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I'm curious this forum's opinion on alien religions. I'm not sure if the possibility to meet extraterrestrials is even possible (there seems to be a lot of debate about hyperspace travel and the like, and I don't know if it all is possible), but if aliens do come to us... what sort of religion will they have? I always had this image of little green aliens in priestly clothes coming with some version of the Bible to teach us silly heathens about Jesus.
There have been suggestions about aliens possibly having their own "Jesus" or no religion or something completely differerent (perhaps they're polytheists!). I don't know at all myself (it would certainly be convenient if they were all Christian ), so I'm leaving the possibility up to you, my friends.
I think Sagan, no religious man to be certain, indicated their religion will be influenced by their biology. I do not agree with Sagan's views on religion, some of which were egregiously misinformed, but I think there's some truth to that even if one believes in religion as I do. I mean it makes sense God would give the message that relates to a species and doing so might relate to their biology a bit. I mean kosher laws had some relation to things like trichinosis so it'd make some sense if certain things are about their health and biology. If you are not religious it makes sense from Sagan's perspective that their view on reality would be shaped by their biology and that would affect whatever religion they may have.
Of course that leads to how would their biology impact their religion and what biology we mean. Naomi Mitchison in "Memoirs of a Spacewoman" emphasized that humans are in some way "bilateral" so we tend to think in terms of duality. (Left arm vs right arm, left eye vs right eye, good vs evil, light versus dark, etc) From this she imagined a "starfish" type species that sees things in fives rather than twos. As a Christian this might be slightly unnerving as it likely implies our ideas of the dichotomy between good and evil is simply a biological quirk. Still it was interesting to think about this idea and there are Christians whose ideas on Good/Evil are more complex. (Although I also think there are reasons for dichotomies, particularly yes/no and 1/0 of binary, that go beyond our bilateral symmetry) Another possible difference would be gender. A species with three or four genders might perceive God in different ways and also perceive love in different ways. In Catholicism nuns are married to God and priests are married to Mother Church. In a more complex, or simple, gender arrangement the terms they think of relating to God might be different. The analogy to express it would have to be different.
It's interesting and as I used to write science fiction I'd sometimes think on alien religions.
I would believe that when any species reaches the point of mastering space travel and faster than life travel they will have left the superstition of deities far behind in their history.
If we as a species do not destroy ourselves trying to prove who's imaginary is right we too shall leave the superstition behind as our collective knowledge grows.
I would believe that when any species reaches the point of mastering space travel and faster than life travel they will have left the superstition of deities far behind in their history.
If we as a species do not destroy ourselves trying to prove who's imaginary is right we too shall leave the superstition behind as our collective knowledge grows.
I completely agree with this.
I'm not sure why you would automatically assume an alien race "has religion" to begin with.
I'm not sure why you would automatically assume an alien race "has religion" to begin with.
Well, why wouldn't they? Why is religion so primitive and unique to us? There's no reason to assume that all intelligent races are automatically atheists; that seems silly, considering the overwhelming possibility of life!
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I'm not sure if the possibility to meet extraterrestrials is even possible (there seems to be a lot of debate about hyperspace travel and the like, and I don't know if it all is possible), but if aliens do come to us... what sort of religion will they have? I always had this image of little green aliens in priestly clothes coming with some version of the Bible to teach us silly heathens about Jesus.
), so I'm leaving the possibility up to you, my friends.
