What do you think will happen to Religion if Extra Terrestrial Life were discovered?

[Godhead]

Chasm -

I agree. It wouldn't matter (in the grand scheme of things), and no, their religion would almost certainly not be like ours.

[In This Mind]

District 9

The religious nutjobs would simply say 'they weren't made in god's image, therefore they are sick and wrong and bad and evil'. If they think the ETs can be converted, they will try to enslave them. If they don't, they will seek to exterminate the 'monsters'.

Which is how the religious nutjobs have responded to every other different culture throughout history.

[annatar]

At this stage since we can't be able to find them. They will have to find us. And that means they will be much more advanced than us. Let us hope they don't have a religion. Or we all have to believe in theirs..
Probably It wouldnt be good for us to be found by them for now. we have an example you know.. what did european people done to natives when they discovered America? As for our religious people, they will probably start saying "look, our book has foretold this. its a proof of the god bla bla."

[superstarr]

Superstarr: Though I agree with you, I have to say, you're a little off. How do you know that the space travelers would be just like us? I mean, how do you know that new technologies would have been scorned, and all that religious stuff happened, etc? How do you know that their timeline and our timeline would look almost exactly alike? I don't think they would. They would be another species, in another galaxy... It's highly doubtful that their history would be similar to ours. Even if they were religious, they could be more advanced than us. Maybe on their planet they didn't have a bunch of other different religions, just one. Maybe they were able to achieve a utopia (even if it's a religious utopia) much faster than us, and therefore advanced in technologies much quicker.

The thing is, as far as we know, Religion is an invention of mankind and the ET's could have some other type of belief system. But really, we wouldn't care about sharing religion, we would share knowledge, because knowledge is more useful.

Superstarr :

I never said that god created everything in 6 days. I'm not a christian. I don't think you understood the question, you seem to be centering most of what you're saying on religions here on earth, mainly christianity. What I was saying was, if extra terrestrials came here, and if they happened to be religious (it goes without saying that their religion would not be identical to christianity, to say the least), how would atheists get on with them? Being an atheist doesn't equal being a scientist. But those atheists who do know something about science, would they try to educate these religious ETs about science, or would it be a case of the ETs educating all of us about science? Surely they'd know much more than any scientist here, whether atheist or not.

Your name was misleading.

I think that we would just ignore that they have religions and concentrate on what's more important. They could show us new technology, and maybe we can teach them about Earth. Because if we start teaching religions to them, they'll end up thinking that we might be odd or can't make up our minds on belief system. But overall, we wouldn't want to share religions. Well, maybe those extremists. But I doubt that they would travel all the lightyears to learn aboout religions. They want knowledge, not beliefs, as what we would want if we came to them.

[Minimalist]

And that means they will be much more advanced than us. Let us hope they don't have a religion. Or we all have to believe in theirs..

But, perhaps they would have evidence to back up their claims....unlike our home-grown nuts.

[Dotard]

I'm with Shell B on this one.

[Violet]

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There's been some talk over this because a lot of religions are based on having a God creating only humanity in this universe and some say that religion will break down because of how the finding of Extra Terrestrials would contradict or violate some religious beliefs. Some may start changing religion to survive with that, and some religious people will start saying things like "oh, God created life elsewhere." A couple of problems with that assumption, A. If God created what there is in the universe within days, it means that human and alien life should be about the same. But if he created life elsewhere, why wouldn't he share his Law with those other life forms? B. What if they can explain themselves how they were created and proove it too us? Religious people can't just say "I don't care what you think, God made everything" because you will look stupid. So, what do you all think? Experts think that religion on Earth will fall, but some think that there could be some modifications to still live on.

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Alien life has always been here. It is called 'Broccoli'.

[Ace Otana]

I think if we encountered intelligant and very advanced alian life, it would be the knowledge they bring with them that would threatern religious belief. By going further and having very advanced technology with them, they would have been able to look far further than we can. Many times in history scientific discovery has contradicted many religious beliefs. Religion tends to either change to add the new discovery or deny it like creationists do with evolution. Never will religion admit to being wrong and that theists would rather opt for intellectual dishonesty like muslims do with the qur'an. It's because they never admit to being in error and that their religion got it wrong, is one of many reasons why I'm an atheist.

I'm sure that if we do end up having very advanced visiters, religion and it's many beliefs will be at risk of being disproved with the new given knowledge. Many beliefs could end up being contradicted.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

But what if this where an ancient, peaceful and incredibly advanced race who's first question to mankind was, "Who's this God you keep talking about?"

Unlikely.

I think they'd probably say something like "Oh,how quaint!" and then fall down laughing. (unless of course they were Vulcans,who don't laugh)

[Autumnlicious]

I'd be much more worried if they asked "What do you want?" instead of "Who are you?"