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

[BBill]

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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

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Actually since the beginning of civilization religion has been the root of more wars than anything else.
Although I’m not saying the Old Testament of the Bible is to be undisputed, but if you were to read it you would find it’s a recount of war after war after war.

IMO the fighting would occur if religion as defined today existed or not. Religion is a manifestation of power and was devised to control the masses (pun not intended)

[Lestat]

Any intelligent life form must have at one time or another posited a creator. Therefore, your scenario is an impossibility.

[DonkBluffer]

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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.

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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]

[Myrtle]

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How would you frame your analysis of them?



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Depends, are you some form of professional zoologist or just an ammeter.

Could range from, all these humans are nuts to a detailed report on how religion is important psychologically and sociologically to humans.

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......I'm an 'ammeter'. BA Sociology.

I might belong in a zoo.

[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Myrtle]

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Any intelligent life form must have at one time or another posited a creator. Therefore, your scenario is an impossibility.

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I'm sorry, but that is not true.

To make your statement more credible I would modify it to say...."It is highly likely that life form may have, at one time or another, posited a creator."

[CORed]

See Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein for an examination of a similar question. In this novel, a human, raised on Mars, by Martians, is returned to earth. His inteaction with region, sexual mores, politics, etc. are quite iteresting.

[BBill]

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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]

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What you have stated is true, but everybody you know including your closest family or friends has a concept and an idea of who you are and it’s different than the concept that you have of yourself.
The perception or image that other people have of you, even people that see you and talk to you, is created by their mind. This perception is somewhat biased because it is derived with the consideration of how their perception of you will affect their own image of themselves.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you but it seems like you have found a comfortable place to stop the perception process becasue if you can see it or hear it you can accept it as "Fact"
Nothing is a "Fact" unless you have decided that you don't wish to consider any more options or possibilities.

[bunny]

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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.

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?

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Presumably I would have wondered where the universe came from and would have an answer (either a superior understanding of physical laws or a "it just happened" type of answer).

Consequently, I think my logical explanation would be that it was a sociological or biological predisposition of the human race driven by fear or perhaps just distaste for uncertainty.

This is assuming that I didnt become converted. If I did convert I think I would believe humans were spiritually more advanced than my species, I guess with lots of tentacles slapped to fourheads and alien cries of "Why didnt WE think of that?".

[Myrtle]

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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.

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?

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Presumably I would have wondered where the universe came from and would have an answer (either a superior understanding of physical laws or a "it just happened" type of answer).

Consequently, I think my logical explanation would be that it was a sociological or biological predisposition of the human race driven by fear or perhaps just distaste for uncertainty.

This is assuming that I didnt become converted. If I did convert I think I would believe humans were spiritually more advanced than my species, I guess with lots of tentacles slapped to fourheads and alien cries of "Why didnt WE think of that?".

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Thanks for the answer, Bunny.

For sake of discussion, let's say that your species was advanced enough to have developed its' own theory on 'where the universe came from'.

You then re-examined what you thought you 'knew' and contrasted it against what you had seen on Earth in regards to the various religious beliefs/theory's.

For you, what conclusion(s) would that comparison yield?

[MidGe]

bunny,

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Presumably I would have wondered where the universe came from and would have an answer (either a superior understanding of physical laws or a "it just happened" type of answer).

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That is where we disagree, why would you wonder that if the answer to your question is something that again can't be explained. Why not just focus on how things work rather than why, to which answer one can immediately ask why again? "How" seems much more useful than "why" (when the answer to that is not an answer, really, but pure speculation and fantasy).