Alien Question for Atheists

[Magilla]

Losty
I'd definitely be interested in knowing what evidence this smarter species has. But if it’s the Christianity from the Bible that they’re believing...or anything very similar to that book I’d be having none of it. Honestly, even if Christianity were proven beyond all doubts, the best you’d get from me is pretending to love god in hopes that he wouldn’t send me to hell.

Catholic Lady
I guess the "evidence" in this case would be the crazy coincidence that an alien species from another solar system has the same predominant religion as us. Would that not give you pause at all?

I'd be gobsmacked as to why an intelligent life on another planet - (and given our knowledge of the planets it would be a far, far distant one, in another star system) - why they would be following the truth and teachings of an itinerant Jew, living in a small part of the planet earth, so far, far away. And if the God-come-down-to-planet was not Jesus, then I'd wonder how many offspring this god has had. I'd also wonder why we don't have any indication on earth, for the truth or even the existence of the exo-planetarian religion. Would it be another instance of the hidden-ness of "God", and a case of the dishonesty of "God" to boot. Or could it be that there is more than one god ? ? ? If there is more than one god, did they conduct a team effort in "creating" the universe, and all the other things for which "God" is supposedly responsible ?

All of that would tend to make me metaphorically put another nail, in the metaphorical coffin of the concepts in Christianity.

What I think is that the whole conjectural proposition is ridiculous, and cannot be answered with any kind of sense, since it's nonsensical to begin with.

Magilla.

[polymath257]

So I started this thread as an off shoot from Tiberius' thread which is a question for Christians.

The scenario on the other thread is this: 

Peaceful aliens (i.e. intelligent non-humans from another planet, let's say outside of our solar system) make first contact. After getting to know them, the subject of religion comes up. They have a concept of religion, but none of their religions are compatible with Christianity. On top of this, their species made all the advancements that humans did (e.g. invention of writing, the wheel, agriculture, etc.) millennia before we did.

My question is, how would you react, especially with regard to their intelligence, and that their religions are incompatible with Christianity. Would it make you doubt Christianity, or that humans are "special" and made in God's image? 

https://atheistforums.org/thread-55158.html


So I wanted to ask you guys. If it was the other way around, how would you react to it? The other way around as in, we made contact with these intelligent beings and found out that the predominant religion in their planet is very compatible with Christianity, like it's basically the same thing. They talk about God having lived as one of them, they talk about the trinity, salvation, Heaven and Hell, etc. Would it make you doubt your position as atheists, or would it make you more open to exploring Christianity?

Well, considering Christianity isn't the predominant religion on *this* planet and that this constellation of beliefs only stems from one very specific source, I'd first be interested in the history of religious ideas on the alien world(s). Do they also have analogs of our other religious traditions? How about our philosophies? Do they have as many different religious traditions as we do? What is the overall degree of overlap of views between the two species?

Given that they were able to discover similar scientific ideas, there *has* to be an element of doubt, so I would be curious about the history of atheistic views on the alien world(s).

Also, let's face it, religious minded people tend to twist ides into their own world-view. Some promote the similarities between different Earth religions. So why would I be surprised that they find similarities (and differences) for alien religions?

I'd also be interested in the history of triune deities in their mythos: so, humans have Fate (Maiden, Mother, Crone) as a female triune deity.

So, no, unless there is a remarkable degree of similarity (which I would doubt could happen, there isn't even that degree of similarity in *human* religions), it would not change my atheism.

It might change some of my views concerning how consciousness develops.

[ignoramus]

In a multiverse with an infinite amount of universes, Deb's hypothetical is almost guaranteed.
But we'll need to take everything into account. EG: The zillions of batshit religions from other worlds based on lizards Gods, Unicorn Gods, Excitable Penguin Gods, etc ... Isolating Christianity would just be confirmation bias...

I believe all evolved beings will one day question "where did we come from?"
It's all natural. Imagination is universal.

[robvalue]

It would be interesting, and worthy of investigation as to how similar stories ended up in different places. If they just thought they were really special and God did this that and the other for them, I wouldn't be surprised though.

If they had the same lack of evidence as on Earth, it wouldn't make me think it was any more real. If they had some, I'd happily look at it. I don't know what "exploring Christianty" means exactly. I wouldn't be interested in joining any religion, true or not.

[ignoramus]

Also Rob, that fact that a zillion species have faith in Christianity just confirms that not one of them was able to prove or know, hence blind faith.
/checkmate.

[Whateverist]

So I started this thread as an off shoot from Tiberius' thread which is a question for Christians.

The scenario on the other thread is this: 

Peaceful aliens (i.e. intelligent non-humans from another planet, let's say outside of our solar system) make first contact. After getting to know them, the subject of religion comes up. They have a concept of religion, but none of their religions are compatible with Christianity. On top of this, their species made all the advancements that humans did (e.g. invention of writing, the wheel, agriculture, etc.) millennia before we did.

My question is, how would you react, especially with regard to their intelligence, and that their religions are incompatible with Christianity. Would it make you doubt Christianity, or that humans are "special" and made in God's image? 

https://atheistforums.org/thread-55158.html


So I wanted to ask you guys. If it was the other way around, how would you react to it? The other way around as in, we made contact with these intelligent beings and found out that the predominant religion in their planet is very compatible with Christianity, like it's basically the same thing. They talk about God having lived as one of them, they talk about the trinity, salvation, Heaven and Hell, etc. Would it make you doubt your position as atheists, or would it make you more open to exploring Christianity?

If you mean they actually bring their own copy of the bible which is word for word the same as ours and worship a man named Jesus believed by them to have been born about 2,000 years ago, not on their planet, but in the region currently known as Israel on our planet .. well .. in that case I'd look around for the person who might be pranking me.

But if they merely believed in a God something like the Christian god, that would just lead me to believe their minds work something like our's, an instance of coevolution across worlds.

[Anomalocaris]

Burden of proof remains the same. Testimony just won't cut it.

I guess the "evidence" in this case would be the crazy coincidence that an alien species from another solar system has the same predominant religion as us. Would that not give you pause at all?

No.

[Amarok]

No it would not

---

Yeah I think it is unreasonable to the point of being irrational for anyone to claim it wouldn't phase them at all.

It's neither

---

The significance of this isnt the testimony, per se. It's the coincidence that the same exact story/religion exists predominantly in another planet that we have never before had any type of contact with.

still would not make Christianity anymore credible .Considering it's riddle with issues .

[Cecelia]

It'd definitely make me question my position as an atheist. 

But I wouldn't become a Christian.  This "God" character isn't worthy of worship or praise.  And humanity has come up with a better system of morality than he did.   I might start building some iron chariots, though.

[AFTT47]

So I started this thread as an off shoot from Tiberius' thread which is a question for Christians.

The scenario on the other thread is this: 

Peaceful aliens (i.e. intelligent non-humans from another planet, let's say outside of our solar system) make first contact. After getting to know them, the subject of religion comes up. They have a concept of religion, but none of their religions are compatible with Christianity. On top of this, their species made all the advancements that humans did (e.g. invention of writing, the wheel, agriculture, etc.) millennia before we did.

My question is, how would you react, especially with regard to their intelligence, and that their religions are incompatible with Christianity. Would it make you doubt Christianity, or that humans are "special" and made in God's image? 

https://atheistforums.org/thread-55158.html


So I wanted to ask you guys. If it was the other way around, how would you react to it? The other way around as in, we made contact with these intelligent beings and found out that the predominant religion in their planet is very compatible with Christianity, like it's basically the same thing. They talk about God having lived as one of them, they talk about the trinity, salvation, Heaven and Hell, etc. Would it make you doubt your position as atheists, or would it make you more open to exploring Christianity?

This kind of post is one reason why we love you, CL and hope you will never leave us. It's a good question and of the kind we welcome.

To answer your question, YES, it would start the whole investigative process over again. The fact that two independent civilizations with no prior contact with each other somehow managed to come up with a very similar dominant religion would raise eyebrows. It would demand study. It would definitely get my attention and I suspect it would get similar attention from the other atheists on this message board.

One thing that maybe you don't comprehend about us is that we are Truth seekers - perhaps much like yourself. We differ in the methods we use to seek and recognize truth - at least regarding to the question of divinity. In your hypothetical situation, yes, I would have to re-examine my beliefs as the situation would demand such. After re-examination, I might come to my same conclusion of atheism or I might conclude that the new evidence indicated it more likely that Christianity is true.

Either way, my belief is dictated by what the evidence shows - not what I would like to believe. We atheists are realists for the most part. Most of us are calling it the way we see it.

The available evidence we have now does not look favorably on the existence of gods or God. Change that and my ears are wide-open. I suspect the same would be said of most of my fellow atheists.