No human scientist, theologian or philosopher has ever been able even to conceive of any hypothetical scientific evidence which, if found, would conclusively prove God does not exist. (Can you?) Why would an ET be in any better position?
C.S. Lewis had a series of not so well known book starting with Out of Silent Planet.
The Uplift War series posits a universe that contemplates some of those issues.
What if the aliens came up with surveillance tapes to show that, say, the resurrection of Christ actually happened? What would be the reaction of fundies, general religious folks, and atheists?
It would, if it could be proven not to be Hollywood type special effects, reinforce my idea that Jesus was a cool frood who really knew where his towel was, but not do much about his Divinity either way. He’s not the only person who’s been reported to have resurrected (or at least appear dead for a time and then come out of it) and Ascended, and IMHO, Ascension is a skill that can be learned, and has occasionally been done. Not that I have any hope of doing it in this lifetime, you understand. I’m far too concerned with earthly matters to achieve Enlightenment any time soon.
Well, if aliens operate under a different set of physics, which has been postulated, it’s possible…and almost by definition…that aliens would have a different point of view about theology.
Hell, maybe they ARE god. Maybe they introduced some fun stuff into the water and started the ooze. That’s at least a possibility, right?
Second Advent, by Mack Reynolds. Jesus shows up at the White House, and explains that he and his race are aliens that created the world and humanity ( “And as you can see, when we created man, we did so in our own image.” ) And yes, it did take 7 days to make the Earth; when they inspired the Bible they found it amusing to make it as historically accurate as possible . . .
Details?
Well, If ET arrives, the fundies won’t be surprised if he is very intelligent and horny. But they will most likely will call for ET’s elimination before God gets really mad and wipe out the earth like He did the last time ET arrived.
See Genesis 6; NIV - Wickedness in the World - When human - Bible Gateway;
Perhaps I should say has occasionally been reported by more than Jesus’s followers. Some of the Taoist Masters were reported to have Ascended, leaving only their clothes, hair and nails (the dead bits) behind, after a lifetime of learning to gather and store their vital life force. They do this while still alive, though, not after death, and by some theories escape obliteration and absorbtion into the Tao and retain their individuality after death and become “immortal” by doing so (a very big deal for a Taoist). “Imperial Prince Jin, a Taoist holy prince, the pious son of Emperor Lin of the ancient Zhou Dynasty (1027-256 BC) who ruled from 571-546 BC, was reported to have ascended to heaven before death, riding a white crane.” (from here)
Krishna, as well as his assailant Jara, ascended to heaven, apparantly without dying first, but stories vary. You can read one version here (near the end). There are reports of other Ascended Masters from India, as well.
Muhammad, of course, Ascended to talk to God.
My point was simply that Ascension is not a phenomenon unique to the Christian faith, so showing me the Ascension of Jesus would indeed tell me he was a cool guy in fine company, but it wouldn’t seal his unique Divinity for me, unless you could somehow also show me that none of these other guys (or gals, a few of the Taoists were reportedly women) managed it.
Other than for some extremely fundamentalist/species-ist members of various faiths for whom ETs would be an abomination, no, I don’t think their arrival would negate God. Most religions have enough doctrinal flexibility to deal with new circumstances as they arise, or they wouldn’t have lasted so long.
Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End addresses some of these issues, with a twist that’s particularly interesting. And George R.R. Martin’s short story “The Way of Cross and Dragon” is a fascinating look at the Catholic Church in the distant future, after it has come to terms with - and incorporated as priests, bishops, etc. - sentient and even nonhumanoid aliens. Both are well worth a look.
Recently read a book by Michael Shermer in which he mused that for an alien species to visit earth they would have to be so scientifically more advanced than us that perhaps they would be indistinguishable from God/gods.
In fact, given a few million years of evolution combined with applied genetic engineering and advanced technology, we might evolve into gods ourselves.
Definitely. Remember to look at the disclaimer page, where he says
“The opinions in this book are not necessarily those of the author.”