Is it possible for a theocratic spacefaring alien civilization to exist?

Is it possible for an theocratic space-faring alien civilization to exist?

Now I know it sounds too Halo (The Covenant) but a thought occurred to me as I was thinking about what alien civilizations look like. What if aliens have their space faring civilizations run by a theocracy? How would it affect other space faring alien civilizations? Would they be one of the biggest threat to our galaxy?

reply to post by starwarsisreal


In my opinion, if a race is able to travel the dangerousness and extremely long distances through space, chances are they abandoned the idea of a deity a long time ago.

Unless their religion is science, I doubt they worship anything that we would consider a "god".

Just my thoughts though.

-SAP-

reply to post by starwarsisreal


I doubt it. Reason and logic more likely guides these beings. LLAP

reply to post by starwarsisreal

What if aliens have their space faring civilizations run by a theocracy?

Why theocratic ? would it matter if they believe in a God ?

Would they be one of the biggest threat to our galaxy?

No they'd be coming to save us

reply to post by starwarsisreal


The perspective would probably be like that of wholeness. we are not separate but the same kind of thing

involving life force,

btw im sure every civilization at some point creates AI, that helps a species evolve.

EA006
reply to post by starwarsisreal

 

I doubt it. Reason and logic more likely guides these beings. LLAP

I don't know...

How long do you think it would be before we are a interstellar spacefaring species? 1000 years from now? maybe 500 years? Do you think that by that time, we (as a species) would have abandoned all religion? I tend to think not.

reply to post by starwarsisreal


What if theocracy is limited to this planet? All other intelligent life forms had laughed it off millions of years ago?

Now, in my personal opinion, religion will be widespread. I think it to be an [annoying] aspect of human/alien life. But it exists. We all seek answers - even though we don't know what the answers mean.

I think that if the aliens were atheists, they would be too lazy and unmotivated to quit smoking dirty cigarette butts in their small, cramped, filthy apartments to make it here...
I think they would believe in God. Mainly because I believe in God. When you boil a question like this down, you are really asking "Who believes in God, and who believes in aliens?" And I might add that it is never asked or answered politely, or in the least civil manner.
If aliens were to leave their planet, it would at the very least be because they are civilized beings.
I am of course generalizing, but I have personally known several atheists, and I can tell you they all have selfish social issues, and the real bitter and nasty ones are always unhealthy to boot.
So my true answer to your question is, unless the borgs show up, all wired in to some dark hive mind, I would expect them to have a relationship with God. Virtue, compassion, discipline, and truth would be their guide- and these are qualities given to us by God. The mind holds the answers to our relationship with the universe. Ask yourself why that is.

Given the mind-bogglingly powerful technologies which would necessarily be involved in interstellar space travel, I think it's a fairly safe assumption that any civilization which is capable of engaging in such an activity is unlikely to be prone to conflict amongst its members. Our own civilization's most powerful technologies, such as nuclear and biological weapons, are basically tinker toys compared with the technological requirements for interstellar space-faring. We haven't had such technologies that long, and they're not presently widespread, but the human species has come pretty close to destroying itself a number of times since we first started getting our hands on such things in the 1940's. Because of this, I don't think that any society subject to the the sort of violent religious conflicts humanity experiences would survive the development of such technologies. If you can harness enough energy to travel to another star, destroying your own planet is a relatively trivial exercise well with in the reach of your friendly neighborhood terrorist organization, or perhaps even within the reach of a single disturbed individual. How long would Earth last if every single one of the eight-odd billion people living here had access to weapons of mass destruction? Aliens capable of visiting Earth would almost necessarily get with each other along better than we do.

It does not necessarily follow from this logic that an alien civilization would not be prone to conflict with other civilizations, and there are multiple ways in which such a lack of internal social conflict could be achieved. I don't think it's likely that such an alien society would be democratic: democracies require a certain amount of social chaos to function. A successful and uniform totalitarian state, be it theocratic or just regular old fascist, seems like a more plausible social structure. Furthermore, if human history is any guide, when a less technologically advanced society comes into contact with a more advanced society, the benevolence of the more advanced society can be just as dangerous to the less advanced society as its hostility.

I think humanity's best hope in such an interaction would be the possibility that we're not that interesting, and that we don't have anything desirable, and therefore the aliens would have no reason to bother with us. That said, aliens would necessarily be alien. Hopefully they'd just be plain old morally superior to the human race, enough so that their moral superiority would be sufficient to keep us safe from their technological superiority. (If I bump into any good aliens next time I'm out with my lantern, I'll let you know.)

Diogenes

starwarsisreal
Is it possible for an theocratic space-faring alien civilization to exist?

Now I know it sounds too Halo (The Covenant) but a thought occurred to me as I was thinking about what alien civilizations look like. What if aliens have their space faring civilizations run by a theocracy? How would it affect other space faring alien civilizations? Would they be one of the biggest threat to our galaxy?

Very Possible, and very possible for split factions....

reply to post by SloAnPainful


I agree, but what if for aliens to travel through space requires tech that is thousands and thousands of years beyond our own. At that point, they would control life, death, time, destruction and creation...

They could see themselves as God since they can do what a God is supposed to be able to do. They would have no reason praying to an imaginative idea.

gortex
reply to post by starwarsisreal

 

What if aliens have their space faring civilizations run by a theocracy?

Why theocratic ? would it matter if they believe in a God ?

Would they be one of the biggest threat to our galaxy?

No they'd be coming to save us

God would have to be defined so that were talking about the same thing, if you mean "Galactic Observers Department" and death being a beam me up scotty moment we might be on a roll.

They would be a threat if their God, for instance was portrayed as huge lizard who created them in it's image, taught that all bipedal apelike creatures were the spawn of the evil entity that destroyed their home planet back in pre-history and their species was carried to a new home on the planet of New Eden to flourish again by their good God.

That's the great thing about God(s)though. It can be absolutely anything and you can make up all sorts of stories about your God(s). Once enough people believe you then you have a religion.

Whether a space faring species would still believe in such primitive notions is questionable but if their beliefs were incongruous with other species in the universe then you would have the grounds for conflict.

DiogenesTheDog
Given the mind-bogglingly powerful technologies which would necessarily be involved in interstellar space travel, I think it's a fairly safe assumption that any civilization which is capable of engaging in such an activity is unlikely to be prone to conflict amongst its members...

Many of our greatest technologies were born out of our desire for weapons, defense against those weapons, and world domination in general.

reply to post by starwarsisreal


Hopefully they would have better religous ideaoligies than the ones we have.

blueyezblkdragon
reply to post by starwarsisreal

 

Hopefully they would have better religous ideaoligies than the ones we have.

Meh. Our basic religious ideologies are fine -- e.g., peace, harmony, the "Golden Rule", etc.

It's our implementation of religious ideologies that is the problem.

Whether they are religious or not isn't really the issue.

Regardless of their belief in a deity (or otherwise), their morality is likely do be fundamentally different from ours as the evolutionary path that gave rise to them (and their society if they have one we would recognise) would be different.

This has been explored in science fiction at length but its no less valid for having been so. Will they impose their morality on us and/or would we feel compelled to impose ours on them. We cant even peacefully resolve the differences that arise between different cultures in the same species. What chance do we have with aliens.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I disagree there. I would say that what we constitute as religion is far different then what was originally intended. To say that they are "fine" is wrong in my opinion.

More people have died in the of "God" then any other name in human history. With that said I would think it's anything but "fine".

Just my opinion though.

-SAP-

SloAnPainful
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

I disagree there. I would say that what we constitute as religion is far different then what was originally intended. To say that they are "fine" is wrong in my opinion.

More people have died in the of "God" then any other name in human history. With that said I would think it's anything but "fine".

Just my opinion though.

-SAP-

I suppose that was my point, too.

The basic concept of a religious deity, and the idea of leading a pious -- but just and respectable -- life is not the problem. The problem is the way humans have implemented those ideas, and has warped that original concept.

The belief is a higher "creator" deity is not the problem, but rather the problem lies with the organized religions that tell people how they should believe in that deity.

Soylent Green Is People

The belief is a higher "creator" deity is not the problem, but rather the problem lies with the organized religions that tell people how they should believe in that deity.

I agree with that 100% it is how we perceive it. It seems that we were wrong in our perception of creation. Me myself am agnostic. If god is exists, great. If it doesn't that's fine too.

I just think its whack how people structure their whole life behind a story that was written by man, there for it will have false information. Nothing that was ever written was 100% true and 100% accurate. I think the same goes with religious texts. Some of the earliest fiction ever written in my opinion.

-SAP-