hello everyone, my name is eli. i've been lurking around these message boards for quite sometime now, so i thought i was about time i introduce myself. :)

I have a question id like everyone's opinion on. I often hear how greatly the face of theology would change should et be proven to exist. how do you think people religiosity would actually be altered, should undeniable prove of ET be discovered tomorrow?

take care all, im eager to hear your opinions, :)

ei

Theologically, they'd probably just be considered another race to be converted. If they claimed to be our "creators", they would be decried as liars by the faithful and we'd most likely encounter the makings for a holy war.

I've always compared the discovery of life on other worlds to the Age of Exploration. Back then, when the world was still flat, we were puzzling about the possibilities of the existence of other continents. When that big chunk of land mass popped along the way to India, stories began to abound about what life might possibly be there. It was said to be the land of the dog-headed people, as well as satyrs, people with ears so long that they draped them aound themselves to keep from stepping on them, headless people, and humanoids who had only one leg with a tremendous foot who lay on their backs and used the foot as an umbrella to keep the blazing sun off of them. It sounds like the invention of campy sci-fi writers, doesn't it?

When someone finally got a glimpse of the inhabitants of the New World, they were human after all. Yet more tales abounded about their social practices, but the discovery of intelligent life on other continents didn't rock the religious world, even when the missionaries encountered foreign gods. They just slaughtered every native that didn't convert.

I believe that extraterrestrial civilizations would be regarded in a like manner. Of course, with today's more tolerant mindset, we the people would most likely be interested in their way of life, their culture, and their religion (if they have any). If they claimed to be our "creators", they'd have to prove it. If they could prove it, I guess any further action on our part would be determined by the question "Why?".

Of course, the church would still declare them false prophets.

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I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight, kill, and die for your right to say it.

[This message has been edited by Oxygen (edited February 20, 2000).]

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. Let's say that the "ETS" are actually "missionaries" from elsewhere who are coming here to convert the masses of "heathens." Could we prevent them from slaughtering us if we didn't convert to whatever "religion" that "they" are trying to "preach?" History teaches that it was always the technologically inferior cultures that suffered when encountering technologically advanced ones. Then again, maybe the "ETS" aren't the "missionary types" perhaps they are more along the lines of the "conquistador types." (Just some food for thought)

[This message has been edited by Peter Dolan (edited February 20, 2000).]

And mighty tasty food, too. I had also thought about the extraterrestrials being conquistadores. Even if we were able to put up a good fight militarily, or even if the little buggers come in peace, there's also the problem of bacteria. Microbes can do more damage than weaponry.

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I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight, kill, and die for your right to say it.

Oxygen, that's a very good point indeed. It reminds me of one of those old "Dr. Who" episodes where the "Dr." asked some evil-bugger if he had the power to create a virus which no living thing would have immunity against, would he?; Of course the evil-bugger said he would just for the sake of the irony of it or something along that line about how something microscopic would be the master of everything, everything, ha-ha-ha, well, you get the picture. It would be ironic if that's how ol'Earth gets taken out; some meteorite carrying such a virus. Sort of like that movie "The Andromeda Strain."

What would happen if et was proven to exist? Probably for the short term, some panic from those who were afraid. The fact is, that if they exist, they are probably more intelligent simply because they have interplanetary and intergectic(not spelled right!!!)travel. One would assume that they could handle, and help us to handle, the problem. Recent TV shows Earth: Final Conflict being one, seem to show aliens as bad. Why are aliens always portrayed as bad,except for ET? I don't have the answer.

frank-Because it's easy to fear what you do not know.

What would happen?

If they were hostile we would finally have a common enemy and stop fighting amongst ourselves.

If they came in peace we would TURN them into a common enemy and stop fighting amongst ourselves.

Look around we are (as a race of beings) too STUPID to accept people of our OWN race, skin color makes a difference, imagine our narrow minds trying to accept a whole new species that can think! and their better at it than us.

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work to LIVE...don't live to WORK.

Rambler,


If they were hostile we would finally have a common enemy and stop fighting amongst ourselves.

If they came in peace we would TURN them into a common enemy and stop fighting amongst ourselves.

It doesn't realy work that way. Take for example the American Indains. They had a common enemy, but continued to fight amongst them selfs. In some case they even turned to the enemy to help with thier trible wars, which is basicly being a traitor to the selfs.

As with manny people who have made as broad of staments as your self you see things all to bad of a light. You proboly experanced a few narrow minded encounters and they efected in such a strong way that it completly distorted your view on the rest of the world. Never taking in the indivdual factor, such as case so extream as the NAZI riegn in Germany. Sure this was narrow mindness at it's extream, but look at all of the people who fuaght against it. Don't just look at the bad side of the coin, flip it over once in a while and do what you can to make things better. Life doesn't progress if we stand by the side waiting for someone to take controll and make it better. All of us must try to do some thing to make it better or it will never happen. Some times all it takes is for us to start it off and some one eles will run with it.


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All I know is what I understand. All I understand is what I know. :)