How would you explain religion to an alien?

Originally posted by Solomons
I wouldn't bother as im sure when aliens were primitive they had their own religions/Gods and understand why we do(although sadly still have in the 21st century). It is the natural result of an intelligent and sentient animal like humans looking at the world around them, superstitious and fearful....religion and gods are undoubtedly going to be the first and worst attempt of any intelligent animal whether human or alien to explain what they do not understand.

edit on 30-4-2011 by Solomons because: (no reason given)

If you look closely at your post, you are humanizing them. Who is to say that they were ever primitive in emotional behaviors? Past evolution on our planet has favored strenth over intelligence. Most woman would choose a less intelligent and robust muscular man over a weaker more intelligent man. (For a human, which would a woman find more handsome?) This was needed for survival to build things, catch food, protect, and ensure their genetic code was carried on. Perhaps on another planet, intelligence was more desired. Since ingenuity could achieve the same end results. But without the violence that humans are all too capable of.

And actually, as intelligence increases, belief systems decrease. And so does violence.

reply to post by MrWendal


Howls with laughter.

Originally posted by rigel4
reply to post by arbiture

 

I don't understand the connection to religion
and explaining it to an Alien.

Like it or not, and I mostly do not like it but do try to integrate what to me is the thing's we do not yet know, my "spiritual self"? So to speak. Both in see the vast and dangerous and so often "perverted" aspects of organized religion. But to deny it? Meaning to say religion has no place in our human culture? Of course it does, thats one reason I have no problem using the impact of religion to better explain history and science, they as is history and religion critical to both. And the reason I go nut's when someone bastardize's religion and put's it in a tutu, and calls it 'science""never. Because we all must use our brains and never forgetting whats also so important, for me as a scientist know I will always be yearning for that which makes me, and others happy.

reply to post by Dastardly666


In full agreement with you! and lets hope that it happens sooner than later!!
Might be a better idea to ask them how to get rid of these blood sucking ball sacks that keep us from moving away from using oil as a fuel too??

reply to post by SaturnFX


You can't explain religion to an enlightened being! They know all about religions, or spirituality. There Kundalini is already awakened, especially since they can read your thoughts, and time travel! They are use in the future. How is that hard to grasp?

Why would you explain religion to an alien?
If you really would need to, just tell them that they`re the best fiction stories that mankind has seen .

I'm agnostic. I would tell them that "religion" is the earliest form of control and goverment. It is based on fiction and requires blind faith. It is limiting, useless and hypocritical.

I would then turn on the TV on Sunday morning and show them all the religious "whoring" that goes on with its sole purpose being money.

I would show them how the radical religious zealots preach death and act it out for the glory of some diety that never existed.

Crusades, Salem witch trials, Radical Islam, Radical Christians, Oral Robers, Tammy Fay and Jim Baker......the list of Religious atrocities is unending.

They may have invented religion

We are delusional, blind belief to satisfy what we want to or need to believe without any regard to the reality. Its hard to realy know something, our whole worlds are built in our mind, the world we are observing is nothing like we see it as. We all get played, if wed manage to get to the depths of our being we cud make better sense of this mf`er, but addictions keep us stable, entertainment, yea exactly enter the tainment, containment, and if that fails then theres the fear, theres the dread and it creates the cycle of duality from bad to good from good to bad always trying to escape the depression, people drink, same areas of brain fire off if your in love as when your drunk and we attach meanings to objects, the triggers to our honey. In love ur harmonious, in dread your chaotic. This whole universe is a reflection within reflection. Dream within a dream, And wer traped in it so to say, get in the depths of your mind and ull find scary monsters that chase you away or otherwise, always kept to the surface, #ed by our minds and betrayed by our bodys on a daily basis, we learn to cope and play the game, acceptance.

I don't think it would be difficult. If they have the ability to create, they have the ability to imagine. They would have had philosophy and thus would understand at very least by extension, the concept of superstitious belief.

reply to post by SaturnFX


I'm sure all beings have beliefs of some kind they wouldnt "school" us might come to find out there not very different than us

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone

What makes you so certain the universe requires a beginning? The beginning of time is something many believe happened at the 'big bang', but without time and space, there is no reaction possible, therefore time and space have no beginning (this is a new developing theory).

Like I said before, abiogenesis proves DNA can form from inanimate matter and the universe wasn't "created" because the universe has always existed. The big bang theory is an insurmountable paradox while to claim a magical super being created it all (a childish and lazy explanation) is even more outlandish.

But I will mention I am working off the logic and science of the present time. So I don't claim to be 100% certain as that's just impossible.

E.g. Maybe in the future when the multiverse is more charted there will be a dimension where pure consciousness energy exists and said consciousness exerts itself via creating DNA from inanimate matter (conscious thought is already proven to emit a frequency). But regardless I am 99.9% certain that if God exists then it's not anthropomorphic. It would be an energy entity and something which permeates the entire universe. We very well could be just extensions of it but are such a small portion of it that we cannot comprehend it. A single atom in your body doesn't 'know' it's a part of your body.

reply to post by elouina


I was not humanizing them....it is my belief that ALL life when it reaches the stage of intelligence that humans did will undoubtedly look at the world around them and attempt to explain it, as i said the supernatural/Gods/religions are the first and worst attempt at doing so, i think that applies to any life capable of such thinking. It is extremely likely that like humans they attributed natural phenomena to supernatural causes, take an example like lightening...it is much more rational to believe that a young, barely out of the swamp intelligent species still fearful and in awe of the world around them would attribute it to the supernatural and build stories around that assumption, rather than suddenly come to the conclusion that ice particles are creating friction and hence an electrical charge/discharge is created. Unless you are saying aliens don't need to learn and somehow have an inbuilt knowledge of the universe and the sorts of things it took us thousands of years to figure out....

Almost every poster here assumes that alien beings do not have religion.... how do you know they dont?

if the Area 51 interview transcripts are authentic, Then they do. In them they talk about every intellegent creature is a vessel that carries a soul, and that they are also searching for God, or as they see it the creator of the universe.

reply to post by auraelium

That was spirituality, not a religion.

I also don't recall Victor claiming they were "in search of God". According to him they don't fear death at all or try avoiding it because they "maybe know what comes after death with more confidence than we do".

Looking at spirituality through a purely cognitive and physiological standpoint makes logical sense. Numerous experiments were done showing spiritual people (e.g.veteran meditators) have lower stress levels, age slower, and possess superior brainwaves (some Tibetan Monks were proven to produce gamma waves from their brain--very incredible). There's also a huge boost to the bliss/happy centers of the brain if you train with meditation long enough.

There's no doubt that if everyone was as spiritual as a Tibetan Monk (including the epiphenomena of being totally selfless, kind, understanding, non-materialistic etc.) that the world would be far better off. I can understand how ETs would want to help us understand that.

reply to post by SaturnFX


That would be a very difficult task. There are so many of them. To give a quick basic over view. The people believe there is a fairy in the sky. This fairy know everything and can do everything. However he needs a lot of lower order beings to help him. Then there are good lower beings and bad lower beings that fight all the time. They in turn caused people on earth to be bad people and good people who fight all the time. However no one here can see any of them and when someone talks to them they never talk back. But we know they are real because other people told us they exist some where. Nobody know exactly where just somewhere. WE have experts who tell us all about it because they have some very old writings and people think they are Gods people here in earth. But none of them agree on anything they teach. Which keeps confusion because people can't be sure which one to believe. So they fight all the time. Someday but no one know when or how. God will fix everything since he can do eveything. We have waited for such a long time. But we still wait hoping he will come before we become extinct from all the fighting. But we are not sure when or how.

Just tell them that our dumb ancestors mistook you guys for angels Haha

Why, what a trivial little jaunt this would be. Quite simply, I'd suggest to the "alien" that we go somewhere. . .remote. Somewhere aglow with an atmosphere that will nurture creatvity. Soon thereafter, I would begin my complex, yet primitive, conjecture by pointing to the heavens. As the "alien" looks upward into the divine mystery, I then say. . .

"Fire goood!"

Originally posted by SaturnFX
(Yes, I love the hypothetical threads..good mental exercise).

So, you are given the opportunity to test out the first warp drive engine...it shoots you over to "that star over there...to the left"...ya, that one..well, you end up being tractor beamed by the Zorn empire...a alien race of course.


They discuss things about their culture and your culture. You let a word slip that they never heard about...."God"...or "religion".
They ask you to explain this concept (they are very scientific aliens, theology is unknown to them..lets say they are a race of nearly robotic type logic that has long ago tossed off even the most benign of superstitions when they were barely out of caves).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fd7f9b7dbfce.png[/atsimg]
How would you explain religion and god...and how your planet (Earth) deals with the very alien subject to them?

On this planet we have a moronic number of belief systems which, although useful 1000+ years ago, tend to only appeal to the absolute tits of humanity.......... Any idea how we can get rid of them???

Alternatively 'There is no god but Allah and Mohammed (peace be upon him) is his messenger'

I guess it would take the same effort to explain aliens to a religious person...