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I'm not sure why you would automatically assume an alien race "has religion" to begin with.
Oh, I think the "need" to explain things that at some point in time were completely incomprehensible will create gods or wizards or boogie men to explain it to themselves.
Why does the sun rise over there, then set way over there, every day. Who controls that. What if it doesn't come back tomorrow. Primitive man sitting in the dark, listening to predators of the night, needs some reassurance the sun will again appear. But he has absolutely no concept of the mechanics of the earth rotation, etc., so he "invents in his mind" a sun god that controls it. Ignorance has just invented a deity.
Now paranoia takes hold, what if I make this sun god I just invented in my mind mad, and he withholds the sun. I better play it safe and "worship" the god I just invented so as not to offend. Paranoia has just invented a religion
We are smarter than this today, yet caveman thinking is still prevalent.
One of the best comments I read somewhere is; "A dark bedroom is a spaceship for the mind that can take you anywhere". This would also apply to a dark cold cave you are huddled in fear, which would then take you to dark places.
I would venture any sentient life form would go through a similar process in its early development.
Last edited by Asheville Native; 06-10-2010 at 12:26 PM..
I agree completely. Any species advanced enough to come here would have left theism far behind. Actually, any species advanced enough to come here wouldn't.
I agree completely. Any species advanced enough to come here would have left theism far behind. Actually, any species advanced enough to come here wouldn't.
Well, aren't you sure of yourself... have you visited all these aliens and preached to them the Word of Darwin?
I still don't see why aliens would have to give up religion in their supposedly advanced society. Do you propose that by the time we develop such technology religion will be gone too? What about Catholicism? It has no problems with science. Buddhism?
I agree completely. Any species advanced enough to come here would have left theism far behind. Actually, any species advanced enough to come here wouldn't.
Aww come on now, they might They might come in a similar vain as my grandson's school took all the first graders to the Nature Center this week on a field trip as the school year winds down.
Perhaps one way of looking at an ET religion is to put ourselves in the ET position.
One day, we might be the ET for another sentient species.
We have "evolved" a little bit from looking at nature and worshipping the sun, the Earth, and the natural forces of the world. Once we began to understand how these natural forces and processes worked, we stopped worshipping them. [Not all of humankind, but most.]
We then moved to the concept where multiple gods (and goddesses) lived in a "heavenly" abode, whether these deities lived among the stars or on some great mountain that "held up the sky." The South American natives believed their gods lived under the Earth, but I wish to gloss over that point in my post.
Currently, we are still struggling with the concepts that God abides "up there" and/or God is right here among us.
We are still struggling with the dual concept that salvation is for all and the need or requirement that salvation has to be earned.
Once we are a space-traveling species, we should change our thinking (gravitate towards a new perspective) that God no longer abides "up there" amongst the stars. It would be preferable to hope that mankind would begin thinking/feeling that God exists all around us, is a part of the universe. Even as we advance scientifically enough to understand more of the processes and workings of the universe, we should move less from a being that is apart from the universe (and people in particular) and more towards this unfathomably immense force in the universe.
One stumbling block for Christianity is still the unsettled argument whether God is one of love and reconciliation (the message and philosophy of the Christ) and one where God is this terrible judge and mankind must atone (do penance) for nailing the Christ to a cross, a crime that can never be assuaged (the Latin Christian church).
So, perhaps as we, as space-traveling wayfarers, meet other sentient beings, may want to pass on a philosophy, rather than a religion, of a God that transcends all sentient thought. No one, human or otherwise, can truly appreciate this God.
Finally, all efforts to resist changing our fellow sentient beings to our way of thinking should be foremost. I chagrin to the thought that once we reach out and touch another sentient civilization that we follow the precedent set by the Latin Christian church in its fervor to force people to accept their religion and their concept of God.
Well, aren't you sure of yourself... have you visited all these aliens and preached to them the Word of Darwin?
I still don't see why aliens would have to give up religion in their supposedly advanced society. Do you propose that by the time we develop such technology religion will be gone too? What about Catholicism? It has no problems with science. Buddhism?
I think this is fairly classic thinking even among older-generation and more tolerant atheists. The more tolerant atheist writers I've read seemed to feel that religion was primitive man's way to answer questions and create a working society. It had some truth because it contained some perceptive people who observed society and reflected on it. (In some ways this is similar to how Catholicism traditionally viewed non-Christian religions.) Once society develops advanced science and a working psychology or sociology religion becomes an anachronism kept only among peoples who are uneducated. Eventually it dies off altogether. My original discussions with atheists here sometimes unfairly assumed these people were "Old Atheists", of that kind, or conversant with "Old Atheist" outlooks such as that.
Granted I obviously don't agree with the "Old Atheist" perspective either. One obvious problem in this is that even in pretty secular modern countries the death of religion hasn't precisely happened. Even the Dutch have the ChristenUnie party, which is small but looks to be fairly Christian oriented. (Many "Christian" parties in Europe are basically secular, that's why I picked this one) Dutch euros also have "God is with us" engraved on the ridge. Still it's the ideal, that religion is an anachronism. In some ways I find this less hostile than many current ideas atheists have on religion. Seeing religion as an anachronism just makes us backward but not necessarily harmful. Maybe we can be like quaint peasants in Africa or Appalachia somewhere. The more "New Atheist" ideal seems to be all religion is some kind-of brainwashing death cult, which to me is obviously more hostile.
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They might come in a similar vain as my grandson's school took all the first graders to the Nature Center this week on a field trip as the school year winds down.
