This has been touched on in a few threads from time to time. I am interested to hear some different point of views on this.

If we were to discover intelligent Life on another planet, how would that effect religious beliefs? Does it help to prove or disprove certain religions?

It would be irrelevant in my opinion. I for one have no reason to think that we are alone in the Universe.

But they could not be Christians, right? How would it not have any effect on the religion?

I have to agree with Rick on this.

But how do we know they are not Christian? Maybe they have a far superior belief system than we do. We just don't know.

I believe this: If there is other life in the universe, then they are just like us in their "instinctual" knowledge of God. They may or may not know the name "Jesus", but Christ will have revealed Himself to them in some way.

Well, if God sent His ONLY begotten Son to us and He was crucified here on Earth, then how could He be revealed to another planet? So they are either not sinners or they are unforgiven for their sins. But either way, they cannot be Christians... how would they know of Christ? Isn't the fundamental belief that makes one a Christian is the belief that Christ has died to forgive me for my sins?

God can do anything he wants. On one end of the spectrum, I'd ask why could He not choose to be made flesh on multiple planets - and be crucified on each?

He can reveal Himself to his created beings any way he wishes, can't he? Maybe other created beings know him and his plan for them in a different way.

Of course all of this is completely speculative - and only musings. We here on Earth can only know him in the way that we see that he has revealed himself here.

PS.

ONLY does not mean "only on this planet".

I believe that it would make religious beliefs stronger. There are some Christians out there that deny any existence of other life forms because we are the special ones that God has created. Ha Ha Ha. They do not believe that life could exist outside our planet, at the same time believe in God. How can that be? Anyway, I think that God is the one who created life and started life and to find other life forms else where would actually prove to a lot of people that it is not just by CHANCH that we are here. Oh yes, and another thought there are many people who put limits on what God can do. I do not understand why? Why put limits on God when God is greater then everything. God I do believe can appear anywhere on any planet with any body, spiritual and physical. So why are we the only ones to receives Christ spirit. That is a hard one for me to swallow. Ka Ka Ch, sorry just choking, joking!

Joe

So then Christianity allows the belief that a Man can be killed on this Earth and be born again into another Life... whether it be on this Earth or on another? Doesn't the Bible say that Man is to die once and only once?

I know that God can do anything (almost) but we are all subjected to rules and laws... of course the breaking of those are miracles and that can happen, too. But based on what we know, how could Intelligent Life be possible in the religious aspect?

Who is to say that the true definition of one life. Imagine time is endless or with God there is no time. What if we are always transforming to a new life, not necessarily here on earth but on other planets, other dimensions, other times? There are endless possibilities. What you need to remember is that in the bible many times it has said there are many many mysteries with God.
We are limited to what we can see, feel and experience in this physical existence.

I cannot help but agree with both you rickj and Jesushelper...

However, there was a quote from the Bible that was posted here about Man can only die once... or he is meant to only live one Life. If that is true, then it would negate the possibility of Christians on other planets.

However, if the Bible does allow the possibility of living more than one Life... well, that just opens up all kinds of new threads :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rickj

It would be irrelevant in my opinion. I for one have no reason to think that we are alone in the Universe.

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With all due respect but this is the same type of post you told me belongs in the general discussion section. You closed mine because according to you it was. You participated in my post before saying it didn't belong here just as you are participating in this one. What is the difference between this oine and mine besides the heckling and jeckling you paid attention to in mine but which is absent here?

How do you know that aliens haven't already been here and passed on to us the true saviour, "F.S.M."??

What's FSM?

I think if there was intelligent life out there that that would be great(as long as they're friendly) But I don't think there is because for one thing it wasn't mentioned in the Bible. There's nothing I recall saying something like "created the heavens and earth AND brothers in the heavenlies!"
I think that would be an important omission. I think God gave us the intelligence and the imagination to stir up subjects like "aliens". But on the realistic side I see how scientifically it may be impossible to actually have "human" counterparts. They would have to be more like machines than humans. And they wouldn't know Jesus probably. So we would have to make many new disciples!

Let me ask you a question then pumpkin. Why would God make the HEAVEN(S) and the earth. If there were no other plans. Does not add up to me. Heavens that means there are billions and billions of stars, planets, solar systems and universes, it seems endless. How can you limit Gods creation to one planet?

Joe

What do you mean,"if there was no plan?" Just the scientific idea of space & galaxies is wonderous as it is. Something of God's artwork.

The Bible mentions in Genesis about what God put on earth. He also put the man He had formed in a garden- in the east. I don't see any reference to more than one earth. So I don't grasp humans being these other intelligent life sources.
What do they breathe? Methane? Hey, that can be cancerous!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 31pumpkin

But I don't think there is b/c for one thing it wasn't mentioned in the Bible.

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But neither were computers, rocket ships, the atom bomb, serial killers and tons of other things - that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Oh and FSM is this.

Other points to consider:

Perhaps the occupants of Earth were a special case that god needed to send someone to "save", a SWAT Team of One, so to speak, since we all became soiled ,in his mind, all because Adam and Eve ate the apple from the apple tree he demanded to leave alone.

Had they only had left the damn apple alone, imagine where could we be now?

The human race then was doomed to be riddled with fear, shame, lust, lies, cheating, theft, and all those other attributes that he deemed necessary to punish the heirs to Adam and Eve.

All accepted as normal human behavior today.

Women were singled out, for some sick, demented reason, to be burdened with the menstrual period, that we accept nowadays as a normal human biological function.

And men were doomed to live with those females that experience this monthly event.

Being a male, but attempting to be objective, I am not sure which condition is worse.

So we have those two vandals in the Garden Of Eden to muck it all up for the rest of us, supposedly. And since we were doomed to not be trusted by the creator, why would he admit to other worlds in the universe that he allegedly created?

Since he created the first man and woman, and almost immediately he discovered that they were faulty, perhaps he was a bit more careful with creating beings, and they are blessed with a more glorious world.

In that world, they followed all the rules, did not need to be saved, and now have the ability of zipping across light years of space to come visit us, secretively, to view us in our pitiful world of all the normal human behaviors and actions. They have Star Cruisers and we have billion dollar rockets that barely escape gravity, and the internal combustion engine.

They certainly do not have the bible to worry about, since this book was written by man here on Earth. We are the ones that got the shaft by the first two humans and need to make amends by swearing to god, no pun intended, that we believe in god, until the end of time, so we can get our ticket to paradise validated by god, who, mischievously dangles the promise of paradise of heaven forever, in front of us like a carrot.

So, it sure would be interesting to see the results to all religions with proof of other beings existing out in the universe. Would that mean the people we think are wackos with the aluminum hats that only believe in aliens are the only ones that are correct in their beliefs?

Hmmmmm.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Very interesting thoughts.