[Okashira]

(Original post by + polarity -)
But what about all the species being discovered, which certainly aren't mentioned in the Bible? How is that different?

I'm talking alien species. Besides, the Bible does mention different species, and of course species are evolving all the time.

(Original post by Hypocrism)
It didn't tell us about finding bacteria - were we supposed to freak out and start praying at them for a new holy text? Let's face it, whether the Bible is valid or not, it doesn't contain perfect information. And saying that we're the centre of the universe is arrogant.

Bacteria is an organism from earth. The Bible said that God created life on this earth. So it's not surprising to find life on earth. (From a christian perspective) If we find life on Mars or elsewhere in the universe other than angels, that would discount the Bible.

[Sheep]

I've always thought this

it is one of the reasons why I think this issue of religion needs to be resolved already

lets say hypothetically some advanced, highly intelligence species aliens land on Earth and wishes to make 'first contact' . They happen to land in the middle east , what are they greeted by? a bunch of turban wearing men and some other thing which seems to be completely concealed by cloth (women), the men are all spouting crap like "DO YOU RECOGNIZE MUHAMMED AS THE FINAL PROPHET? WHY IS YOUR FEMALE SHOWING HER FACE?" and the un-identified cloth figures just run away when you approach them, later they are executed for talking to you, eventually after some attempts at intelligent conversation there will be turban people sneaking onto the alien spaceship loaded with explosives screaming about something called Allah

after some confusion the aliens begin to realize that the humans all seem to have a major flaw in the way their brains are designed and decide to leave and check back a few thousand years later when we're more evolved


that is obviously an extreme case but all religions are the same, is just people thinking they have all the answers when they don't. I would just find it embarrassing to be part of this race if some other intelligent species visited us
and people were like:

"oh by the way, the creator of the universe has been sending messengers to our planet",

alien: "oh really, what were the messages that he sent",

human "well we all thought life was pointless at first but it turns out there is a point! the messengers say we must all love our neighbours and lock our wives in cupboards and we will go to heaven! otherwise, if you - kill , steal, are gay, like to masturbate, wear tattoos, etc - you spend eternity in hell."

alien: "um ok that doesn't really explain anything, and it sounds kind of silly, what makes you think that these people are really messengers of the creator of the universe?",

human: "well, I have this book that says they were, and it also says they could do some neat tricks like turn water into wine or pulling lots of fish out of a bucket",

alien: "that doesn't really prove anything though...",

human "BLASPHEMY! YOU WILL BURN IN HELL FOREVER!"

[Hypocrism]

(Original post by Okashira)
I'm talking alien species. Besides, the Bible does mention different species, and of course species are evolving all the time.



Bacteria is an organism from earth. The Bible said that God created life on this earth. So it's not surprising to find life on earth. (From a christian perspective) If we find life on Mars or elsewhere in the universe other than angels, that would discount the Bible.

Wasn't water meant to be made on earth too? So the presence of extra-terrestrial water would have exactly the same problem.

[Okashira]

(Original post by Sheep)
I've always thought this

it is one of the reasons why I think this issue of religion needs to be resolved already

lets say hypothetically some advanced, highly intelligence species aliens land on Earth and wishes to make 'first contact' . They happen to land in the middle east , what are they greeted by? a bunch of turban wearing men and some other thing which seems to be completely concealed by cloth (women), the men are all spouting crap like "DO YOU RECOGNIZE MUHAMMED AS THE FINAL PROPHET? WHY IS YOUR FEMALE SHOWING HER FACE?" and the un-identified cloth figures just run away when you approach them, later they are executed for talking to you, eventually after some attempts at intelligent conversation there will be turban people sneaking onto the alien spaceship loaded with explosives screaming about something called Allah

after some confusion the aliens begin to realize that the humans all seem to have a major flaw in the way their brains are designed and decide to leave and check back a few thousand years later when we're more evolved


that is obviously an extreme case but all religions are the same, is just people thinking they have all the answers when they don't. I would just find it embarrassing to be part of this race if some other intelligent species visited us
and people were like:

"oh by the way, the creator of the universe has been sending messengers to our planet",

alien: "oh really, what were the messages that he sent",

human "well we all thought life was pointless at first but it turns out there is a point! the messengers say we must all love our neighbours and lock our wives in cupboards and we will go to heaven! otherwise, if you - kill , steal, are gay, like to masturbate, wear tattoos, etc - you spend eternity in hell."

alien: "um ok that doesn't really explain anything, and it sounds kind of silly, what makes you think that these people are really messengers of the creator of the universe?",

human: "well, I have this book that says they were, and it also says they could do some neat tricks like turn water into wine or pulling lots of fish out of a bucket",

alien: "that doesn't really prove anything though...",

human "BLASPHEMY! YOU WILL BURN IN HELL FOREVER!"

To be fair, I don't think religion would be the only thing aliens would find weird. They may look at everything we do, and see it as the result of not being evolved enough. They may look at our dancing to music as weird, how we get googly eyed at fine men and women. How we drown ourselves with wine when something sad happens in our lives. So it's not just religion.

(Original post by Hypocrism)
Wasn't water meant to be made on earth too? So the presence of extra-terrestrial water would have exactly the same problem.

Actually, extra-terrestrial water is mentioned in the Bible. (Genesis ch. 1 verses 6-7)