Religion Are Christians believing in life outside Earth compatible?

[magnifier661]

I have obliviously stated that i do believe in life outside the planet Earth, but I do know the vast majority doesn't. I would assume those Christians take the entire Bible for exact historical reference and being 100% the word of God.

I do believe that God has inspired the Bible, but I question that it's exactly what God has said or wanted to say. I do believe that God has the ultimate authority for the entire universe, so if he wanted to have just Earth support intelligent life, he would have the power to do so. But I don't think this is the case. I do believe that there is life on other planets, with the same God empowering and inspiring that civilization differently.

So back to the question... Do you think that Christians can believe in life outside this solar system?

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I listened to an interview with these two guys recently, very interesting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/guy-consolmagno-alien_n_6268534.html

http://www.amazon.com/Would-You-Baptize-Extraterrestrial-Astronomers/dp/0804136955

 

[magnifier661]

I listened to an interview with these two guys recently, very interesting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/guy-consolmagno-alien_n_6268534.html

http://www.amazon.com/Would-You-Baptize-Extraterrestrial-Astronomers/dp/0804136955

That was a really good read! I can definitely get behind his way of thinking.

And the true human nature is to survive and get closer to God. I would suspect getting closer to God would be getting closer to his creation. We aren't the only ones. This universe is so vast, and if he created it all, then it would be our duty to explore and respect it all!

 

[crowTrobot]

I would suspect getting closer to God would be getting closer to his creation.

For a Pantheist that's redundant

 

[magnifier661]

For a Pantheist that's redundant

How so? If one identifies God with the universe, and Earth is just a spec in this universe. Wouldn't "boldly going where no man has gone before" help man explore God's creation?

 

[DaLincolnJones]

Let me see.."
Are Christians believing in life outside Earth compatible?
Is the question that as Christians, is it comparable to believe in life on other planets?
If so, I would say yes.

Or are you asking if I believe that alien life forms will be comparable with life on earth?
I would have to say that the odds are against it, regardless of personal religious beliefs.

 

[magnifier661]

Let me see.."
Are Christians believing in life outside Earth compatible?
Is the question that as Christians, is it comparable to believe in life on other planets?
If so, I would say yes.

Or are you asking if I believe that alien life forms will be comparable with life on earth?
I would have to say that the odds are against it, regardless of personal religious beliefs.

Not saying the same as us physically, but still with intelligence.

 

[MarAzul]

I have obliviously stated that i do believe in life outside the planet Earth, but I do know the vast majority doesn't. I would assume those Christians take the entire Bible for exact historical reference and being 100% the word of God.

I do believe that God has inspired the Bible, but I question that it's exactly what God has said or wanted to say. I do believe that God has the ultimate authority for the entire universe, so if he wanted to have just Earth support intelligent life, he would have the power to do so. But I don't think this is the case. I do believe that there is life on other planets, with the same God empowering and inspiring that civilization differently.

So back to the question... Do you think that Christians can believe in life outside this solar system?

I don't believe that God inspired the entire Bible, perhaps some was, the book of Moses sure leads one that way. But I think most of the Old testament, mostly from the Jewish Torah, was written by Rabbis recording Hebrew history or in some cases rewriting history from the perspective of the Israelis or the Judeans. Then we know, most of the new testament was written by the disciples of Jesus. Some of who we know historically. Go to Ephesus, the Turks there are Keen to tell the story of how they jailed John.

I have no idea whether Life exists outside earth, I have no evidence that it does. But then I have no evidence that it exists here without the hand of God either. I know some very smart dudes that can tell you everything you need to know about creating a creature, but they get stuck on one small detail, all of them. Some how I think the same problem exists outside earth, God is required to supply that last little detail, here on Earth or anywhere else.

The question is not a question that can be answered by the those who see themselves as very smart,
near savants in the science of mathematics, the probabilities they all push forward always end up with no proof. Just mere speculation and almost always smacks of attempts to show how improbable it is that life
requires God. Odd though, that the smartest of the smart mathematically took the probability in favor of God.
God ( Kurt Gödel).

I don't know the answer to you question and I don't think God requires me to know or defend a position.
Fun to watch those that do though, funny too. Who requires them to defend a position? Atheist usually.
But then perhaps I am on the side line as not quite a Christian, I just admire the teachings of their name sake.

 

[DaLincolnJones]

Not saying the same as us physically, but still with intelligence.

naw man, I got you. I do not think we will be comparable as life forms. The very idea of some benevolent beings beaming down and saving humanity from itself is absurd. I think that it is far more likely that what ever be more interested in resettling or developing this planet, and that we may just be in the way. This is typical when ever an advanced race encounters primitives.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I think that it is far more likely that what ever be more interested in resettling or developing this planet, and that we may just be in the way. This is typical when ever an advanced race encounters primitives.

So much for believing in god, lol.

 

[MarAzul]

naw man, I got you. I do not think we will be comparable as life forms. The very idea of some benevolent beings beaming down and saving humanity from itself is absurd. I think that it is far more likely that what ever be more interested in resettling or developing this planet, and that we may just be in the way. This is typical when ever an advanced race encounters primitives.

So, when you meet your first alien, you best determine his intent, Fight, Fuck, or Feast?
Feast on what comes next.

 

[DaLincolnJones]

So much for believing in god, lol.

Not necessarily incomparable. One could argue that this is another reason to believe.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Not necessarily incomparable. One could argue that this is another reason to believe.

So if we don't pray enough god will let aliens take away our planet?

 

[PDXFonz]

“It is therefore from the human point of view only that we can speak of space, extended objects, etc. If we depart from the subjective condition, under which alone we can obtain external intuition, or, in other words, by means of which we are affected by objects, the representation of space has no meaning whatsoever. This predicate is only applicable to things in so far as they appear to us, that is, are objects of sensibility. The constant form of this receptivity, which we call sensibility, is a necessary condition of all relations in which objects can be intuited as existing without us, and when abstraction of these objects is made, is a pure intuition, to which we give the name of space. It is clear that we cannot make the special conditions of sensibility into conditions of the possibility of things, but only of the possibility of their existence as far as they are phenomena. And so we may correctly say that space contains all which can appear to us externally, but not all things considered as things in themselves, be they intuited or not, or by whatsoever subject one will. […]”

Excerpt From: Kant, Immanuel. “The Critique of Pure Reason.”

We don't understand exactly what space is, but still we question what it contains. In his early works Immanuel Kant claims that space is the relation between objects and is not dependent on an external source of reality, but rather . I'm not sure I necessarily agree with Kant in this regard but also do not dispute his philosophies. I still have a lot of reading to do on the subject, but it is definitely one that is interesting to me.

I certainly think it is possible, but then again I'm not a practicing Christian.

Tl;dr: we can't know for sure, we can only know things in the way they appear to us.

 

[PDXFonz]

Also I don't mean to offend anyone by this, but I don't think it is efficient to look purely at religion as a means of understanding our existence. I'm not criticizing the religion or those who practice it, but a lot of aspects of many religions promote closed mindedness. This question posed by Mags is a good example. I'm happy to see the results so far!

 

[MARIS61]

All Christians believe in life outside Earth.

They even gave him a name.

 

[speeds]

I went to Catholic schools until I was 18 and it's just not something that ever seemed to come up, either in mass or in the classroom. I don't imagine finding evidence of ancient microbes on Mars is something that would shake the foundations.

 

[magnifier661]

I went to Catholic schools until I was 18 and it's just not something that ever seemed to come up, either in mass or in the classroom. I don't imagine finding evidence of ancient microbes on Mars is something that would shake the foundations.

This is a good answer and I would agree that the majority, maybe vast majority are closed minded in this way of thinking. I may have too until psychedelics expanded my thinking.

I am Christian. I've felt/still feel God's presence in my life, but I've seen things that stretch farther than this lonely rock called Earth. Also, I do believe that an "all-powerful God" would design many life forms throughout this universe because he can.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I'm what you would probably consider a fundamentalist Christian. I've never seen anything in the Bible that indicates that this is necessarily the only planet on which God created life. I could see it having gone either way.

 

[crowTrobot]

I'm what you would probably consider a fundamentalist Christian.

You are compared to Mags, but on a sliding scale you seem relatively liberal.

 

[MarAzul]

You are compared to Mags, but on a sliding scale you seem relatively liberal.

Oh my! Is being a Liberal Good? Like the one's that gave us Jimma and Barrack?
I can't find any reference to the Bibles position on Life else where either, please don't tell me I am now liberal!
Oh well.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Oh my! Is being a Liberal Good? Like the one's that gave us Jimma and Barrack?
I can't find any reference to the Bibles position on Life else where either, please don't tell me I am now liberal!
Oh well.

A Biblical liberal is quite different from a political liberal. I'm neither, really.

 

[crowTrobot]

Oh my! Is being a Liberal Good? Like the one's that gave us Jimma and Barrack?
I can't find any reference to the Bibles position on Life else where either, please don't tell me I am now liberal!
Oh well.

I meant a liberal interpretation of Christianity, not politics, and I wasn't inferring anything about the thread topic.

Although I would say that a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 strongly implies the Earth is the focus of all of creation, so a strict literalist fundy can't really be blamed for concluding that "souls" equal to humans can't exist elsewhere.

 

[MarAzul]

The earliest books of the Bible or the Torah were probably written by men even earlier than the Hebrew Rabbis that wrote the later books in the old testement.
Interesting stuff, but I don't think there is any reason that a truly modern Christian would need to accept the Book of Genesis as the Gospel truth. I don't and I doubt
Jericho fell into a heap of rubble just because a few Jews were traipsing around the place. That story may just be a story told by a Rabbi to emblish the power of his God,
perhaps he had an agenda to work that day.

 

[crowTrobot]

The earliest books of the Bible or the Torah were probably written by men even earlier than the Hebrew Rabbis that wrote the later books in the old testement.
Interesting stuff, but I don't think there is any reason that a truly modern Christian would need to accept the Book of Genesis as the Gospel truth. I don't and I doubt
Jericho fell into a heap of rubble just because a few Jews were traipsing around the place. That story may just be a story told by a Rabbi to emblish the power of his God,
perhaps he had an agenda to work that day.

This is OT but I don't see how allowing that for the Torah doesn't open up the entire Bible including the Gospels to similar criticism.

 

[MarAzul]

This is OT but I don't see how allowing that for the Torah doesn't open up the entire Bible including the Gospels to similar criticism.

If you feel the need to be critical of the books that give us the teachings of Jesus, go ahead. I don't find anything to bitch about.

 

[OneLifeToLive]

I have obliviously stated that i do believe in life outside the planet Earth, but I do know the vast majority doesn't. I would assume those Christians take the entire Bible for exact historical reference and being 100% the word of God.

I do believe that God has inspired the Bible, but I question that it's exactly what God has said or wanted to say. I do believe that God has the ultimate authority for the entire universe, so if he wanted to have just Earth support intelligent life, he would have the power to do so. But I don't think this is the case. I do believe that there is life on other planets, with the same God empowering and inspiring that civilization differently.

So back to the question... Do you think that Christians can believe in life outside this solar system?

What is eternal 'life'? And where exactly is it's existance?

I think that answers your question. They believe.

 

[magnifier661]

What is eternal 'life'? And where exactly is it's existance?

I think that answers your question. They believe.

Oh touché!

 

[crowTrobot]

If you feel the need to be critical of the books that give us the teachings of Jesus, go ahead. I don't find anything to bitch about.

I said nothing about the philosophical value of the teachings of Jesus. The point was if the Torah was not "inspired" and was embellishment based on the whim of the authors the same could apply to any part of the bible.

 

[crowTrobot]

double post