Religious Alienation
I do owe a slight apology to Mister E for not getting to his main point in Monday Night’s post. To be fair, this seemed to be a problem for Mister E. However, let me indulge in a couple of points. Early in his post, Mister E makes this statement:
But its Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan versus Ted Haggard and Bill O’reilly. Honestly, extremely accomplished, sophisticated, educated, and studied people like Hawking or Sagan hold more wait in the court of opinion than religious zealots. You see, superstition is a belief in something without evidence.
Now, to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, "I’ve watched Stephen Hawking, and you sir, are no Stephen Hawking." The statement amounts to little more than an ad hominem. If I’m like Bill O’Reilly (than I will soon have $15 million a year), how about letting the readers determine that, rather than characterizing it and getting off topic?
But a few paragraphs down, Mister E states this:
First of all, you can’t define your terms to the conditions that are present on Earth. Intelligent life could thrive in atmospheres comprised of krypton gas for all we know.
Mister E’s statements by his own definition are quite superstitious. Do we have proof that intelligent life can survive in an atmosphere comprised of krypton gas? No. It’s an unproven hypothesis without any evidence to support it.
To site, the ability of lower lifeforms to survive on Earth makes a great and unproven leap. We have laws of science, and the more we unwrap this thing we call Earth, we understand how difficult this whole life business is.
It’s not a matter of, "What if they breathed cyanide?" It’s the fact that they’d have to an atmosphere that would allow the entry of the small spectrum of light on the electromagnetic spectrum that is useful for life.
When we start saying, "Maybe, there’s some planet where people breathe Helium and drink sulfur, and the plants breathe out Gadelinium." We’ve really crossed the line from science to Science Fiction. When you have hardcore proof of it, let me know, otherwise, it’s just plain silly.
Finally, if Mister E wants to insist that all life=intelligent life, he may make his argument that an amoeba is intelligent life. Regardless, let’s move on:
Even if that number were true, that would still mean that there could be 1,000,000,000,000,000 planets that do "fulfill all the things Earth does."
Well, a little less than that. Assuming there are an average of 10 planets per solar system on average, that would put a trillion planets in our galaxy. Extrapolating that throughout the Universe that would mean you’d have one "M Class" planent every 1,000 galaxies or those 100,000,000 worlds if you assumed those odds held true through the whole universe. (Which is a very difficult assumption to make.)
I don’t care if we’re trying to decide whether or not we’ll ever meet these people, I’m just talking about their existence.
But you have no evidence that they exist. And you just stated that believing something without evidence is superstition. You appeal to the vastness of the Universe, but on our own planet there are vast stretches of land the size of large states (Think of the great deserts.) with no intelligent life at all. You have no proof. It seems to me the belief in aliens out of such necessity comes from an attempt to substitute God:
Finding intelligent life on other worlds would completely expose the lie that is Christ’s magical resurrection. And I can understand how someone would be terribly frightened to find that out, hence the intense desire to believe that we are truly alone in the universe.
I think Mister E overstates the case. Certainly, some people would require a change in theology, but the non-existence of aliens is not a core tenet of the Christian faith. The Bible really talks alittle about the universe beyond our planet, so the discovery of intelligent life in general wouldn’t have disprove the resurrection of Christ. The two events are unrelated. The discovery of intelligent might as well prove that Oswald didn’t shoot Kennedy. In neither case are the facts of the case effected.
Does the discovery of intelligent life eliminate religion? Many authors don’t think so. For example, Christian and Jewish clergy were portrayed in Babylon 5, including a Gospel Choir singing on the station. One Star Trek novelist wrote a book that included a nun.
These creatures would not have crucifixes anywhere on their planet, would have never heard of Jesus, and would laugh at us for having so many people blindly believe in some mystic beliefs in such a "modern" era.
And you assume any aliens found would side with you. Talk about arrogance!
The effect on Christianity would depend on what exactly we found. For the sake of argument, if we found ET life, here’s what the effect would be on Christianity depending on what it turns out to be:
1) Unfallen World
If through man’s sin, the fall came. If on another planet, the inhabitants didn’t sin and were in perfect relationship with God, they wouldn’t need salvation. But we’re not going to run into these sorts.
No Impact on Christianity.
2) "Christian" World
Already discussed.
3) Earthlike World
If we discovered a planet very much similar to our own, I think it would actually strengthen the case of Christians as well as Intelligent design advocates. If we find things like Double Helix DNA, Messenger RNA, all the systems we have, similar composed, trees, shrubs, etc.
If an Earthlike world were found, the claim would go forth that the imprint of the master artist who has left his signature in both places. That’s where Star Trek: TNG ended up when it made the Chase which had all the Star Trek races having their source in a creator, an advanced alien race that planted life because there was none. Somehow, we always end up with someone having to start this whole thing no matter what perspective we come from.
Regardless, I would expect it more likely that missionaries would go out than the church would suffer major losses.
4) Totally Unearthlike World
This would probably be the most challenging, but not insurmountable In addition, it’’s near impossible that Intelligent life could exist without the Earth’s atmosphere. If for some reason it did, some people would lose faith while others would simply declare God could do what he wanted, how He wanted.
However, given that life faces harsh odds anywhere,and the odds are against anything closer than 1000 galaxies away, it certainly doesn’t keep me up at night.
whereIstand Tags