The Watchmaker: my fav argument

[The Grand Nudger]

Hmm I've never heard aliens be described as supernatural entities before. Why is that?

It only makes sense. They're always described as being beyond what humans are capable. Seems rather supernatural to me.

A more thorough answer might be that aliens came to be seen by society as a storage bin for our preexisting beliefs about supernatural entities.  

They didn't have to be supernatural, and if there are any, they're unlikely to be sorcerers - but that's still how we choose to conceive of them.  That's one of the reasons that characters like merlin fall effortlessly into the ancient aliens narrative. Hell, it's the reason that aliens sprung to mind for our christian friend here as a comparison or candidate for his meat fairy beliefs. It''s a fascinating subject - mythmaking, and we've only recently had the opportunity to observe and record it in real time - which is crucial, because like it or not, our species is compelled by and predicates an immense portion of it;s decisions and actions in the world on the contents and narrative thrusts of the myths we create to assert those truths we believe to be inviolable.

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Speaking of society, myths, and relatability - I can third Johns comments about mans responsibility for man and whatever garden we intend to tend (here or abroad).

This underlying religious belief, not the contents of a superstition, is the fungible article that the stories are meant to serve as a vehicle for - and over this, John and an atheist and an antitheist all agree. It's why we can communicate these things to each other and understand the concepts between each other. We're all agreed on some true article expressed normatively or as a hope for our future. Those things which are not only true, but which we intend to make true together.

The reason that these design arguments always fail, is that they aren't genuinely informed by some observation - they are an assertion meant to facilitate the creation of those things or the maintenance of a society which takes them to be an organizing principle. To say that there is a plan for man or this world is a declaration, not raw data.

-and, for absolute clarity, it should be noted that I'm not criticizing this enterprise in any way. It should be noted that with or without a god, and whether we maintain or are willing to abandon any christian superstitions, and whichever..if any, may be true or false...., christianity is very much a plan for man. There are many plans for man, and for this this world, each and every one the sole and unique responsibility of man - even and especially if, as many believe, some other thing or being originally floated the idea - or we need some other thing to carry us those last few steps.

The normative assertion and the hope, is that we can get -there- and once we're there, as far as we can take it on our own - we can throw our hands up completely satisfied that we've done all that we could, and wait for providence by any name.