what if life is found to exist elsewhere...

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what if life is found to exist elsewhere in the universe... would religion adapt as if they always believed in life throughout the universe or would it disappear acknowledging that the religions at large didn't teach about other life than that found on earth and thus never accounted for the possibility that mankind isn't created in gods image after all?

i ask this because something exciting seems to be going to be announced this week, that potentially could impact religion sooner than later:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/no ... ology.html

You're not gonna give up a racket like religion just because of something like life on another planet. They're gonna lie and spin like mad to make sure that they can continue their racket.

@ skafather84

but would people continue to buy that, after life is found elsewhere... wouldn't they start abandoning their religions and thus cause religions to disappear eventually?

like you, i certainly don't think the religion as an institution would give up themselves...

Last edited by aspi-rant on 30 Nov 2010, 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Many Christians already believe there is life on other planets, the idea that God left an entire empty universe and us being the only place with life is just plain silly.

Of course people will continue to buy it. They'll rationalize it to themselves as they do today.

@ Inuyasha

i know... but since there is no proof of life elsewhere... then there is no conflict... yet.

also: what if is found out at some point that intelligent life is not created in gods image... and religion is a earth-thing-only...

You mean like you rationalize atheism? Sure one can recreate the building blocks of life in a lab setting but it is insanely difficult to do so in an uncontrolled setting, because many elements are more reactive than the elements used in our DNA are to each other.

See? Rationalization. "We don't know, I don't get it, it must be god!!" God is the mind's blue screen of death. You don't comprehend something, it must be god.

if life exists elsewhere, your argument is absolutely not valid... au contraire!

even today it is in fact insanely difficult to recreate the elements of life in the lab... but if life exist elsewhere, that would indicate that it is, in matter of fact, insanely common to do so in an uncontrolled setting...

It is not as if the data are out there. What religions ACTUALLY are - as opposed to what myth says about them - is perfectly accessible, but you have to be willing to question the myth.

Does anyone know of a religious text which clams to present all and only knowledge? I have not heard of one. Ya muslimiin, is Antactica in the Qur'an? Is Islam impacted by the discovery of Antarctica? Followers of Gautama and the Eightfold Path, did the Buddha discuss viruses? Do viruses affect Dharma? Bnai Israel, where is DNA in Tora or Talmud? Is DNA relevant to the cry od Shema Yisrael? Brother Christians, can you find me anything in scripture or tradition that says there is no life on other planets, or that would be invalidated if there were?

Get real. No religion I know of would have any reason for concern if we found life on other planets. Nor would paleontology have to change if we found incontrovertible proof that Deinonychus spoke the French of Lyons.

NO thinker worthy of the name [and whatever you think of Buddhism or Paleontology, they both have had some high level thinkers] claims to have all knowledge. Physics is still going, and look at what concepts have been added there in the last 50 years.

I don't see a conflict. It's not like any religion teaches that man is the only species. What it teaches is that man is the species most special to God. The discovery of additional species off earth wouldn't change that (in peoples' minds). I'm not saying that I believe it. But I am saying that it would simply be percieved as even more species that are not as special as man. After all, religion has been preaching man's specialness for millenia now and each year seems to bring the discovery of ever more species here on earth. Dioes the fact that man is vastly outnumbered by the other species make humans feel less special? Apparently not. The discovery of incredible ecological diversity has done nothing to make people feel less special in God's eyes. The discovery of even more diversity wouldn't change that.

Trolling, but i could argue that we must have at least one person here on WP who is incidentaly at "Deinonychus" rank and who speaks french from Lyons. <.<

Yeah, that was bad, sorry. =.= Carry on.

Everybody knows most Deinonychus tribes spoke various Polynesian languages. A few groups in Montana were Francophone, but using Walloon dialects nowhere near Lyons.

If I heard convincing evidence that Deinonychus had a language I would have one of my rare fits of excitement and apply for a seat in the next time cruise. THIS scientist wants to expand his horizons.

Why would religion be effected at all?
What does one thing have to do with the other?

If life were discovered in our lifetime beyond Earth( and not the result of contaimation from earth but truly alien life) it would most likely be pond scum (little green microbes), and not fully evolved little green men.

Either way such a discovery would have no impact on Buddhism, and probably none on Hinduism, because it would not conflict with the theologies of those faiths in anyway.

The discovery of extraterrestrial pond scum would be a bit uncomfortable for the abrahamic faiths ( judaism, christianity, Islam, and mormonism) because it would mean that a seperate Genisis occured that was not mentioned in the Bible. But an omission from the bible would not be as bad as a direct contradiction of the bible. As far as I know the Bible doesnt expressly say that this earth is the only one under heaven.

Discovering actual intelligent aliens capable of building space craft ( or even just capable of sending us radio signals) would also create a bit of delema for the abrahamic faiths because you would then have the question of whether these beings were also made "in god's image". But that dilemma would not be enough to collapse the faith.

So such a discovery would cause minor adaptations in some faiths and would leave others uneffected, and religion as a whole would continue.

i suppose arsenic-based life could be declared a heresy, & judicially exterminated; on the other hand, if it is merely declared a disease, they might just hound it until it comes around & admits it would rather use phosphorus in its metabolism--like everybody else.

Exactly. They did the same with all the other major scientific discoveries in history.