The discovery of alien life may be close. How will religion survive it?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I think you might be over estimating what we can detect of those planets.  It's not like the artist representations that you see.

Considering that I ignore artist representations I don't see them as an issue.

[RoadRunner79]

I think you might be over estimating what we can detect of those planets.  It's not like the artist representations that you see.

Considering that I ignore artist representations I don't see them as an issue.

Ok.... by looking at how we detect these planets, I don't see how saying we are close to discovering life is anything more than optimism. But I do hope I am incorrect or am missing some new tech which does make something like that possible. There are a lot of difficulties to overcome.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How we detect the planets and how we will look for life on them are two different projects.

[Anomalocaris]

A questions been bugging me since the start of this thread. Just how does one tell that you are close to finding something like alien life?  It seems like you have either found it or not.  It is not something that is being built up to or anything, where we only need one more piece of the puzzle.

The major technical advancement that accompanied efforts to find exoplanets is extremely sensitive and sophisticated signal processing techniques that allows observer to detect very minute changes to the spectrum of the light from a star when a planet orbiting the star transits in front of the star.   The same technique can also separate out and detect the spectrum of the star light that passed through or reflected from any atmosphere of the said exoplanet.   This allows detection and identification of component gases in the atmosphere of the planet that are chemically unstable and therefore imply continuous replenished through possibly biological processes.

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How we detect the planets and how we will look for life on them are two different projects.

No, some of the techniques developed to find transiting exoplanets also lend itself to identifying component gases in the atmosphere of these planets.

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The Bible - of course - is best read in the original Klingon.

You can't prove it wasn't.

The Old Testament sounds like Klingon behavior. They probably had blood wine too.

Klingons would have killed so despotic a tyrant as the Old Testament jehovah.

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So basically you're saying that the religious are like cockroaches, mosquitoes and rats - likely to survive us and anything we can do to the planet.

Cockroaches have lodged a formal complaint against you for that comment.

Cockroaches are versatile and have the ability to survive independently.  Religion Are pure parasites that would go extinct when the host specie goes extinct.   Religion is therefore inferior to cockroaches.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A questions been bugging me since the start of this thread. Just how does one tell that you are close to finding something like alien life?  It seems like you have either found it or not.  It is not something that is being built up to or anything, where we only need one more piece of the puzzle.

The major technical advancement that accompanied efforts to find exoplanets is extremely sensitive and sophisticated signal processing techniques that allows observer to detect very minute changes to the spectrum of the light from a star when a planet orbiting the star transits in front of the star.   The same technique can also separate out and detect the spectrum of the star light that passed through or reflected from any atmosphere of the said exoplanet.   This allows detection and identification of component gases in the atmosphere of the planet that are chemically unstable and therefore imply continuous replenished through possibly biological processes.

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How we detect the planets and how we will look for life on them are two different projects.

No, some of the techniques developed to find transiting exoplanets also lend itself to identifying component gases in the atmosphere of these planets.

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The Old Testament sounds like Klingon behavior. They probably had blood wine too.

Klingons would have killed so despotic a tyrant as the Old Testament jehovah.

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Cockroaches have lodged a formal complaint against you for that comment.

Cockroaches are versatile and have the ability to survive independently.  Religion Are pure parasites that would go extinct when the host specie goes extinct.   Religion is therefore inferior to cockroaches.

That's what I said.

[Cyberman]

The Big Book of Multiple Choice allows for any and all positions on this matter.

It's the Kama Sutra of magic books.

[John V]

What will skeptics do if other life ISN'T discovered?

SETI's been around for a while now and hasn't found anything.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What will skeptics do if other life ISN'T discovered?

SETI's been around for a while now and hasn't found anything.

Universe 14,000,000,000 years old. SETI began 1980. 

14,000,000,000 - 37 = 13,999,999,964 years difference. 

Sorry

[John V]

What will skeptics do if other life ISN'T discovered?

SETI's been around for a while now and hasn't found anything.

Universe 14,000,000,000 years old. SETI began 1980. 

14,000,000,000 - 37 = 13,999,999,964 years difference. 

Sorry

Exactly. You'll just say we'll find it someday.

So, theists will have explanations if it is discovered (as previously discussed), and skeptics have an explanation for why it hasn't been discovered.

That pretty much makes it a non-issue for religion/atheism.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Universe 14,000,000,000 years old. SETI began 1980. 

14,000,000,000 - 37 = 13,999,999,964 years difference. 

Sorry

Exactly. You'll just say we'll find it someday.

So, theists will have explanations if it is discovered (as previously discussed), and skeptics have an explanation for why it hasn't been discovered.

That pretty much makes it a non-issue for religion/atheism.

I was pointing up the absurdity of saying SETI's failure to find anything meant we won't find anything soon. You can't project that.