not so amazingly hilarious.

Hey DD, I don't think it will change a thing. As a matter of fact it will more than likely add another belief. You can be sure that a multitude will say they belong to the new religious era and will adapt and except the ETs religion "for lack of a better word for now." That is if they even have one.

It depends on whether or not we humans would wish to look upon our inter-galactic friends as intellectual superiors.

If so, well i imagine Buddhism has a good chance of surviving, if any.

IMHO, it would not be the worst thing in the world.

I could imagine other things that might be worse

Another factor I haven't seen mentioned, forgive me if I'm wrong, is it might matter if the aliens have religion. If they practice any of "our" religions, I feel that it would be used as justification for that religion to convert others, as if the aliens are practicing it, it must be true to God. If they don't have any semblence of religion, I think our religions will just fit them into their dogma, whether it be they were formed by God as well or are messengers of Satan, or whatever. Human beings enjoy simplification, we might have a small aneurism as a whole if disclosure occurs, however, I think we'll bounce back and fit them into our paradigms of how the world works.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective

I think it depends on what the aliens are like or look like.
If they are a bunch of lame exhausted liberal activist Galactic Council talking-ferns and Thumper with a sundial forest creatures (like I read wishful-wistful posts about on ATS alla da time " the aliens are not going to be violent (gladiatorial/unsympathetic/mean/racist) Vi-o-lence is so-o pri-mi-tive" ( may someone come to your house tomorrow and take your shoes, from my mouth to God's ear))
then there would be no problem, because the lame aliens would dovetail with the gutless politics and the koolaid religion, and we'll all exchange folklore and settle into millennia of interstellar sodomy and miniature golf

or maybe miniature sodomy and interstellar golf depending on what the aliens and the UN finally agree on

But supposing instead they are like cute big-eyed pokemons who smell like vanilla and every so often kill and eat each other right in front of us with no regard for individual life or kindness or the soul or decency or dignity, while uttering lots of insensitive chitchat as they tow the Sphinx home as a souvenir

in that case them and the local Gods would be towards having a situation But fortunately we've kept the Jesuits around They'd be perfect for that

Excellent question, DD. A humble star for you.

I personally feel nor see any conflict between my own spirituality and scientific pursuits, or the notion of EBEs. I am convinced they are here, and I suspect that they have always been here -- perhaps before cromagnon people entered the picture.

I don't think that the religious world would melt down if confronted with irrefutable proof of "others". I've read the dogma of most of the predominant religions here on Earth (present time), and they all seem to have writings that (IMO) resonate well with the idea of non-humans interacting with us at one time or another.

Now, on the other hand, if I think of my local breathren.... well........ I sense a minor melting down there. Yah. It's not something I talk about with a lot of local folk, being mostly Southern Baptist. Not besmirching them either, but it seems somewhat rigid in its thinking -- very literal-Bible interpretave.

Are the "others" debils? I personally don't think so, or at least not most of them. Perhaps some of them are the ones who humanity has characterized as such.

Who knows? Not me. I think we'll make it.

reply to post by dragonfire2159


By the way, Dragonfire, I thought you encapsulated this idea perfectly. Kudos on you.

My answer...If we're lucky!

What Aliens? There must be many species.

The Catholic's will convert them like they did native cultures the world over. LOL

[edit on 10-6-2008 by cindymars]

Apparently I destroyed this thread. Sorry man!

Thread killer...kiss,kiss say..fa fa fa fa fa fa fa

In the Clifford Stone thread he said that the entity "Korona" that he was in contact with said they share a God that we believe on Earth, who is very real. They would not tell us which one though, so it could be the Christian God, Buddha, Allah, etc

So the existence of aliens would not destroy all religion, they believe in god too !

I can't say that I recall a breaking news thread in skunk works. May I ask why was it moved here? Was it because of the source?

Originally posted by tezzajw
Religion will survive.

Some people are too stupid to know the truth.

Hi tezzajw, you are pretty shore that religion will survive, but how do you know that for shore, and do you think that counts for all religion then?

And you said that some people are too stupid to know the truth, but I am just curious, what is that truth of were you speak?