If you were from a different galaxy.....

Myrtle · #1 08-05-2006, 07:49 AM

...I don't know if this question has been dealt with in this forum before as I haven't visited here for a while. If it has, please excuse my re-asking it.

In any case, for the sake of discussion......

Let's imagine that you were an intelligent being from a different galaxy, and your civilization had never evolved the concept of a supreme being.

You have been living on Earth, icognito, for a long enough period of time to have become fully exposed to the teachings of all of the major & minor organized religions.

How would you frame your analysis of them?

Would you be able to come to what you would consider to be a logical conclusion?

Michaelson · #2 08-05-2006, 07:53 AM

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Let's imagine that you were an intelligent being from a different galaxy, and your civilization had never evolved the concept of a supreme being.

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Does not compute.

I can almost imagine a civilisation that had thouroughly disregarded the concept of a deity, but the notion that no one had ever postulated the possibility of a deity seems absurd.

MidGe · #3 08-05-2006, 08:01 AM

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I can almost imagine a civilisation that had thouroughly disregarded the concept of a deity, but the notion that no one had ever postulated the possibility of a deity seems absurd.

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The notion that no one ever postulated a deity seems sbsurd???

You can postulate an infinite number of things, postulating a god is only one of those, what are the chances of it... Just the way it panned out here, dude, nothing special, remarkable ot truthful about it! Just an idea amongst an infinitude of them, like unicorns, fairies and father xmas. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Any specific hand, regardless of how little value it is, is as likely as a royal flush.

Michaelson · #4 08-05-2006, 08:12 AM

Uh, okay. So the systematic acceptance of some sort of spiritual realm accross virtually, if not all, human cultures is just a bunch of royal flushes being dealt, is it?

Maybe you were saying that it's a fluke that the human mind was wired that way. This no doubt is a fair assertion. But we cannot perceive things in anything other than a 'human' way. So if we speak of some imaginary civilisation that has "never evolved the concept of a supreme being" then I would say that their mind would be wired so completely differently to ours as to make subsidiary questions regarding "what they would think about this and that" completely daft.

MidGe · #5 08-05-2006, 08:23 AM

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Uh, okay. So the systematic acceptance of some sort of spiritual realm accross virtually, if not all, human cultures is just a bunch of royal flushes being dealt, is it?

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Examine how different they are, and in fact, at odds with each other. Don't fall for the cliche that they are all the same. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I wish they were; it would be more palatble, and credible, to me and, definitely, more beneficial to humanity.

Michaelson · #6 08-05-2006, 08:30 AM

I'm not saying that all cultures share a similar conception of a deity. Though I am not well versed in world religions by any stretch, that would clearly be absurd. What I am saying is that the impulse to explain life's mysteries away with recourse to mythical beings is pretty universal, and I can't conceive of an intelligent life form that never thought "hey, maybe we're part of something bigger! That sure would explain some things and give our life some direction!"

Stu Pidasso · #7 08-05-2006, 10:01 AM

Your post makes me wonder if humans never practiced or concieved of religion would they be more violent towards each other than they are now. Would they have advanced as quickly as we have?

Stu

DonkBluffer · #8 08-05-2006, 10:17 AM

Any idea of God, Allah, Jesus, etc IS 100% imaginary. You are not experiencing (seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.) them now, so they must be in your mind, or imagination. You haven't experienced them before in your life either so they aren't even based on memory. They are entirely created by your mind!

Michaelson · #9 08-05-2006, 10:21 AM

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Any idea of God, Allah, Jesus, etc IS 100% imaginary. You are not experiencing (seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.) them now, so they must be in your mind, or imagination. You haven't experienced them before in your life either so they aren't even based on memory. They are entirely created by your mind!

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Presumably not if you're basing your belief on evidence, such as miracles performed by Jesus or something. I believe that African-Americans were once slaves, but that's not entirely created by my mind.

DonkBluffer · #10 08-05-2006, 12:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Any idea of God, Allah, Jesus, etc IS 100% imaginary. You are not experiencing (seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.) them now, so they must be in your mind, or imagination. You haven't experienced them before in your life either so they aren't even based on memory. They are entirely created by your mind!

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Presumably not if you're basing your belief on evidence, such as miracles performed by Jesus or something. I believe that African-Americans were once slaves, but that's not entirely created by my mind.

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It is entirely created by your mind. But there is so much evidence for it that you have accepted it as fact. The miracles performed by Jesus are no evidence, since you didn't actually witness that either.

Imagine that you are reading an article, about a young girl in some far away country, who has been abused her entire life, etc. etc. , and you find it an incredibly sad story. Assume that the source of this article is very reliable so you can assume that the girl actually exists.
You would now argue that the poor girl is not created by your imagination, but that she actually exists, and that you just know about her. But what just happened? All that actually happened was that your eyes went over a computer screen. That's a fact. You read stuff.
Then in your mind images, stories and other things were created, based on the words you saw. The girl you'd have in your mind has nothing to do with the actual girl. Even the meaning of the words you base your 'knowledge' on is imaginary!

Easier example: based on my posts you have some kind of image of me. 'I' am an idea or concept or whatever in your head. You think that I AM that, but the concept of me that you have in your head is not what I am. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]