and us humans find them (aliens meaning- not micro organisms, but of higher nature with more intelligence ), will it disprove the existence of God in major world religions ??( since creator is believed to have created life only on earth).
Why only on Earth? Why would the act of creation not mean all of creation? If you believed life was only created on Earth, the discovery of micro-organisms, or viruses would be as significant as Vulcans.
What if our first ship to Zebulon finds there are already Christians there?
It’s hard to think of anything that would persuade a believer their religion was false.
The Earth is not the centre of the Universe (and is billions of years old), evolution exists and Jesus is/isn’t the Son of God.
Even if you took a time machine back to the Crucifixion and showed Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, people would still worship him.
I don’t recall anything in scripture that says that life was only created on Earth. Indeed, medieval people believed that the universe was filled with life on every level–and also, incidentally, that while the Earth was in the middle, that didn’t mean that it was the most important; rather the opposite. The Earth was “down” for everything and thus attracted all the heaviest, least heavenly elements–sort of the garbage can of the universe.
I doubt the discovery of aliens would shake the foundations of a belief in God.
But I think a better question would be: will the aliens go to heaven ? (do they have a soul ?)
My understanding (and it is VERY limited as I am not a religeous person) is that souls and therefore entry to heaven was only allowed for humans. This is what sets humans apart from all the other animals.
So imagine encountering a race of aliens who 1) are far more intelligent, 2) have done away with war, poverty, starvation, etc., 3) are clearly not out to conquer/obliterate us, and 4) can offer us advancements 100s of years ahead of our time. And the (hardcore) christians stick to their guns that these beings, though more advanced, are still on the same level as all the other non-human animals on the planet - no soul.
Then we’d have to acknowledge the quadrinity*. The other Son was Nebulex Zerchrist who died for the Zebulon’s sins.
*Quadrilogy? Quinity? 1=unity, 2=duality, 3=trinity, 4=?
In 1491, there were religious arguments as to why there couldn’t be humans anywhere other than Eurasia and Africa. Finding them elsewhere didn’t disprove those religions, and those religions haven’t gone away since then. Religions adapt- they don’t just vanish in a puff of logic when something they have been saying is proven wrong.
I shudder to think of all the eager missionaries on their way to Tralfamadore eager to save souls.
Which reminds me of a funny cartoon from a book of cartoons about my church (like political cartoons only religious): it featured a missionary pair, one human and one alien, arguing over a minor point of doctrine from their own POVs. IIRC, the human was yelling “Flesh and bone!” while the alien screamed “Slime and scales!”
Yeah, you probably had to be there.
If missionaries cameto your house and refused to leave and you had to cater to their needs, could you call it the missionary imposition?
Argh, I just realized that the way I wrote it sounds like the missionaries are on opposing sides. They are partners working together.
Kind of off-topic, but not completely: there’s a book called The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell which deals with a newly-found planet with advanced alien life, and Earth’s Jesuit mission to it.
It’s an interesting take on Aliens+religion, as well as cultural differences and how they affect religion.
Plus, it’s very good SF (not phenomenal, IMO, but very good)
No, of course not, because religions are closed systems of thought i.e. the conclusions are fixed and independent of any particular reasoning or evidence.
Or worse. I was taught as a child that there are aliens, and they are evil. That UFOs are piloted by demons or Satanic aliens. The idea being that since humans were made in God’s image, any aliens MUST have been made in Satan’s image.
Bad pun. Very, very bad pun.
Thanks.
Only if Xenu is riding shotgun… so to speak.
Othewize, it will be explained away, likely I fear, with the aliens visiting here on behalf of Satan.
Did you ever, by chance, read Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End” ? If you haven’t, you should. 'nuff said.
They wouldn’t have Christianity, of course. They’d need some other noble self-sacrifice to worship. Or none at all.
Probably they’d worship Fish or Clouds or Flowers or something equally “alien” to our own way of thinking.
Or maybe they’d be infinitely rational and have no religions at all.
According to a physicist by the name of Max Tegmark, at either Penn State or U Penn (I can never keep them straight), there are infinitely many planets inhabited by people who call themselves Christians and read the Holy Bible and go to church Sunday and so forth.