[py0alb]

The same way that we think about witch doctors, voodoo, cargo cults, sun worshippers etc, a mixture of horror and pity.

[miser]

Aliens advanced enough to visit us would most likely have overcome similar religious beliefs in their own culture before coming here. They'd probably see our religions in the same way we see ancient religions from our own culture - equal parts quaint and ridiculous.

[tazarooni89]

If I were in the aliens' position, visiting a new planet and discovering all their beliefs, I don't think I'd be very quick to dismiss them as ridiculous. My first thoughts would be "Well, this is a new planet after all - who knows what kind of crazy stuff goes on around here". I'd already be faced with millions of things I'm not used to right in front of me, so I don't think a couple more would make that much of a difference.
I probably wouldn't automatically accept it as definitely true either - I'd have to ask "How do you know?" and see if it convinced me.

A similar thing happens all the time already, where someone who hasn't been on this planet long and has never heard of religion suddenly discovers it - every time a child is born and learns about religion for the first time. What happens in that case?

[Clare~Bear]

(Original post by tazarooni89)
A similar thing happens all the time already, where someone who hasn't been on this planet long and has never heard of religion suddenly discovers it - every time a child is born and learns about religion for the first time. What happens in that case?

That's different though. In my situation, the aliens already believe in evolution and the big bang. With a child, they have no prior knowledge. They're also gullible and believe almsot everything their parents tell them. So you can't really compare them . . .

[tazarooni89]

(Original post by Clare~Bear)
That's different though. In my situation, the aliens already believe in evolution and the big bang. With a child, they have no prior knowledge. They're also gullible and believe almsot everything their parents tell them. So you can't really compare them . . .

I'm not sure why it matters that the aliens already believe in evolution and the Big Bang - being religious doesn't require you automatically to disbelieve in either of those things.

I'd also expect these aliens to be gullible as well, for the same reason that children are. They have no prior knowledge or experience about what goes on in our world, what kind of things can be found here and what can't.
If we told them we have pink flying elephants living in Africa, there's no reason for them to think "no, that's ridiculous" as there is with an adult human, who has spent lots of time on this here, seen many elephants, and through experience determined that there probably aren't any pink flying ones around here.

My point is, neither of them would have preconceived ideas about what is "normal" and what is "strange", regarding earthly matters. If you tell an adult that a man walked on water, he's going to think twice before believing that. But if you say it to a child or an newly visiting alien - well that may not be any more unusual to them than telling them it rained yesterday, or that a woman gave birth last week. It only seems normal to us because we've seen it or heard about it so often.