Aliens and religion

[British Lad]

What do you think would happen to religions if Aliens came down to earth?
What would you say/think?

[Alexandria]

Depends on how they present themselves and weather they were peaceful or hostile - if the latter, they'd be painted as demons of the apocalypse etc. If the former, then yes religion would take a serious (hopefully fatal) blow.

However, I strongly doubt a peaceful race advanced enough for interstellar travel would bother with us until we put religion - and the bloodshed - on the back burner and smarten ourselves up first.

[Hexagon]

I expect many would claim apocalypse, some people would try to worship them, some people would try and fit them into their own religion (call them angels), but most would have some serious rethinking. I mean, who wants to believe in a religion that condemns aliens to hell for not having the religion introduced to their planet. And who would believe in a god like that?

[Ridiculous]

Originally Posted by RubiksCube

I mean, who wants to believe in a religion that condemns aliens to hell for not having the religion introduced to their planet. And who would believe in a god like that?

[Zontar]

The same thing that happens to religion in any major cultural change. There will be endless sects that splinter off, some believing they are God/Buddha/whatnot, and some believing they are not.

In the end, people will hear what they want to hear and join groups of other people who want to hear what they hear.

Personally, if aliens landed on the Earth, I'm at a complete loss for how I think that should be dealt with. Obviously, these people can be considerably more powerful, and priority one would be not to imprision, harm, or antagonize them.

I would imagine we would do something similar to how native Africans and Asians reacted to the first European colonists; try to fight them off until they beat us with better technology.

[Emberstone]

omgawd... DONT YOU PEOPLE WATCH HISTORY CHANNEL? MY GOD!!! GEESH!!!

Aliens created religion. All those stories about angels floating down from heaven, and gods walking among us... aliens in their space ships!!!

its on History Channel!!!! IT HAS TO BE TRUE BECAUSE HISTORY CHANNEL IS TOTALLY SERIOUS, MAN!

Now if you excuse me, I need to go wade through a pond to find a monster so I can get on the totally important and scientific show: Monsterquest!

[IanGallagher]

I personally believe more in aliens than I believe in an organized religious God. This is coming from someone who managed a virtual series based off the bible, went to bible school, and a catholic high school where religion was a core study. One second "don't kill your neighbors" - the next "stone an old man to death!" Or destroy someone for throwing salt over their shoulder. It's just everything in there except for belief is either improbable or contradicts other passages.

To me the bible has more fallible areas than the ancient alien theories which has actual ARTIFACTUAL proof instead of mere speculation spread across the globe. Hell, half the bible is stolen from other religions alone. Jesus has nothing to do with Easter or Christmas - those were PAGAN holidays! As the inquisition started converting more people, the original christianity morphed and formed taking in the beliefs of it's converted people - it's not a pure religion. None of them are. This is why I believe in some form of God, just not an organizational one - every religion is onto the truth without any one being the truth. Statistics also show that most priests who go in to study STOP believing as well due to picking up on these contradictions. The more you learn, the more illogical it becomes. The only logic comes in from thinking all religions are right and wrong. They have numerous similarities.

With that said, the whole spaceship thing? The wheel of David within the bible depicts another image - a UFO. Also if we are to take anything from ancient religions, beings like Jesus were around as well - they were just called demigods and there were more of them.

These two all make sense if you start seeing God as more than all powerful and not some being living in the clouds. A more cosmic force, hell - he'd have to be already to explain all these universes out there. The two can easily co-exist.

[Ridiculous]

Originally Posted by Emberstone

omgawd... DONT YOU PEOPLE WATCH HISTORY CHANNEL? MY GOD!!! GEESH!!!

Aliens created religion. All those stories about angels floating down from heaven, and gods walking among us... aliens in their space ships!!!

its on History Channel!!!! IT HAS TO BE TRUE BECAUSE HISTORY CHANNEL IS TOTALLY SERIOUS, MAN!

Now if you excuse me, I need to go wade through a pond to find a monster so I can get on the totally important and scientific show: Monsterquest!

[IanGallagher]

And to those trying to disprove ancient astronauts, I dare you to a scriptural study of the bible. Since, I basically went through an undergrad course to priesthood that's how much religion was enforced in my school. If you don't read the bible, actually read it - and study it - alongside other religions and go along like blind sheep of course it's gonna sound like the end all be all text. Most in it is either contradictory or stolen though. As said, why do you think numerous priests drop out? They lose faith.

News flash - most people think Christmas and Easter is christianity, it's NOT - those are pagan holidays taken in by the church and randomly linked back to Jesus while taking over and converting more people during the inquisition. Many church goers do not know this. However, it's out there for anyone to see - plus it's taught in ACTUAL scholarly bible school. We don't know the actual time periods of Jesus, just that he was there. This is written fact. Anything else is like believing the Matrix is real (some do).

Note - I'm not saying christianity is 100% wrong. But it IS fallible. Every religion is fallible. But the KEY thing is - they all have some of the same similarities just in different context, which adds back in the validity since it shows widespread beliefs which link to some form of distorted truth. Most religions have it's own form of Jesus, for example, he wasn't the one and only "God's son."

[Ridiculous]

Originally Posted by IanGallagher

they all have some of the same similarities just in different context, which adds back in the validity since it shows widespread beliefs which link to some form of distorted truth.

I think that can mainly be attributed to the fact that we are all humans, and are all largely identical so will be influenced by the same things. Just like all dogs can be trained using the same techniques, humans can be manipulated using the same sorts of stories, so all religions have those stories in them while the ones that didn't no longer exist. Or in other words, memetics and natural selection.

[IanGallagher]

Actually I'm pretty sure even zoroastrian has some strands that many of the religions throughout time do. Might be spelled wrong. It's the oldest religion known to man. Probably wouldn't make sense to an agnostic and it would be seen as controversial by hard core Christians who wish to disprove other religions while forgetting their very own is in large part stolen itself. But, as said - combine every similarity into a whole and see "the other stuff" as possibilities on top of those similarities? To me the pure true religion is lost somewhere in the middle.

But, as said the ancient astronaut theories hold a lot more relevance because there aren't plot holes to the theories and there are actual artifacts found around the globe with strange markings on them that resemble how we still see aliens today. Sometimes it's ancient paintings, CAVE DRAWINGS, passages in certain religious text that dates back accordingly - whatever it is we still don't understand everything and how it links back together. But there IS actual tangible evidence of there being something else. Shrugging this off is like saying dinosaurs never existed - it's the same kind of proof. And as to aliens existing at all - just ask any notable pilot, President, or astronaut out there - most of whom have already come forward. Just look up the government program 'Star Wars' (I believe that's it). I think the only real 'conspiracy' is spreading the belief that there is a conspiracy lol since important people in government have oddly been open about it for years.

---------- Post added 9th Jan 2012 at 03:32 PM ----------

Widespread artifacts important due to difficulty of traveling great lengths back then.

[Ridiculous]

Well I wouldn't take a couple of drawings of something as evidence that something exists, any more than I should believe the bible because the bible says I should believe the bible. The same goes for people saying its true from personal revelation, because that's not evidence.

I'm not saying that there are no aliens, or that aliens have never visited Earth, but there isn't any convincing evidence for it and I'm not just going to believe it out of fear. I'm pretty sure there isn't any actual tangible evidence for it, unlike dinosaurs (where there is extensive and multiple ways to verify them, such as carbon dating, biology and phsyiology of their skeletal structure, migration patterns, fossils, footprints..) but if there is feel free to correct me because I'd genuinely like to know.

[stumble along]

This might sound really dumb and I Kay be wrong
But during confirmation the youth leader or whatever he's called read somethinganout how Jesus rises into the air and then flames or a loud noise was heard and he was gone.

To me, sounded like engines haha

[IanGallagher]

Ridic, at the moment I forget some of the actual proof. But, look up ancient astronaut documentaries on youtube - you'd find some of their findings to be really remarkable. Whether you want to put aliens or something else behind it. There are a lot of things that happened back then that just weren't possible. As said, one of the things that always stuck out to me was the similarities in such a short time span over vast amount of distances. Cave drawings are interesting to me since they go all the way back. But there's also vases, scriptures, etc. It's not the drawings or formations themselves but how widespread they are. Keep in mind that traveling back then was not like it was today. Hell, it took British folk a long time to even know America existed. Also Buzz Aldrin & UFOs, and presidential speeches & UFOs. There's a lot of interesting things in our history books.

[Black Cat]

What an interesting idea.

Personally I'd want to learn all about them, and their religions (providing they have them, otherwise I'd just want to learn everything else about them.) The arrival of an extra-terrestrial being would not really influence my religious philosophies. It wouldn't signal the rapture, nor would it be any sort of "sign". They landed, that's that.

Ideally they would respect my (and those of the rest of my fellow humans) religious ideals, and we theirs. Perhaps we could enter some sort of mutual agreement and live amongst each other. Like Star Wars. xD

And for the record: I hope they don't look like those absurd green Halloween costumes with the big black eyes. I imagine they look different, based mainly on evolutionary requirements of their climate/planet/society.

[jargon]

World Religions buff here - not trying to touch the aliens debate with a 10ft pole or anything. Just discussing the religions side of it, dont bother reading unless your really interested in this religious history babble.

So first off, we have definite evidence of religion way back into the stone ages. We have some pretty clearly outlined religious traditions even before the Zoroastrians (the Hindu's Rig Veda was probably written 500-1000 years earlier, sorry Ian). We can postulate pretty well that some religious influence spread from the Zoroastrians (possibly drawing from the Vedics in India) to the early Jews to the Christians and Muslims, mixed very heavily with various other local influences. Moving east, the Vedic religion evolved into Hinduism which spawned Buddhism, etc. Daoism and Confucianism (both in China) are probably the least interrelated of the major relgious traditions, and they are both very different structurally than what we usually think of as "religion".

I think if you ask most secular religious researchers, they'll say that common "strands" in religions are attributable to the fact that most of the major ones actually did mutually influence each other in development. The best ideas get repeated more frequently in different place (and I don't think any are "universal," even the bare-bones basics like deities if you look at some eastern traditions).

I know new-world (native american) religion gets brought up a lot in this discussion and that's the subject I'm least qualified to talk about. Actually probably the one everyone's least qualified to talk about since we killed the most religiously sophisticated ones off before we had time to ask any questions. So I'll just pretend like that doesnt matter for now.

[Ridiculous]

Originally Posted by Black Cat

And for the record: I hope they don't look like those absurd green Halloween costumes with the big black eyes. I imagine they look different, based mainly on evolutionary requirements of their climate/planet/society.

Yeah I always thought it was weird that we always seem to picture aliens as humanoid. I mean even here on earth there are several billion different species of life form (8.7 million animals, 300k plants and billions of different bacterial organisms) and only something like 400 are vaguely humanoid primates. To think that life on other planets would have the same features as us is very self-centred!

If they were capable of interplanetary-system travel (which they'd have to be, or else we would have contacted them already) I would think that they would've evolved out of any biological constraints and became more mechanical, or even just self-sentient computers/robots that aren't held back by silly things like soft bodies and lifespans.

[IanGallagher]

Originally Posted by jargon

I think if you ask most secular religious researchers, they'll say that common "strands" in religions are attributable to the fact that most of the major ones actually did mutually influence each other in development. The best ideas get repeated more frequently in different place (and I don't think any are "universal," even the bare-bones basics like deities if you look at some eastern traditions).

Which is why I never understood the whole debates that arise of "my religion is better than your religion" lol - because going down to the basics "your religion is my religion" more or less. As said, for example, a lot has their own version/s of Jesus even.

----

To me, this is an alien:



Not the picture itself, but close to what I think an alien would look like taken from various texts, cave paintings, egyptian murals, etc. Not really humanoid - the classic grays.




- All date back to 5000/6000 B.C.

[Ridiculous]

Originally Posted by IanGallagher

Image

I'd love to see people in 2000 years looking back at our civilisation and thinking, based on our art, that we ran around with giant scorpions, snake women, tree people, big flying lizards, and sea monsters:

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Also I saw someone that looked pretty much the same as your first cave drawing up at the shops today. It even has hair curlers on!

[IanGallagher]

Big difference between today and ancient worlds, like many people forget - the whole issue of traveling. Also many cave drawings were used to record history. While some were for telling stories, the majority of it was a way of keeping records. Thinking of the ancient world in the same way one thinks of the modern world today is a big mistake. Reasons for depictions for example were entirely different, this information would take a LONG time to pass on from one area to the next, and as to the last comment - they actually drew humans much differently. As said, actually go out and listen to professional paleontologists and archeologists. Or do you also think weird shapes carved into the ground to be seen only from the sky is their form of entertainment as well?

I should note these were all from places spread across the globe and all have some remarkable similarities - big black eyes, a more pointed nose like that of a skull, and big round white heads. They drew humans differently.

I know it's scary to think about and wrap one's head around. But there is much in this world and in our past that can not easily be explained.

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---------- Post added 9th Jan 2012 at 08:40 PM ----------

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Believe whatever you want, history speaks for itself. As I said, the only conspiracy is that there is a conspiracy lol.