Religion and extraterrestrial life

Voltaire said:
I think it is likely that we will discover some form of extraterrestrial life within the next 100 years. What are the implications for religious fundamentalism when such a discovery is made? Will it be the final nail in the coffin?
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Why would it be a nail in a coffin.
I don't believe that all those "stars" were put there, just for us to look at. :)
 
Voltaire said:
If they worship the Christian god, we'd have evidence for his existence. However, I highly doubt that would be the case. Tell me, what would your reaction be if they are atheists, and if they've never heard of the Christian god?
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What would happen if they had a person, in their religion, who was killed and then rose again?
 
Dixie said:
Take your premise a step further, and what the implications would be, if we discovered such extraterrestrials, and they also worship a higher power like us? What IF... that distinctive aspect of similarity, is the very reason we encountered first contact? Will THAT be the final nail in the coffin to Atheism?
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No.
 
PostmodernProphet said:
be that as it may, it is more likely that you and I will both be dead before either the end of humanity or the first encounter with an alien being.....thus, you're first proof that either I am right or you are will come a moment or two after you die, when you'll either hear "PMP tried to tell you" or you'll never hear anything again.......
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If we ever discover intelligent life, communication between our worlds will be hopelessly slow. If, perhaps, one comes to us, well, then we'll only really have one dude to talk to.

This is barring the existence of applied phlebotinum.
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
I was thinking the same thing.
What would all the deniers say, if they had a book that was similar to our Bible.
It could be the difference between a conflict between two species or a union of societies.
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It's unimaginable that interstellar war would ever be economically feasible, unless you have a sun or two lying around that you can quickly and easily convert entirely to useful energy.
 
Voltaire said:
I don't think our lives are about anything. We're an accident; therefore, life is meaningless.
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An accident? Sure, the distribution of life in the universe is subject to some randomness, but this is a universe in which life was possible. Was life not, in some way, fated to be? Should we be disappointing that the method of deciding where it would be just happened to involve some dice rolls rather than being fully deterministic? Really, randomness is just a method of carrying out deterministic rules.

And again, what do you mean by meaningless? Certainly, under this system there's not a guy up there intending everything in your life for you. But really, I've always found it odd that that was ever considered a comforting notion anyway. Wouldn't you rather be in control of your life? I honestly think it's a good thing that there is no God; I think the universe would be much more dreary with one. Sure, we do not have fate, so if, for instance, a tragedy happens we cannot say "Oh, it is all part of a great plan." But really, again, why on Earth should that be a comforting notion? You are really OK with God killing your relative in an accident because of some great plan? Like a totalitarian dictator, except you're juts going to trust him? Thanks, but no thanks, God! I'd rather they be alive!

On one hand, the religious want fate, to give them meaning, and on the other, they want free will. They want to have their cake and eat it to. Really, they want to feel like everything they have no control over in life is fate, and that all of their accomplishments are freely willed, so they can take responsibility for them (their failings are, I assume, the product of Satan, which gets them off in that instance). But the implications of their systems are not really comforting if looked at with any degree of rationality, and in any case, it's little more than a delusional attempt to feel like they have some sort of control over everything in the universe.

Perhaps the universe is not constructed based on that which we most value in ourselves, intelligence, and is merely the product of some other mechanism. Should that really surprise us? Where do we get off in demanding that nature be subjugated to us? That the universe is meaningless somehow just because it doesn't operate like we operate? And why should we be so happy being slaves to some master? Shouldn't we, in fact, be glad to be our own masters, free to forge our own path, and, as far as we can see, the most powerful thing out there? Is there something wrong with being on top, with slavery being such a preferable alternative state of being?
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
A lot of wars start out of one group needing what the other group may have.
Land - food - etc
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You would have to give up about a solar systems worth of energy to seriously hope to wage war on another solar system, unless you have incredibly powerful and incredibly light weapons. My point was the interstellar travel is unimaginably expensive, even assuming 100% efficiency in converting from mass to energy (for comparison, our most efficient source of energy, fission, is like a 0.001% efficient, fusion is something like 0.1% - this is not looking pretty).
 
Alexander Hamilton said:
You would have to give up about a solar systems worth of energy to seriously hope to wage war on another solar system, unless you have incredibly powerful and incredibly light weapons. My point was the interstellar travel is unimaginably expensive, even assuming 100% efficiency in converting from mass to energy (for comparison, our most efficient source of energy, fission, is like a 0.001% efficient, fusion is something like 0.1% - this is not looking pretty).
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We have an almost zero defense for anything coming from space.
If a civilization has a way to diverting asteroids or comets, all they would have to do is bombard us from space.
 
Voltaire said:
YEC's generally believe there was a ~1,656 year period before the mythical flood, and that people lived 800+ years. One billion is a very conservative estimate.
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I hope you're smart enough to realize that didn't answer my question......I doubt that YEC represent even a single percentage point of Christians......thus one billion is not a conservative estimate, it's sheer manufacture.......
 
Alexander Hamilton said:
You would have to give up about a solar systems worth of energy to seriously hope to wage war on another solar system, unless you have incredibly powerful and incredibly light weapons. My point was the interstellar travel is unimaginably expensive, even assuming 100% efficiency in converting from mass to energy (for comparison, our most efficient source of energy, fission, is like a 0.001% efficient, fusion is something like 0.1% - this is not looking pretty).
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Interstellar travel is not only unimaginably expensive - it is impossible within a human lifetime. The amount of energy required to accelerate to even 10% the speed of light would be equivalent to a Hiroshima atomic bomb detonating every second for millions of seconds...and then all over again in the opposite direction to slow down. Even the most efficient engine (let's say an unbelievable 99.99% efficient) would be annihilated in the process.

The best we could ever hope for is a generational ship that travels at <1% c. Space folding may be a real possibility, as it would eliminate factors such as time dilation and micrometeorites, but again, would require enormous amounts of energy.
 
There is a strong likelihood that if we sent a generational starship to another planet that they would be met by people who traveled to the same planet after we learned how to travel much faster.

Wouldn't that be funny?
 
Voltaire said:
I think it is likely that we will discover some form of extraterrestrial life within the next 100 years. What are the implications for religious fundamentalism when such a discovery is made? Will it be the final nail in the coffin?
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Oh, that man may not be the center of the universe??? The rightwingers (consisting of mostly evangelicals) will lose their monkey minds. LOL
 
Damocles said:
There is a strong likelihood that if we sent a generational starship to another planet that they would be met by people who traveled to the same planet after we learned how to travel much faster.

Wouldn't that be funny?
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You shouldn't start drinking so early in the morning.
 
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