Life on other planets and religion

I was wondering, if we were to discover life on other planets, would that have any implications for human religion? Would that fit with your personal beliefs? Would it be different if it were intelligent life as we define it vs. single celled organisms?

I would assume the implication would be that God created life, including those on other planets, but I wanted perspective from those raised with religion.

 

What if they were highly intelligent and our religious beliefs were based on them?

 

I'm hardly a religious scholar...I barely made it through confirmation class. but I'll give it a shot. First off, what is religion? I think of religion a multi-generational model of our environment and how best to interact with it and each other.

Since every religion has some sort of God, I've always thought of God as a placeholder for everything we don't yet understand about the world around us and the Origins of Life. When I was young, the debate was between creation and evolution. Evolution lays out a general framework of how life adapts to its environment, but it doesn't explain the Origins of Life. These days, I hear the term "Intelligent Design" (ID) a lot. It seems to merge the religious and scientific communities.

When I look at pictures of other moons and planets, what strikes me is that the universe is in a constant state of entropy...except here on Earth. That's not to say life can't exist elsewhere, but you have to admit...Life is pretty damn unique! Not only does negentropy occur on Earth, it is imbued with a sense of self preservation. Anyone who owns a house or a car can tell you...they don't fix themselves...but the human body does!

That's how I think of God now...as an intelligent life force that flows through every living thing. The life force that brings together ashes and dust for some meaningful purpose (to pass on life to another) then return from whence it came. You would think that killing any of God's creatures would be a sin...plant or animal. It probably is...which is why we're all sinners and need forgiveness.

The scientific explanation suggests that Life began in a primordial pool by some freak mathematical accident that could occur anywhere in the Universe. It's purely happenstance if/when it occurs. That may be so, but it still doesn't explain Life's struggle for survival.

If the God explanation is more logical, then why do we die? It seems like death is an integral part of life. In other words, life can't survive without death and rebirth. This is another piece of the puzzle...how life adapts and thrives in a chaotic environment. Human knowledge has barely begun to understand the vastness of God.

This is why I worry about "medicine". We have a bunch of researchers playing whack-a-mole with our bodies while chasing the next round of NIH funding...with little regard for long term consequences. For instance, what might happen if we actually discovered a way to end all viruses. Well, one might say that's great, but what if viruses are an integral part of the evolutionary process? ...what then?

A little more caution and humility in the medical community would go a long way. After all, we all know now that COVID-19 came from a lab.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_and_life

 

Interesting Yakpoo but why can't some being in a faraway galaxy be having the same thoughts?

I've heard tell that the universe is finite. Okay, let's say it's surrounded by a big box.
This begs the question - what's on the other side of the box?

 

I have a theory about that...

Sunlight takes 8.3 minutes to reach earth...meaning, every Sun observation we make on Earth is from what happened on the Sun 8.3 minutes ago. Sunlight takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto. Some of the starlight we see took millions of light years to reach Earth.

If you go to the edges of the "box" then the majority of mass would be to one side...drawing energy and matter back towards the middle. In other words, the size if the Universe is a function of its mass.

If you imagine a much smaller space with starlight bending back to the center over time, then it's possible that the stars we see at night could be from a fewer number of stars, but at different points in time...making the Universe appear much larger than it actually is.

https://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/astronomy-topics/light-as-a-cosmic-time-machine.html

 

Cool question and one that I have pondered myself over the years. As incredibly vast as our own galaxy is, it is incomprehensible to think that life hasn’t taken hold elsewhere. And then when you multiply the vastness of our galaxy by the billions of other galaxy’s that we can see from Hubble, most certainly life has evolved in many places.

I am a confirmed Christian man and don’t sway from that. I believe that with consciousness and self awareness comes an appreciation of life. And I believe that to be a constant. We all show appreciation to our parents and our parents deserve it and live to hear it from us. Likewise, I believe the creator, God, Allah or whatever you choose to call him loves to hear that appreciation just as our parents do. Christians simply call it “praise”. Why then would He not desire to be praised from all reaches of the cosmos?

 

I'm sure a higher being sits around waiting for praise

 

I miss him.

I hope the next Congress votes him in as Speaker of the House...so he gets his megaphone back.

 

If earth is the center of the universe, as we are taught by religious dogma, then any aliens showing up on our doorstep will almost certainly laugh their asses off when we tell them what we believe. Once they stop laughing, they will most likely point out that we are no where close to the center of the universe and that we are a relatively young world and fairly backwards with a lot of primitive beliefs. None of this will change the minds of true believers and they will likely become radicalized against them and take up arms against the godless aliens. Eventually, there will be a holy war and millions will die before the superstitious are eradicated by the rational earthlings and their alien allies. However, if it turns out that the life is just bacteria, the true believers will alter their beliefs to fit the current reality and keep believing whatever the hell they believed anyway with slight modifications. For example, God created life on Mars too. The Galaxy Church of God will live on and on.

 

Exactly what scripture in the Bible states that God said the earth is the center of the universe?

 

Learn your scripture damn it! LOL!!!

The Bible: However, the earth occupies the central position in the entire universe because of its God-given role, even though it may not be in the geometrical center. The first astronomical object that God created was the earth; this clearly indicates its importance amongst all of the other stars and planets. The creation account gives a day by day report on the preparation of the earth as man’s dwelling place. God’s attention focuses on this planet: “To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it” (Deut. 10:14). On this planet, He implemented most of His creative ideas, as the Psalmist cries out: “. . . the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps. 104:24). No other astronomical body is called God’s footstool (Isa. 66:1; Acts 7:49). The clearest indication of the earth’s central position is that God’s own Son was sent here. Jesus Christ became a human being for our sake. He destroyed man’s sin exactly in that place where it had been introduced into the universe, namely the earth! The cross of salvation stood on Calvary and no other place in the cosmos. Jesus ascended to heaven from the earth, and He will return here as exalted Lord when He comes again.

These few cosmological considerations from the Bible clearly indicate that evolutionist ideas are completely foreign to Scripture.

 

More specifically, I'm the center of the Universe.

 

Oh, you're the center of our universe Yak.

 

Oh, Goody!!!

A Godterbation post, instead of a trumpterbation post!.

BTW, Joe, did you ever find that DD214 that identifies which Branch of the Armed Forces you served in, when, and what you did?
I'm guessing you were an esteemed fearless warrior of Right and Might in the Bilko Squad.

 

My God, you really are not able to grasp the concept of continuity of position!!.

You sure do use the word "clearly" quite a lot. Are you certain you understand the meaning and proper usage?

 

Joe, Joe, tell me all the stories about your days at the Seminary.

Did someone, take....how can I be delicate....liberties with your person, Joe? Is that the source of your Godterbation and Trumpterbation and the rudderless directions of your posts?

 

....and you know life on other planets would not be human, because?

 

There some bacteria that use hydrogen sulfide instead of water to process light into sugar. They produce sulfur instead of oxygen. Life can take many forms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxygenic_photosynthesis

 

I prefer the University of Washington Astrobiology Program Papers. A relative is a bit more to my liking, for such enquiries. It sets the blarney aside.

Edit disclosure: changed this "," to this ".".