The question is simple, what effect will first contact with any alien lifeform have on religion if/when it ever occurs? This can range from finding an alien frog on another planet or an entirely different race of sentient beings with their own set of beliefs. Would life on other planets cancel out Earthly religions? Would our conflicting beliefs with another race prove to create an impasse for harboring a healty relationship? Would there be an explanation of this fact in any religious texts?

Note: This isn't about if there are or aren't aliens. This is a hypothetical WHAT IF they do and the effect it would have on existing beliefs and relations.

If there are aliens... and I'm sure that there are in some forms or another, it wouldn't change my beliefs a bit. I don't know if aliens would be advanced as us (since they'd probably be the ones making first contact)... or if we finally met them, they'd probably be behind us technology-wise. The discovery would be mind boggling, but not life changing in relation to my religious beliefs - at least to me. To others it may have a more profound effect.

Would life on other planets cancel out Earthly religions? No. I don't believe so.

Would our conflicting beliefs with another race prove to create an impasse for harboring a healty relationship? Possibly, since we can't even get along with our own here on Earth.

Would there be an explanation of this fact in any religious texts? I'm not sure. It probably depends upon your own religion.

It would be kind of funny if the extra terrestrials announced that everything that happened in the holy books was all a practical joke of their work.

when the end comes there will be an earthquake, flood and whatever, but no aliens.

well none of the religious books never mention about extra terrestrial beings right?
so why would it effect religion?
it's not written in any of the religious scriptures that there cant be any extra terrestrial beings and the existence of such things would negate all things written in those scriptures
therefore i dont think even if by any chance the existence of extra terrestrial beings were true, it does not disprove any religion since the religious scriptures neither deny or approve such things
Unless you're talking about some other miscellanious religion i've never heard about

Quote by priincesswhen the end comes there will be an earthquake, flood and whatever, but no aliens.

Congratulations, YOU FAIL! Remember kids, the question was a hypothetical WHAT IF, not whether they existed or not.

Interestingly enough, this has actually been discussed by theologians for a while now, at least in Christianity, and I can only guess that it has in others as well. C.S. Lewis talks about the issues of Salvation with alien life and such in his book "Miracles" and elsewhere, and comes up with some interesting ideas. Before Vatican II all the Bishops were asked to submit topics for discussion at the Council and one American Bishop thought a topic of utmost importance was extra-terrestrials, I forget what specifically about them, but to discuss how to deal with them in some fashion or other, or their implications and whatnot. However, he was the only one I'm aware of that wanted to discuss that, and there were many thousands of topic suggestions, so they never got into it.

Anyway, I've wondered a bit about its effect. I don't think it would really harm too much, but might make things more complicated. For Christianity, they already have the idea of going out to the nations of the world, it just makes more nations to go out to, although much of any problems would really depend on what we find, some wonder about whether they would be fallen or not.

i don't think it would affect any whatsoever religion on this planet, whether it's an alien frog or some sentient being. but then, what if the aliens worship the same God as one of the religions in this world? and that this was the first ever contact between humans and those aliens? now that would affect Earthly religions big time.

The question is simply that there is (to my knowledge) no real explanation to the existence of other beings. Essentially there is only mention of life on Earth, so wouldn't existence elsewhere kind of turn things upside down? Given, if we met another civilization in another galaxy that did believe the same thing as an Earthly religion, it would certainly give that one a lot more umph, but at the same time were all of theirs completely different it would certainly make things that much more difficult.

Quote by shoujoboyThe question is simply that there is (to my knowledge) no real explanation to the existence of other beings. Essentially there is only mention of life on Earth, so wouldn't existence elsewhere kind of turn things upside down? Given, if we met another civilization in another galaxy that did believe the same thing as an Earthly religion, it would certainly give that one a lot more umph, but at the same time were all of theirs completely different it would certainly make things that much more difficult.

Depends. For all I know, evangelists, upon learning of the existence of extraterrestials, will start bantering aliens about their respective gods. Hell is raised again.

Quote by shoujoboyThe question is simply that there is (to my knowledge) no real explanation to the existence of other beings. Essentially there is only mention of life on Earth, so wouldn't existence elsewhere kind of turn things upside down? Given, if we met another civilization in another galaxy that did believe the same thing as an Earthly religion, it would certainly give that one a lot more umph, but at the same time were all of theirs completely different it would certainly make things that much more difficult.

you are right about that religions never mentioned anything about other life other than on Earth, unless you believe in xenu or lyrans or "Jesus is actually an alien" crap.

it is quite high possibility to have life elsewhere in space, but an alien civilization would be highly unlikely. because however smart a living thing is, the fact that it does not have conscience is still there. that's what makes humans very unique.

so, this leads to "is a mention of alien beings relevant?" if we take a look into Christianity, God only told the Israelites what is relevant to survive and worship him, and perform miracles to them through prophets. God never did tell them how did he does all those miracles. so, in my opinion, while there may be alien life, it still would not turn everything upside down, because there is neither mention nor denial in the holy book or scrolls (as far as we know of).

Quote:
Congratulations, YOU FAIL! Remember kids, the question was a hypothetical WHAT IF, not whether they existed or not.

sorry i wasnt answering to your question but telling the truth

Quote by priincess

Quote:
Congratulations, YOU FAIL! Remember kids, the question was a hypothetical WHAT IF, not whether they existed or not.

sorry i wasnt answering to your question but telling the truth

I'm not sure you actually understand what the term "truth" means. Nor do you understand the predictions about the end of the world. For instance, did you know that the book of Revelations was for a large part written in code and there is good reason to believe that much of the book of Revelations was about the Roman Empire and predictions of ITS fall? Not all of it, of course, and many things in the Bible, especially such complex parts, are packed with layers of meaning.

In any case, back to the topic at hand:
There are a few religions that deal with the existence of other life, and many cults which do (Scientology, for example).
As for Christianity and Judaism, Scripture at least does not rule out other life, and there are actually some hints which could be interpreted to point toward other life in various areas. Tradition, which is more extensive and has been at certain times more important, seems to already be preparing and have contained in it the ability to deal with and possibly even be enhanced by such knowledge of other life (of course, the biggest impact would be with Sentient Intelligent Life, since anything else I don't see as doing much at all in this area). And several other religions have always dealt with there being "Alien lands" (not QUITE in the sense we mean here) with their own religions and even "foreign gods", so this probably wouldn't do much to them, but I don't know as much about such religions Theology.

Another problem might be what OUR moving to other planets might do. For some of the latter of the above mentioned religions, they are (supposedly) tied to a particular land, place, and people (though they seem to have, of late, begun spreading out more and don't seem to have noticed themselves a conflict). For Islam I'd see a practicle problem of where to pray and bow down to, since its a bit harder to figure out the direction of Mecca from another planet, especially if it happens to be an odd angle up in the sky or something.

Quote: Not all of it, of course, and many things in the Bible, especially such complex parts, are packed with layers of meaning.

yes of course, we called it parables

What aliens? Everyone knows even if there were already aliens known to exist the government wouldn't tell us about them. We wouldn't know until the 952nd Galactic Armada started blowing this miserable planet to oblivion.

Quote by XRW175P6MQ4What aliens? Everyone knows even if there were already aliens known to exist the government wouldn't tell us about them. We wouldn't know until the 952nd Galactic Armada started blowing this miserable planet to oblivion.

Intesresting speculation, this is. This is off-topic but...

A few queries would suffice:

* What do the rulers of this planet we inhabit gain if they don't tell it to us?

* Why would aliens (assuming there are civilizations far more advanced than us) invade the Earth?

What do the rulers of this planet we inhabit gain if they don't tell it to us?
*Knowledge (more advanced than our own obviously if they made first contact with us - star maps, possibly information about the universe way beyond what we could learn in many lifetimes)
*Technology (same reason as above - also new building materials, schematics, etc)

Why would aliens (assuming there are civilizations far more advanced than us) invade the Earth?
*Resources (our blood/tissues/plant life/mineral deposits/etc might be used as fuel, food, or study)
*Slave labor (in the scheme of things, I'm sure all races/civilizations have used it for their benefit)
*Scientific experimentation (why not, we do it with animals here... would aliens be any different in curiosity?)
*Extermination (we ARE destroying our own planet, who's to say we won't eventually come to theirs and do the same?)

And yes, the government (no matter which country) wouldn't say anything about it - they have the potential to gain everything and anything they possibly can from them (that is, if the aliens are willing... if not, its not below some governments to take what they want - they do that with their own peoples already ).

Quote by priincess

Quote: Not all of it, of course, and many things in the Bible, especially such complex parts, are packed with layers of meaning.

yes of course, we called it parables

Yes, parables are one thing I was talking about, but thats not all that is packed with layers of meaning. In fact, most of the Bible has layers of meaning in traditional Biblical Interpretation. Biblical Myths, for instance, are especially packed with different layers of meaning and messages, as are Legends and debates (Such as the book of Job), and often especially the books of the Prophets.

Quote: Yes, parables are one thing I was talking about, but thats not all that is packed with layers of meaning. In fact, most of the Bible has layers of meaning in traditional Biblical Interpretation. Biblical Myths, for instance, are especially packed with different layers of meaning and messages, as are Legends and debates (Such as the book of Job), and often especially the books of the Prophets.

what the Biblical Myths, there is one and only the true Bible, it's 'Bible' ..

Can we get a translator please?

I think we're getting a bit off-topic here,smack my head against a wall if I'm wrong,please.XP

Hm,this is an interesting thing to wonder about.I think that if there are aliens who are as intelligent,or more intelligent than us,they would have their own religions.So what'll happen if our planet and their planet make contact and find out about each other's religions?I think it's going to end in a fight of which religion is the right religion,like what's happening right now on our planet Earth.

If it's a smaller being,with the intelligence of our current animals,which are pretty smart after all,I don't know if it'll affect religion.It mostly depends on the fact if they mention anything about life or no life outside planet Earth,but as far as I can recall,none does really say anything about life or no life outside our planet.I'm no expert when it comes to religion,so I'll repeat: smack my head against the wall if I'm wrong.XP

Hm,this topic really makes think,I'm wondering when the first contact will be made and how that'll happen.And how long it will take before we actually do make contact with a planet with intelligent life forms,I mean,the Universe's huge and there are countless stars,planets,etc.etc.So why would we be the only living beings in the whole Universe?That would be kind of...Scary.XP

*didn't read thread*

well, long story short, I think that all religion ultimately stems from the same God, but that human interpretation and time led to all the craziness we have today. So if we met an alien sentient species or whatever, I think the elemental concepts will be the same. But there will be differences, of course. If a single earth can spawn so many religions, then what of the universe?

If we met, there will probably be interstellar religious wars. Stupid ones of course. Much misunderstanding and the like. Eventually some people will accept the other side's religion, and others will hold fast to their own.

I think that long-standing effects on religion won't happen so drastically, but rather new religions will arise.

On a more serious note I would hope that the aliens (if intelligent) would bring with them greater knowledge of the phenomenon people call God. I do not think that any current documentation is a reliable source for whatever it's exact nature is. Maybe we were created by a super advanced alien race and dinosaurs were wiped out by an extraterrestrial WMD to clear out space for humans. Monkeys might be slightly less successful experiments than humans, which were the ultimate success. Then maybe the aliens got in a war and had to cut funding to the "Earth Project. More likely the appearance of aliens would just through the government into a paranoid vow of silence, the people into a panic, and relgious types into a righteous frenzy over God knows what (as well as the French for the first time in history would surrender to a non-human army). All this resulting of course in our utter anhilation. People, when "they" come take a lesson from the French and surrender. Earthly weapons will not work and will only convince them that we are hostile.

Quote by XRW175P6MQ4On a more serious note I would hope that the aliens (if intelligent) would bring with them greater knowledge of the phenomenon people call God. I do not think that any current documentation is a reliable source for whatever it's exact nature is. Maybe we were created by a super advanced alien race and dinosaurs were wiped out by an extraterrestrial WMD to clear out space for humans. Monkeys might be slightly less successful experiments than humans, which were the ultimate success. Then maybe the aliens got in a war and had to cut funding to the "Earth Project. More likely the appearance of aliens would just through the government into a paranoid vow of silence, the people into a panic, and relgious types into a righteous frenzy over God knows what (as well as the French for the first time in history would surrender to a non-human army). All this resulting of course in our utter anhilation. People, when "they" come take a lesson from the French and surrender. Earthly weapons will not work and will only convince them that we are hostile.

Thats all kinda assuming they think and have similar philosophies really. To be honest, we have no reason to know anything at all about intelligent life on other planets. For all we know, they could have advanced modes of travel, but no weapons. It could be the idea of using a weapon against other creatures or themselves just never ocured to them, but some of their various geniuses and scientific developments in other areas lead to their discovery of great space travel. Or it could be sufficiently otherwise, and of course they could easily have completely different philosophies, just as we have very different philosophies in different areas on earth. Or who knows what else.

Going back to something I hinted at before though, it could be that they are what Christians would call an "unfallen" race, happen to be very spiritual and friendly, and happen to have a great relationship with God and be able to agree or disagree effectively with the various religions of the world. Or its theoretically possible, based on our lack of knowledge, that the idea of religion has, as I suggested weapons before, never occurred to them. Its possible they've never had much of a drive to seek out the world beyond our physical reality, but a drive to, say, find new minerals to put together and see the pretty colors they make. Who knows?