Religion On Other Planets.

[Atheist]

If there is intelligent life on other planets, they might well have religions. Do christians here think that god would have sent them a version of Jesus?

[TrevorThePug]

Religion? Not if they are intelligent life forms!!

[Atheist]

Thanks, Trevor. I'm hoping for some interesting input from Christians, or maybe other religious people. Would there be various forms of Genesis and Adam and Eve stories?

[Atheist]

I must say that I'm not looking for arguments/rows with people of faith, I'm genuinely interested in any views they may have about such possibilities.

[AuntPollyGrey]

I think it would depend how far along they were intellectually. Christianity is fairly recent in human evolution. Ancient Man worshipped what they saw in their everyday life -the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and its Seasons. I would presume an Alien lifeform may do the same thing. I find it highly unlikely they would invent the same God and Jesus as Mankind has.

[Atheist]

I agree, APG. I do wonder what Christians would make of it; they don't believe that (wo)man invented god.

[woofgang]

There's a poem about it that I have mentioned on here before. It muses about the concept and suggests that somewhere all the time Jesus is being born in some form or another. There is also a short story, again I can't chase it down, about a human man who dies and finds he is travelling to heaven in a space ship. He is fascinated by the journey, takes a detour and gets lost ending up at the wrong heavenly gate. The angel asks him where he has come from and he says "Earth" the angel responds that all sentient creatures call their own planet Earth; so the man then says "you know...the earth that the Saviour saved" The Angel replies gently that the Saviour saved or will save all of them.

[Canary42]

I don't think Christian Faith acknowledges any life on other planets.

[naomi24]

We talked about this years ago. All I can say is if the only way to redemption is by God sacrificing him to himself, he, in the form of Jesus, is obliged to go from planet to planet throughout the universe and has what must be the worst job ever invented.

[Deskdiary]

And there was me thinking the earth was only 5000 years old, and dinosaur fossils were put there to test our faith!

I don’t believe in god, ghosts, leprechauns or the efficacy of homeopathy, but I do believe, given the incompressible size of the universe, that there must have been life somewhere sometime in the past, now, or there may be sometime in the future somewhere. Logic dictates this.

Of course the deluded theists amongst us are arrogant enough to think if that is the case, then their god is wot did it - after all didn’t he create the universe?

[Theland]

Deskdiary - '' Logic dictates this.''
So, use your logic to determine a first cause for the universe.
Or is your logic selective?

[naomi24]

Theland to Deskdiary, //is your logic selective? //

His isn't but yours is, Theland. You select a solution for which there is no evidence.

[Theland]

There is no evidence for a first cause of the universe?
Oh right!

[naomi24]

No, there isn't.

[Atheist]

Theland, I was trying to introduce a new difection for speculation, but you have returned to the only thing you ever really bring up, which is the first cause issue. Can't you spread your wings and think about other things?

[fender62]

not religious myself, but..as the universe is so vast and beyonf our comprehension, grains of sand on a beach etc, there probably is other life forms, some like us others not, as for religion, again, less developed societies like ours, probably have there own version, others more advanced and have left that concept behind, because of wars and genocide and division.

[nailit]

//and has what must be the worst job ever invented//
Ah, but the job wasnt invented, the creator himself designed it (after all, he's self employed)
He designed life, the universe and everything. And hell. He designed hell as well. And he designed hell in the foreknowledge that his sentient, created beings wouldn't live up to his standards and would end up burning there for eternity, so he had a plan (As the most successful self employed people do). He would make it so that only a bloody, painful death of himself would suffice. (he could have so easily made another plan, such as simply forgiving the beings that he had made to be imperfect, but hey!) So he became incarnate and sacrificed himself to himself to save us from a hell that he had made himself. This hell was supposed to be eternal and the just rewards for our sins of having been born, but jesus came down in our place and took the punishment for us that why he's still burning to this day....oh hang on, didnt he rise after 3 days and 3 night in the tomb? (leaving aside that Friday to Sunday is only 2 nights, but lets not get pedantic). So he took our place in hell...our just punishment...but in reality only suffered a few hours agony? So he didnt really take our place then? Just hung around for a few hours.
Mmmm, I think that the worst job ever invented was apologists trying to make sense of this theological and non-sensical mess. And thats before we even get around to the issue of religion on other planets, which is where most bible apologists live.

[Theland]

Naomi - so you believe in magic? Something from nothing for no reason? Brilliant!

Atheist - Life on other planets is just an idea unsupported by any evidence.
The latest speculation is microbes living in the high altitudes of the atmosphere on Venus, due to the detection of phosphene molecules, associated with life.
Personally I discount any life forms anywhere.

If there was, and if they were also made in the image of the Creator, then maybe they would make the same mistakes as us. But I disbelieve it all.

[Deskdiary]

I hate using LOL, I think it’s inane, but I did LOL at that nailit. Bravo.

[Atheist]

Theland, you seem to be a bit of a solipsist. You think that our planet (one of probably billions in our galaxy, and with our galaxy being one of billions in our local galactic cluster, and our cluster being one of god knows how many in our supercluster) is the only one with life on it. And you think that all religions except your private one are wrong, if not downright wicked. You must be very lonely.

[naomi24]

Theland, you don’t know how it happened so a god, for which you have no evidence, must have done it. Brilliant!

//I discount any life forms anywhere.//

That's irrational.