Does evidence of Intelligent ET life disprove Christianity?

[FortunaMaximus]

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I can't see how it would.

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Me either. Certain tenets would probably have to be abolished though, but not necessarily the principles. Is the Christianity of today the same of the Christianity of 1900 or even 1400?

It's proven adaptable to change. This would be a huge shift though. But I don't think it necessarily destabilitizes the Church enough to be torn down. People still need worship and community structures.

What's for certain, probably, you'd have splinter churches worshipping the aliens and attributing it to some vague passage in the Bible.

Such goes religion, no?

[revots33]

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the thing is, if you examine the reason why humans were created, it seems strange why God would also create ET life as well.

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Why bother creating billions of galaxies at all, when his true concern is the salvation of one species, on one tiny rock, in one tiny solar system, in one remote corner of the universe?

[FortunaMaximus]

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the thing is, if you examine the reason why humans were created, it seems strange why God would also create ET life as well.

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Why bother creating billions of galaxies at all, when his true concern is the salvation of one species, on one tiny rock, in one tiny solar system, in one remote corner of the universe?

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Because the entity can? An argument could certainly be made that it was to give the one species room and time to flourish.

More likely if it's a created Universe, you'd have a handful to a galaxy disperson. If you were running an experiment that big, what would a rational scientist to do if it wanted to study the parameters of life within a galaxy? Maybe some galaxies are empty, some have one species to see how it develops the galaxy, others have more than one, etc.

It's not like the entity has to be at the controls every second.

[revots33]

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It's not like the entity has to be at the controls every second.

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Understood but my point is that ancient man thought himself, and earth, to be the focal points of the universe. For all intents earth WAS the universe. This argument becomes untenable as we learn more about the universe and earth's relatively insignificant place in it.

Yet man still insists on thinking that the rest of the universe is just god's by-product of creating us "in his image". This seems egomaniacal enough as it is. I don't think discovery of ET life is needed to put the nail in the "man as center of the universe" argument.

But at any rate I think man's need to feel important would overshadow any discoveries of ET life anyway. We'd just assume they were another life form but not the "chosen ones" as we humans are.

[Stu Pidasso]

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I think a lot of Christians would be disturbed by it since historically the church's position was that all life was created by God with us as his favored creation. (The Earth Centered universe was a religious theory and, as you may recall, suggesting that the Earth centered around the sun was considered heresy). So, I think with this type of thinking, the existence of extra terrestrials would certainly butt against some classical christian ideas

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Hi Kurto,

I'm pretty sure the Church's position is that the angel is God's favorite creation and man was created merely as a replacement for the angels who fell. Perhaps Bluffthis or Peter666 can chime in.

Stu

[kurto]

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Hi Kurto,

I'm pretty sure the Church's position is that the angel is God's favorite creation and man was created merely as a replacement for the angels who fell. Perhaps Bluffthis or Peter666 can chime in.

Stu

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That's interesting. I haven't heard that. Though if true it sure ruins the fun Christopher Walken horror movie series "The Prophecy" where a few bad angels wage war because of their jealousy of man.

I may be mispeaking. But I believe the heresy regarding the geocentric universe theory was because the church taught that God created the Universe for man and, therefore, man was the center of the Universe. I guess if the Earth isn't the center of the Universe it threatened the church's position as to man's relevence.

[arahant]

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I think a lot of Christians would be disturbed by it since historically the church's position was that all life was created by God with us as his favored creation. (The Earth Centered universe was a religious theory and, as you may recall, suggesting that the Earth centered around the sun was considered heresy). So, I think with this type of thinking, the existence of extra terrestrials would certainly butt against some classical christian ideas.

But, the existence of UFOs certainly doesn't have to mean anything one way or another about the existence of an 'all powerful creator.'

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eh...aliens are just animals of the air...we have dominion over them and they were created for our benefit.

Birds, bats, aliens...it's all good.

[vhawk01]

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I think a lot of Christians would be disturbed by it since historically the church's position was that all life was created by God with us as his favored creation. (The Earth Centered universe was a religious theory and, as you may recall, suggesting that the Earth centered around the sun was considered heresy). So, I think with this type of thinking, the existence of extra terrestrials would certainly butt against some classical christian ideas.

But, the existence of UFOs certainly doesn't have to mean anything one way or another about the existence of an 'all powerful creator.'

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eh...aliens are just animals of the air...we have dominion over them and they were created for our benefit.

Birds, bats, aliens...it's all good.

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Lets hope they are as dumb as birds then!

[Xhad]

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eh...aliens are just animals of the air...we have dominion over them and they were created for our benefit.

Birds, bats, aliens...it's all good.

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I can only imagine the wars THIS could start.

[FortunaMaximus]

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It's not like the entity has to be at the controls every second.

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Understood but my point is that ancient man thought himself, and earth, to be the focal points of the universe. For all intents earth WAS the universe. This argument becomes untenable as we learn more about the universe and earth's relatively insignificant place in it.

Yet man still insists on thinking that the rest of the universe is just god's by-product of creating us "in his image". This seems egomaniacal enough as it is. I don't think discovery of ET life is needed to put the nail in the "man as center of the universe" argument.

But at any rate I think man's need to feel important would overshadow any discoveries of ET life anyway. We'd just assume they were another life form but not the "chosen ones" as we humans are.

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No argument there. What does this say about rational people that this is recognized as a possibly defective characterstic of man?

Internal xenophobia is bad enough in regards to race, religious belief, sexual orientation, even the colors you wear.

It's a little depressing to realize one of the first major actions undertook against those aliens would be to attack them.

Puts me in mind of a bawling child throwing a tantrum when he realizes it isn't all about him and he doesn't always get his way.