What If ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter laocmo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

laocmo

Guest
Consider this a little before reacting with your natural derision. It has been reported by competent whistle blowers that the US and other governments are very reluctant to reveal the truth about so called alien visitors because it would devastate the world’s belief systems. To admit that beings a million years or more advanced than us have been in contact with us and have related that they have found no evidence of a supreme being would indeed seem to be devastating.

What if, and I need you to suspend your natural inclination to scoff, you had this revealed to you? What would be your reaction? You, like I, have been taught how things are from childhood. What if you found that all you have been taught was just fantasy and wishful thinking? Would your faith suffice to overcome the shock of such a revelation? What, if it was revealed to you that indeed we are just a genetically formed creature by some advanced species for some purpose perhaps not comprehensible to us. Can you consider this possibility in a rational way? Or will your prior developed belief system block any consideration from your mind? This possibility really troubles me.
 
laocmo said:
Consider this a little before reacting with your natural derision. It has been reported by competent whistle blowers that the US and other governments are very reluctant to reveal the truth about so called alien visitors because it would devastate the world’s belief systems. To admit that beings a million years or more advanced than us have been in contact with us and have related that they have found no evidence of a supreme being would indeed seem to be devastating.

What if, and I need you to suspend your natural inclination to scoff, you had this revealed to you? What would be your reaction? You, like I, have been taught how things are from childhood. What if you found that all you have been taught was just fantasy and wishful thinking? Would your faith suffice to overcome the shock of such a revelation? What, if it was revealed to you that indeed we are just a genetically formed creature by some advanced species for some purpose perhaps not comprehensible to us. Can you consider this possibility in a rational way? Or will your prior developed belief system block any consideration from your mind? This possibility really troubles me.
Click to expand...
It seems difficult to reconcile with the belief that God created us to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world and forever in the next. The lack of a known purpose is a drawback rather than an asset.
 
I would try really very, very hard not to feel smug.

But seriously, apart from the incredible thrill of finding out that we are not alone, it wouldn’t change much for anyone without belief.

And if we had been genetically engineered by some alien race, it would be fascinating to see the reaction of the proponents of ID who would find out they were right after all…except not in the way they were hoping for.
 
Bradski said:
I would try really very, very hard not to feel smug.

But seriously, apart from the incredible thrill of finding out that we are not alone, it wouldn’t change much for anyone without belief.

And if we had been genetically engineered by some alien race, it would be fascinating to see the reaction of the proponents of ID who would find out they were right after all…except not in the way they were hoping for.
Click to expand...
It wouldn’t change much of anything for someone with great faith in God, either. No one ever said we are alone in this universe.

But I don’t know why the “others” always get to be the superior race in these scenarios.
 
Lily_Bernans said:
It wouldn’t change much of anything for someone with great faith in God, either.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I would still go on praying and believing. My faith has brought me great comfort and it wouldn’t be shaken so easily. I simply would not be able to believe that my heart, that all my life was filled with God, could go on without that comfort.
Lily_Bernans said:
But I don’t know why the “others” always get to be the superior race in these scenarios.
Click to expand...
Well, we know there is nothing living in our solar system, and man has only reached the moon so far, which is really, really close. So anyone coming here would have to be seriously more advanced than us because they would have to come here from beyond our solar system, something we can’t even imagine…
 
laocmo said:
Consider this a little before reacting with your natural derision. It has been reported by competent whistle blowers that the US and other governments are very reluctant to reveal the truth about so called alien visitors because it would devastate the world’s belief systems. To admit that beings a million years or more advanced than us have been in contact with us and have related that they have found no evidence of a supreme being would indeed seem to be devastating.

What if, and I need you to suspend your natural inclination to scoff, you had this revealed to you? What would be your reaction? You, like I, have been taught how things are from childhood. What if you found that all you have been taught was just fantasy and wishful thinking? Would your faith suffice to overcome the shock of such a revelation? What, if it was revealed to you that indeed we are just a genetically formed creature by some advanced species for some purpose perhaps not comprehensible to us. Can you consider this possibility in a rational way? Or will your prior developed belief system block any consideration from your mind? This possibility really troubles me.
Click to expand...
Honestly, nothing would really change for me, except it would be exciting to know we’re not the only planet with advanced forms of life. I don’t see how it would affect anything that Catholicism teaches. Or how it would invalidate the arguments for a creator.

In fact the Church already believes there is a race of non-human creatures out there that are far superior to us intellectually and that can travel faster than light. We call them Angels. 😉

The idea that there are other rational beings in the universe besides humans is not foreign to Christianity. The Church has never taught we are the only form of intelligent life that can exist. The only people who think that way are fundamentalists.
 
Robyn_p said:
Honestly, nothing would really change for me, except it would be exciting to know we’re not the only planet with advanced forms of life. I don’t see how it would affect anything that Catholicism teaches. Or how it would invalidate the arguments for a creator.

In fact the Church already believes there is a race of non-human creatures out there that are far superior to us intellectually and that can travel faster than light. We call them Angels. 😉

The idea that there are other rational beings in the universe besides humans is not foreign to Christianity. The Church has never taught we are the only form of intelligent life that can exist. The only people who think that way are fundamentalists.
Click to expand...
^^^This. Having covered this subject in my novel, I’ve spent so much time thinking about it that I don’t think I would be surprised. Whether I would be delighted or dismayed would depend on the aliens themselves – are we talking about the Vulcans in Star Trek: First Contact, or are we talking about Independence Day?
 
DaveBj said:
^^^This. Having covered this subject in my novel, I’ve spent so much time thinking about it that I don’t think I would be surprised. Whether I would be delighted or dismayed would depend on the aliens themselves – are we talking about the Vulcans in Star Trek: First Contact, or are we talking about Independence Day?
Click to expand...
Yeah, as long as they’re not trying to enslave us, I’m alright with them. 😛
 
Lily_Bernans said:
It wouldn’t change much of anything for someone with great faith in God, either. No one ever said we are alone in this universe.

But I don’t know why the “others” always get to be the superior race in these scenarios.
Click to expand...
What if their summary of us was something like this:

Class 5 (ii): No interplanetary transport. No fusion (energy mainly fossil fuels). Short life span (no hybrids). Limited knowledge of physics. Primitive belief systems based on the supernatural. Reproduction by sexual means. Carnivores. No centralised political system. Estimate of reaching Class 4 system: 14.3%.
 
It seems to me that it is highly likely that we will find some sort of life outside of Earth, but it would be microbial, or even some type of animal. As for aliens and faith in God, the next thing people would ask would be, where did the aliens come from? 😃
 
StJoseph8 said:
It seems to me that it is highly likely that we will find some sort of life outside of Earth, but it would be microbial, or even some type of animal. As for aliens and faith in God, the next thing people would ask would be, where did the aliens come from? 😃
Click to expand...
Notwithstanding that we are also some type of animal, what if the aliens made us? Everything that we believed about why we were here and who created us would be wrong.
 
laocmo said:
Consider this a little before reacting with your natural derision. It has been reported by competent whistle blowers that the US and other governments are very reluctant to reveal the truth about so called alien visitors because it would devastate the world’s belief systems. To admit that beings a million years or more advanced than us have been in contact with us and have related that they have found no evidence of a supreme being would indeed seem to be devastating.

What if, and I need you to suspend your natural inclination to scoff, you had this revealed to you? What would be your reaction? You, like I, have been taught how things are from childhood. What if you found that all you have been taught was just fantasy and wishful thinking? Would your faith suffice to overcome the shock of such a revelation? What, if it was revealed to you that indeed we are just a genetically formed creature by some advanced species for some purpose perhaps not comprehensible to us. Can you consider this possibility in a rational way? Or will your prior developed belief system block any consideration from your mind? This possibility really troubles me.
Click to expand...
For me it is quite easy to believe that there are more advanced aliens and that they have visited us - there are a 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, there is bound to be some of them. Although it is highly unlikely that they has anything to do with creating us.

If they are more advanced and they have yet discovered Jesus Christ, I think it will be a considerable shock to those Christian faith. For that reason as well as the fact that governments don’t want to scare us, this information may have been suppressed. Here is a confession by ex-Governor of Arizona: youtube.com/watch?v=IfVOeC8EiPY
 
I’ll believe in aliens when I see them; otherwise there is nothing there to affect my life.

ICXC NIKA
 
Bradski said:
Notwithstanding that we are also some type of animal, what if the aliens made us? Everything that we believed about why we were here and who created us would be wrong.
Click to expand...
Wasn’t that the plot of Prometheus? 😉

But let’s say that aliens did make us, that still wouldn’t eliminate the need for God, it just pushes things back a step. To me it doesn’t seem much different than the question of whether or not we evolved from apes. Plus, God would have to infuse a soul into the first humans, which would show that we still were created to know, love and serve him etc… even if our bodies were designed by aliens. So what we believe about “why we are here” wouldn’t really be contradicted.

Nor would it change the fact of the Incarnation, which is what Christianity is based on. If God really did become man and rise from the dead, it doesn’t really matter if aliens created our bodies or not.

Now if the aliens said they were playing a trick on us and the whole Incarnation thing was just a joke, then I would lose my faith, for obvious reasons. But short of that, I don’t see how the Christian faith would be affected by them. The core teaching of Christianity would still be true. God still made us to be in a relationship with him, (either by creating us directly or by giving us a soul after the aliens did their thing) and he still sent his Son to die on the cross and redeem us.

But this is already going way beyond what the OP asked, which was just how we would react if we found out aliens existed.
 
openmind77 said:
If they are more advanced and they have yet discovered Jesus Christ, I think it will be a considerable shock to those Christian faith.
Click to expand...
That’s assuming they need Christ as their savior though. If they don’t, I personally wouldn’t be surprised that they never heard of him.
 
Robyn_p said:
That’s assuming they need Christ as their savior though. If they don’t, I personally wouldn’t be surprised that they never heard of him.
Click to expand...
Even they did not need the Christ, wouldn’t a species thousands of years ahead of us have heard of him? The point is that if they are so advanced, they would know more than us about everything including God and religion.
 
So God has a backup plan in place…it might do some of the self righteous types some good to know that…

Doesn’t bother me. If they believe already, it just proves our vision of God’s power is true. If not, then we have to convince them (or eat them :))
 
laocmo said:
To admit that beings a million years or more advanced than us have been in contact with us and have related that they have found no evidence of a supreme being would indeed seem to be devastating.
Click to expand...
Since these aliens have contacted us it is safe to assume that they are in our time. Since God is not bound by time what evidence would we be expecting them to find. If they are a million years more advanced than us they should be able to prove that something can be created from nothing, thus proving the creation of our universe. If they are able to give us the definitive proof of what created the universe I would say that is evidence. If they are unable to prove the creation of the universe, with all of their advanced knowledge, I would say that is actually evidence of God.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top