RE: Alien Question for Atheists
May 29, 2018 at 8:29 am
(This post was last modified: May 29, 2018 at 8:48 am by I_am_not_mafia.)
(May 28, 2018 at 7:11 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(May 28, 2018 at 7:07 pm)mh.brewer Wrote: 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?
To be honest I wouldn't be surprised. Only surprised that they continue believing such things and the question of why would be of most interest to me. Saying that though, ancient Greeks would be amazed at how some modern day humans still believe in a flat Earth despite our technology.
I'd be considering the evolutionary benefits of religious belief and how convergent evolution can lead to the same archetypes and ideas and how they can modulate the behaviour of a society in similar ways.
For example, they probably also have similar disagreements amongst themselves over whether alien socialism or alien capitalism is best. The common feature between the human and alien version would be the best way to exploit the available energy source and that depends on how much energy they can utilise and whether there is room for the civilisation to expand outwards. Same goes for alien authoritarianism and an alien society with liberal values which again is a choice of whether a few voices direct the work of society towards a single goal or whether all member of the population are allowed to fully exploit their skill set.
The fact that they are an entire different species with different needs and drives means that the two religions could not be exact duplicates.
(May 28, 2018 at 9:42 pm)ignoramus Wrote: In a multiverse with an infinite amount of universes, Deb's hypothetical is almost guaranteed.
The only credence that I give to the multiverse hypothesis is that we're living in a reality where Trump is president. It's like our whole reality has been created for a single episode of a cheap sci-fi TV series. There are probably some dimensional travellers walking around America right now saying to each other "well this looks normal, I wonder what's different".
