an alien? Maybe an supreme-being alien who created our world as a science experiment or for his own entertainment? Let’s assume somehow someone actually figures this out and it can be proven.
What would that mean for religion? Would religious people still worship someone that created them to get an “A” in a Cosmic Planetary Life Science class at Universe University? By the way, would God even get a good grade?
Well, you may wish to consider what George Carlin pointed out: Everything living thing that God created has died. Not a very good track record for a Supreme Being.
But Who created the alien?
Exit Scene:
God’s Father places comforting tendril of energy
over God’s shoulder as they leave the Inter-Continuuum Civic Center’s Science Fair carting the Earth-Universe Dimensional Matrix out to the parking lot in a box with white “Participant” ribbon attached to it.
“Well son it was a good effort but there’s always next cycle. Next time well make sure that the 7th planet’s rotating at the right angle and we’ll spray the globes before hand to make sure they don’t get bio-infested. Come on… lets get some helio tarts on the way home.”
“Awww… Dad you’re the best!”
for mere mortals like us at our puny Earth SDMB.
In this scenario, we’ve already established that God is our creator, but I’d like to know how religious people would react.
What definition of “alien” are you using? Someone not born on Earth? Someone not born in USA? If there is a god, he would pretty much have to be an alien, wouldn’t he? It would be pretty tough to both create the Earth and be born on Earth…
If God were an alien, this thread would still belong in Great Debates.
What are the criteria for grading of the experiment?
The creations die in one realm but live forever in another–pretty good results?
Well, if you somehow had some sort of incontrovertible proof that aliens created this world or universe, some religious folks would utterly reject this proof as being false, some would postulate that the aliens were merely God’s agents in the creation, some would have their faith utterly shattered and revert to atheism, and some would invent new reliogions worshipping the aliens. There may be other possibilitiesthat haven’t occurred to me yet.
Koshchei, of course.
O Cosmic Aardvark, don’t they teach classic literature any more? I don’t know what this younger…
::: wanders off muttering :::
This is assuming, first of all, that one does live forever. Many religions do not touch upon the afterlife.
And even if we assume that this is true, many folks (such as our own FreindofGod) portray God as a petty tyrant who will let many fine folks live forever… IN THE FIREY PITS OF HELL!
I think both of these possibilities would effect the grade, wouldn’t they?
In light of the evidence, I’d say it’s an incomplete and I have a sneaking suspicion that He dropped the class, but maybe I’m just cynical today…
Yer pal,
Satan
[sub]I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Four months, one week, six days, 15 hours, 22 minutes and 54 seconds.
5425 cigarettes not smoked, saving $678.20.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 5 minutes.[/sub]
"Satan is not an unattractive person."-Drain Bead
[sub]Thanks for the ringing endorsement, honey![/sub]
I never did figure out the point to Heinlen’s Job. I’m not sure it had one. Boring book, tho.
God is alien, he isn’t one of us, is he? 
Reminds me of a scene from a Philip K. Dick novel, set some time 200 years or so hence. (I’m paraphrasing)
Someone brings up religion, and immediately someone else points out that God is dead
The main character chimes in, “No, he isn’t!”
“Sure he is. They found his giant corpse floating in space halfway to Alpha Centauri.”
“No, no. They only found what might have been God.”
“Then how do you explain the two human skeletons they found inside?”
Great debates the next generation?
I think Ptahlis gave the type of reply I’m going for, not a debate on God-Creation-Aliens-Afterlife.
I seriously wanted to know what a religious person whould think or feel if they found out why God created them (specifically as in my scenario). A truly religious person already believes in God, but how would that change with this new information? Would you pray to God if you had this information?
Saint Zero, the entire thesis of the Heinlein novel (which steals outrageously and intentionally from James Branch Cabell, by the way, including Koshchei) was that:
Tell me the truth, doesn’t the fundamentalist deity remind you more of the allegedly civil servant who waited on you the last time you went down to City Hall or the county offices, or Heaven forfend, a state or federal bureau, than the God his press releases make him out to be?
And that we have a sense of justice, mercy, loyalty, and most especially love transcending the one he supposedly has, implies that we got it from some layers Up.
Add in “Jerry Farnsworth,” of whom Voltaire had a very apropos quote.
This is, of course, as Joel will hasten to advise us, the Gnostic heresy. But I think Heinlein makes his case very well, does he not?
You also commented:
Well, actually, this is precisely what Jesus’s Incarnation was supposed to remedy.
Hey, I don’t just go around calling everything gnosticism.
The core belief which hold all varieties of gnosticism together is they do not believe in reality per se. Reality is in fact an illusion in which all people, inherently holy, are part of. Thus your actions do not matter (no pun intended).
Of course that raises the question: if reality is fake, what kind of a God would create such a false reality? If Jesus commanded his followers to act morally in the world, but the world isn’t real so it doesn’t matter, wasn’t Jesus just lying? The answer or ignoring of those questions brings in all the innumerable sects of Gnosticism – those who believe the world was created by a false or lesser God while the real God is trying to break through, or transubstantiate it, is the belief of the largest sect that tries to resolve those problems.
the universe is god’s method of reproducing
intelligent life is on millions of planets thruout the universe.
the objective of all intelligent life is to attain nirvana for eventual reunification with the single multibeing god.
of course WE ARE ALIENS to all the other aliens in the universe. LOL!
for something wierd see: THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER by Eklal Keushana
Dal Timgar
I seem to remember- it was probably out of Pagels’ “Gnostic Gospel”- something from the original Gnostic texts about Yhwh going on and on (as he tends to do) about how great and mighty he is, and how nothing is created without him, and HIS creator (creatix?) Sophia (Wisdom) calling out to remind him that he was created too.
I have to say, I just love the image of Yhwh, biggest kid on the block- till his Mom comes along and pulls him home by his ear.
Anyway, I think the essence of this question is, is our creator GOD (by which I mean, for the purposes of this discussion, the prime mover, the first force, the uncreated one) or just some guy. That is, some other created being (like and alien).
Well, I would assume if you told most believers that the guy they were whorshipping was not the Top Guy- the uncreated guy- they would reject it a blasphamy out of hand, regardless of proof.
Of course that only goes for the monotheists.
Of course
Spot on Astro!
God is alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project.
By (one) definition, God is an alien. From dictionary.com:
I don’t think this concept changes my beliefs as a Christian (Can I say that without being stimatized? Can I say “stigmatized” without being stigmatized?) in any way.
Well, the premise is flawed, since God is supposed to exist outside the phsyical universe on a “spritual plane”, so to speak. Proving anything like what you described would not be possible for us as physical beings.
Perhaps a better question would be what would happen to religion if God turned out not to be the being described in whichever is your favorite piece of theological literature? That would depend a lot on how his nature was different. I mean if he was simply fattening us up for consumption upon death, then I kind of think that religion would be pretty much shaken up. But if he was doing it as part of an experiment, I, for one, think I could live with that.
Part of me thinks that he is doing it as part of an experiment, but mostly I tend to agree with dal_timgar’s first statement (the others are open to debate): God created the universe and people in it in order to accomplish the primary function of any life form: reproduction… although the method seems to be a long, complicated one.
(For kicks, check out one of the Star Trek books (I forget which one) where Q gets kicked out of the Q continuum. He gives a page long speech on how God is part of the continuum but won’t allow anyone else to say his name. Perhaps someone who has the book can quote it for us here?)
On a side note, I do find it interesting when someone who believes unconditionally that God does not exist also believes that there are alien life forms out there.