Religion

Phlem

(6,323 posts)

53. No.

Sun Oct 12, 2014, 02:08 PM

Oct 2014

I'm surrounded by Jesus freaks in my family and my wife's family. There's that proverbial wall of ignorance that can't be penetrated.

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Would Finding Alien Life Change Religious Philosophies? [View all] cbayer Oct 2014 OP

Any reasonably objective person knows there are "aliens" Cary Oct 2014 #1

The incomprehensible size of the universe virtually guarantees it. trotsky Oct 2014 #2

Yes, and more Cary Oct 2014 #11

Check out "The Fabric of Reality" bvf Oct 2014 #116

I agree that they are out there, but the question cbayer Oct 2014 #3

If we survive as a species an encounter is perhaps inevitable Cary Oct 2014 #12

Adaptations can be successful only for a certain environment. cbayer Oct 2014 #13

Except our adapatation of our intelligence altered our environment Cary Oct 2014 #14

I think all adaptations have the potential to alter the environment. cbayer Oct 2014 #15

There are many, many times more unsuccessful adaptations than there are successful ones Cary Oct 2014 #16

I'm not convinced that it is that simple. cbayer Oct 2014 #32

True, our intelligence is our only hope Cary Oct 2014 #34

Nobody knows their are aliens. edhopper Oct 2014 #17

There is no direct evidence Cary Oct 2014 #35

I think we would have to agree on a definition for evidence edhopper Oct 2014 #40

I'm not going to agree that circumstantial evidence isn't evidence Cary Oct 2014 #41

Yes Einstien had evidence edhopper Oct 2014 #42

Belief in aliens may be reasonable, but the belief is not objective. ZombieHorde Oct 2014 #29

The term is "reasonably objective" Cary Oct 2014 #36

However that requires an assertion that life on earth is unique in the universe. Warren Stupidity Oct 2014 #93

NONSENSE!!!!! You have totally wrong. BillZBubb Oct 2014 #105

again, the claim that life is unique to earth is the extraordinary claim. Warren Stupidity Oct 2014 #108

Give up while you're still not that far behind. rug Oct 2014 #111

Look, I'm not going to go after you on this, but you are wrong. BillZBubb Oct 2014 #113

In my opinion, the default position ZombieHorde Oct 2014 #114

Hahahaha, no. Religion is independent from fact. DetlefK Oct 2014 #4

That is an excellent question!! Peacetrain Oct 2014 #5

Have you ever been to the Very Large Array? cbayer Oct 2014 #6

Hey I had just signed off and was reading the entire article. Peacetrain Oct 2014 #9

If you read The Sparrow, let me know what you think. cbayer Oct 2014 #10

There's another story regarding first contact and a Jesuit Fumesucker Oct 2014 #117

Never heard of this. Will read it later. Thanks. cbayer Oct 2014 #118

Religion has adapted to lots of things. safeinOhio Oct 2014 #7

I would love to call the 700 club and get their take on this! cbayer Oct 2014 #8

It depends on whether the life was intelligent and conscious or not. rug Oct 2014 #18

Actually we have found water-bearing worlds in the 'goldilocks' zone in other star systems. AtheistCrusader Oct 2014 #19

The "goldilocks zone" refers to the distance from a star and atmospheric pressure. rug Oct 2014 #21

That's why I mentioned water-bearing. AtheistCrusader Oct 2014 #23

Yes, and there was a paper in 2010 that said complex life probably only evolved once in the universe Jim__ Oct 2014 #20

Very interesting paper. rug Oct 2014 #22

That fact that it did happen edhopper Oct 2014 #24

Do you have any evidence to back your claim? Or, is it purely based on faith? Jim__ Oct 2014 #25

It's all speculation edhopper Oct 2014 #26

I'd imagine a curious, technological, fast-spreading species would be even more rare. arcane1 Oct 2014 #31

Religion would adapt. bravenak Oct 2014 #27

Probably not. Feral Child Oct 2014 #28

Such a broad brush statement. cbayer Oct 2014 #33

You asked a question about "religious philosophies" Feral Child Oct 2014 #37

Just FTR - I didn't ask anything, only posted the article. cbayer Oct 2014 #39

You chose the article to post skepticscott Oct 2014 #45

I would... 3catwoman3 Oct 2014 #30

If God created the universe, well that would include everyone in it. TheNutcracker Oct 2014 #38

Doubt it. Scientific discoveries seem to have no impact. mmonk Oct 2014 #43

Scientific discoveries have not impact on religious beliefs? cbayer Oct 2014 #44

Please enlighten us as to how science skepticscott Oct 2014 #46

Philosophy disproved them. rug Oct 2014 #56

Because Christianity got seriously organised to suppress and terrorise its opponents muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #47

No disagreeing with that, but there were also scientific findings and explanations that cbayer Oct 2014 #48

Sometimes but generally no. mmonk Oct 2014 #49

I agree that people sometimes cling to religious explanations despite cbayer Oct 2014 #51

Almost every scientific finding has had no impact Curmudgeoness Oct 2014 #96

That is not the point though. cbayer Oct 2014 #97

I was only answering the last question in your post. Curmudgeoness Oct 2014 #98

I see your point and perhaps I worded it poorly. cbayer Oct 2014 #100

Some religions adapt to certain scientific findings, but grudgingly muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #50

I think creationism is a good example, but there are also large numbers of people cbayer Oct 2014 #52

The Bible claims its God throws lightning around too muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #54

Yes, but no one believes that literally. Do you? cbayer Oct 2014 #55

My answer was #50 muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #58

So while you see that some people still hang on to their cbayer Oct 2014 #60

The overall change is small (nt) muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #63

Baloney. cbayer Oct 2014 #65

How much has Christianity changed over 2000 years? Or Islam? muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #70

They've been changed a great deal by advances in knowledge. cbayer Oct 2014 #72

People could apply the standards of evidence they use for real life to religion muriel_volestrangler Oct 2014 #73

But they are very different things and can't be evaluated using the same methods. cbayer Oct 2014 #74

Exactly skepticscott Oct 2014 #79

Invisible gods do have a believability advantage. immoderate Oct 2014 #59

That's correct. cbayer Oct 2014 #61

As long as there will be "the gaps," there will be gods. immoderate Oct 2014 #64

And there will always be the gaps. cbayer Oct 2014 #66

Mutations, if significant are generally maladaptive. immoderate Oct 2014 #69

Mutations are what drives evolution. cbayer Oct 2014 #71

Yes I would like to see the reference that says that all natural variation results from mutation. immoderate Oct 2014 #76

Whoa, you really do need to take an introductory course. cbayer Oct 2014 #82

Darwin uses the word "mutation" about a half dozen times in "Origins." immoderate Oct 2014 #83

Serious, imm. I like you and I think you generally speak from cbayer Oct 2014 #86

I'm glad we cleared this up. immoderate Oct 2014 #90

Your english is much superior to my handle on any other language, cbayer Oct 2014 #92

Uhm. English is my native tongue, (depending on how you view Brooklyn...) immoderate Oct 2014 #99

Oh, I completely misunderstood what you said earlier. cbayer Oct 2014 #101

Shows to go ya! immoderate Oct 2014 #110

If you're going to be snarky and condescending skepticscott Oct 2014 #80

Yes, the god of the gaps. mmonk Oct 2014 #68

God of the gaps is not such a bad thing. cbayer Oct 2014 #75

"God did it" is not an explanation. It is a deflection, a lack of an explanation. immoderate Oct 2014 #77

It's as good an explanation as any when there is no other explanation available. cbayer Oct 2014 #81

Yes I do. It's called being honest. immoderate Oct 2014 #85

When there is no definitive answer, saying you believe something is not cbayer Oct 2014 #88

Well, there's bullshit... immoderate Oct 2014 #91

Indeed it does. okasha Oct 2014 #115

Many early scientists were Catholic mmonk Oct 2014 #84

I agree that church doctrine remains unchanged, at cbayer Oct 2014 #87

um, uh, just about everyone was catholic, unless they were protestant Warren Stupidity Oct 2014 #109

Yes, perhaps. trotsky Oct 2014 #89

other than being intellectually dishonest, not bad at all. Warren Stupidity Oct 2014 #104

I think science as well as society at large is reflected in religion. Sometimes ironically. pinto Oct 2014 #67

No, there weren't. That's utter nonsense skepticscott Oct 2014 #78

Which ones were those circa 200-1200 AD? Warren Stupidity Oct 2014 #95

No, it collapsed because it lost its usefulness to the state. rug Oct 2014 #57

And in any case, okasha Oct 2014 #62

WTF? the greek and roman gods are no longer believed in because science? Warren Stupidity Oct 2014 #94

I guess when you spend your days skepticscott Oct 2014 #103

No. Phlem Oct 2014 #53

Interestingly the Catholic Church has pondered this question. gordianot Oct 2014 #102

There would have to be some tweaking on interpreting religious dogma. BillZBubb Oct 2014 #106

The more interesting question is what if alien life came to us? BillZBubb Oct 2014 #107

IIRC from Hebrew school, many years ago... MannyGoldstein Oct 2014 #112