What would an alien think of our religions?

[Dave_B]

If we were to imagine that aliens existed and they were to travel across the galaxy and arrive at planet earth, on seeing our contradictory belief systems, what do you imagine they would think of us?

There are many world religions.

The top 5 being - christianity, judaism, islam, hinduism and buddhism. But there are many others and thousands of gods and thousands of sects all over the world.

Judaism and Islam are both monthesistic.

Christianity is also monothestic but believes in a trinity God of father, son and holy ghost, three persons in one being.

Buddhism is atheistic.

Hinduism can be montheistic, polythestic or atheistic.

They all have different religious texts (the Bible, Quran etc), many different prophets, gurus, saints and holy men, and are divided into many different sects.

I imagine that an alien would look at us, and perhaps question our sanity.

Your thoughts?

 

[Bahman]

What make you think that an alien knows himself more than we know ourselves so then --the question of what is God?-- becomes relevant?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

If we were to imagine that aliens existed and they were to travel across the galaxy and arrive at planet earth, on seeing our contradictory belief systems, what do you imagine they would think of us?

There are many world religions.

The top 5 being - christianity, judaism, islam, hinduism and buddhism. But there are many others and thousands of gods and thousands of sects all over the world.

Judaism and Islam are both monthesistic.

Christianity is also monothestic but believes in a trinity God of father, son and holy ghost, three persons in one being.

Buddhism is atheistic.

Hinduism can be montheistic, polythestic or atheistic.

They all have different religious texts (the Bible, Quran etc), many different prophets, gurus, saints and holy men, and are divided into many different sects.

I imagine that an alien would look at us, and perhaps question our sanity.

Your thoughts?

This reminds me of a funny story the British satirist Alan Coren wrote about an alien knocking on the front door of an American family’s home.

It starts with the son opening the door and calling out, “Hey, Pop, there’s a little green guy standing in the doorway.”

it continues on with the householder inviting him in and then proceeding to boast that his kids’ bridge work cost more than Guatemala’s annual budget, and that they’ve got enough fire power to wipe out the rest of the world. The kid pipes up, telling his sister that if they let in more of the little green guys, “How do you think you’ll feel when you have eau-de-nul children? Huh? Huh?”

It finishes up with the little green guy going back to his mates in the flying saucer, and commenting how depressing the human barbarians are. They wonder if we’re a lost cause, and one of them remarks, “Oh, I dunno. Someone has to pick the cotton.”

I wonder indeed. I mean, we can fly to the moon, split the atom, focus on cancer cells with radiation treatment, posit quantum mechanics, quantum teleport.

But then we’ll sit down to dinner with a T-bone steak, and at the end pick up the bone and gnaw on it like any contented cave man, and maybe dig the marrow out of a joint with a knife.

We’re a strange mix, and I think any aliens that got here would probably find a lot to joke about, including our eclectic mix of religions.

 

[fhansen]

If we were to imagine that aliens existed and they were to travel across the galaxy and arrive at planet earth, on seeing our contradictory belief systems, what do you imagine they would think of us?

There are many world religions.

The top 5 being - christianity, judaism, islam, hinduism and buddhism. But there are many others and thousands of gods and thousands of sects all over the world.

Judaism and Islam are both monthesistic.

Christianity is also monothestic but believes in a trinity God of father, son and holy ghost, three persons in one being.

Buddhism is atheistic.

Hinduism can be montheistic, polythestic or atheistic.

They all have different religious texts (the Bible, Quran etc), many different prophets, gurus, saints and holy men, and are divided into many different sects.

I imagine that an alien would look at us, and perhaps question our sanity.

Your thoughts?

Aliens capable of traveling across galaxies are more highly evolved-and therefore Christian.

 

[Dave_B]

What make you think that an alien knows himself more than we know ourselves so then --the question of what is God?-- becomes relevant?

An alien must possess much more advanced technology to traverse such large distances, so may have evolved earlier than ourselves. If they evolved eariler, they may have developed higher intelligence and could be more rational as a species than human beings.

 

[Dave_B]

… We’re a strange mix, and I think any aliens that got here would probably find a lot to joke about, including our eclectic mix of religions.

You would hope so, and in this hypothetical scenario, could give us a few pointers.

 

[Dave_B]

Aliens capable of traveling across galaxies are more highly evolved-and therefore Christian.

Really? Or would they have evolved their won religions earlier in their history, only to grow out of that phase of superstition?

 

[fhansen]

Really? Or would they have evolved their won religions earlier in their history, only to grow out of that phase of superstition?

Mr Spock was a closet-Christian

 

[fhansen]

Really? Or would they have evolved their won religions earlier in their history, only to grow out of that phase of superstition?

They became Christian by going beyond going growing out of the superstious phase.

 

[aidanbradypop]

Aliens capable of traveling across galaxies are more highly evolved-and therefore Christian.

Depends on how badly the screwed up. lol

What if we are the naughty kids in the universe?

 

[fhansen]

Depends on how badly the screwed up. lol

What if we are the naughty kids in the universe?

Can’t say for sure about all of em-but behind the superior facade every one I’ve met so far turned out to be a screw-up too.

 

[aidanbradypop]

Can’t say for sure about all of em-but behind the superior facade every one I’ve met so far turned out to be a screw-up too.

Talked about this before in a small group. The Fundes believe we are the only ones in the universe because Scripture does not state otherwise.

What I find interesting is how would we be different on another world.

Look at our world with the many different religions.

 

[MarcoPolo]

They all have different religious texts (the Bible, Quran etc), many different prophets, gurus, saints and holy men, and are divided into many different sects.

I imagine that an alien would look at us, and perhaps question our sanity.

If an alien looked at differences in beliefs and concluded, “They are all different, therefore none is right and all must be insane,” then I would say an alien race of illogic has arrived.

 

[Bahman]

An alien must possess much more advanced technology to traverse such large distances, so may have evolved earlier than ourselves. If they evolved eariler, they may have developed higher intelligence and could be more rational as a species than human beings.

Let me rephrase my question in another way, are we -human- cognitively closed? Closed from first and third person view? Are aliens cognitively closed as well?

First, your question is very important when it is mixed with the above questions.

A person is cognitively is closed to a belief when s/he allows that a belief becomes a central force for performing any action without questioning whether s/he is aware of the consequence of the belief. We however could not live a life without a belief as we need something to move along. The fact that there are many religions exactly shows that those people might be cognitively closed to religion since otherwise they would put themselves at risk of losing their religion asking critical questions, like the one that you said and many others.

To make the long story short, there is one crucial question as following: Why people around the world have different religions allowing that religions act as forces deriving them, knowing the fact that religions are so diverse? The answer is that they might be cognitively closed to what they believe.

The other part of problem hidden in your question is whether alines are cognitively close to us or vise versa (third person)? This question becomes relevant when we are dealing with inter-spices interaction. We might be closed to them meaning that they could not understand us no matter how advance they are. We might be open to them and as a result they understand why we have different believes. They also have a reason for living, a belief, meaning that they are cognitively close to what they believe since otherwise we in general wouldn’t do anything if we are cognitively open to everything.

 

[cheezey]

They would probably find the concept of religion to be, er, alien.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

If we were to imagine that aliens existed and they were to travel across the galaxy and arrive at planet earth, on seeing our contradictory belief systems, what do you imagine they would think of us?

…]

I imagine that an alien would look at us, and perhaps question our sanity.

Your thoughts?

I’d imagine that an extraterrestrial alien species might not be interested in relating to humans. Much like how a human may not be able or interested to relate to an ant or a bee. Differences in biochemistry , method of communication, or sensing their environment could all be obstacles in the aliens relating to humans as they may experience their existence very differently.

 

[fhansen]

Talked about this before in a small group. The Fundes believe we are the only ones in the universe because Scripture does not state otherwise.

What I find interesting is how would we be different on another world.

Look at our world with the many different religions.

The concept of a god or gods, of superior beings/authorities, is pretty much universal in our various societies: man looking “upward”, grasping for higher truths that he already vaguely perceives seems to be an innate trait. Modern man isn’t necessarily more informed-even if he may think he is-he’s just more cynical IMO. Anyway, I’m sure that aliens would have the same questions-unless they managed to reach eternity and meet God face to face. So I guess it really hinges on whether supernatural revelation-God meeting us-is valid… or not.

 

[Dave_B]

… The fact that there are many religions exactly shows that those people might be cognitively closed to religion since otherwise they would put themselves at risk of losing their religion asking critical questions, like the one that you said and many others…

Hi Bahman, I think it is a human trait to be closed off to other belief systems. It is difficult for people to question themselves. Far easier to question others.

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

The common tread in all of the religions is, “who’s your family” and what does “family mean” through out existence. We can take a sample look at individual families and conclude families bring out the best and worst in us all. Just watch any family sitcom. Now, we can add layers to this in generations. Here we are able to learn from crazy and apply wisdom.

To take an assertion of how aliens would view our religions (family) we would need to define the origins of their family lineage. Is the aliens obedient and without conflict in their family? Did the alien family live survival of the fittest past? This would form how they would relate to our family dimensions.

 

[WmJackP]

If we were to imagine that aliens existed and they were to travel across the galaxy and arrive at planet earth, on seeing our contradictory belief systems, what do you imagine they would think of us?

If the alien were similar to us in his/her/its evolutionary development, I suspect the alien would find the study of our various religions across our centuries a proper subject of study. The alien would perhaps investigate the causes of religions and make a comparative analysis. Finding similarities, for example, our story of Noah and the flood story in the Gilgamesh epic or the occurrence frequency of of man/god paradigms as objects of veneration.

The better question may what would be the “religious” beliefs of a being with a technology capable of traversing immense intergalactic distances. Would the alien itself have a system of beliefs which offers succor in times of conflict; would it feel an imperative toward compassion and humility arising from some dogmatic belief system? Would the alien have ritualistic practices or would they have been abandoned with the rise of a superlative technology? .