If higher life forms are found on other planets, would it change anyone's religious beliefs?

I really don't think so, creationists/fundamentalists will find apologetic clues in "Genesis", et al, that verify that it's just part of "god's plan".

Some people's possibly. Mine wouldn't

Not mine. What do you mean by higher?

Ya Christianity just changes to match the world it lives in.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Not mine. What do you mean by higher?

Highly evolved, such as animal life on Earth.

I pose this question because most creationists/fundamentalists seem to believe that while their "god" created the entire Universe especially for them, only Earth has living creatures.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Ya Christianity just changes to match the world it lives in.

Funny how after science/common sense dispels religious myths, the clergy and it's adherents change their positions to suite their apologetics. Evolution, which has now been accepted by much of organized religion, is a good example of this.

I bet Yamaka will make it to this thread today.

OU'S contributions have slipped into nothingness with the advent of his yamaka running gag.

I think your original post says it all. Peoples religious beliefs are going to change, but many will not falter in their faith of the god or gods in which they believe.

I really don't have any religious beliefs so I'd be good to go.

Higher forms won't be found, but before the decade is out we will have confirmed life in numerous places in our own solar system, which would all but destroy any idea that we would be the only higher forms if life is that common.

how do you know we won't find higher forms of life? We've just established that earth like planets exist and can possibly harbor life. Anything is possible.

Im in the same boat as Captain so it wouldn't effect me.

Well, I should say it is unlikely. Communication between star systems is very happen chance. Unless that signal was legit from Gliese 581 I don't think we'll establish contact with a sentient race in our lifetime. We will just find assloads of extrasolar planets with conditions somewhat kind of like ours, and confirm life on Titan and Europa.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Well, I should say it is unlikely. Communication between star systems is very happen chance. Unless that signal was legit from Gliese 581 is legit I don't think we'll establish contact with a sentient race in our lifetime. We will just find assloads of extrasolar planets with conditions somewhat kind of like ours, and confirm life on Titan and Europa.

I agree with this, it's safe to say that higher and even more advanced life forms have evolved on life sustaining planets simular to earth, elsewhere in the Universe. The problem is, because of the vast distances, it could be 1000's of years before we're make contact or are able to discover, much less explore such a planet.

Finding "life" however, on Titan and Europa, or fossilised life on "dead" planets like Mars in our solar system, should happen in the near future.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

OU'S contributions have slipped into nothingness with the advent of his yamaka running gag.

A far greater contribution than anything you have done.

Ring wrote:

GDPofDRC wrote:

Not mine. What do you mean by higher?

Highly evolved, such as animal life on Earth.

I pose this question because most creationists/fundamentalists seem to believe that while their "god" created the entire Universe especially for them, only Earth has living creatures.

I don't think it would really take away the religious faith of the majority. Like others have said I think it will just force them to adapt and expand their beliefs of God and what he has done. But ultimately they will still believe in "God" and still hold the belief that he created all life. No matter what Christians will find something to justify this in their mind and give credit to God. Now I'm sure the people with not very strong beliefs as it is might question things a little more. But those with strong beliefs would continue to show faith in some kind of God.

God and ghosts are wired into the human condition. Nothing's gonna change that.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

God and ghosts are wired into the human condition. Nothing's gonna change that.

Ghosts? Has that topic every been discussed here? Do you believe in ghost? I can't imagine that you or anyone would.

OU wrote:

Wolfgangsta wrote:

God and ghosts are wired into the human condition. Nothing's gonna change that.

Ghosts? Has that topic every been discussed here? Do you believe in ghost? I can't imagine that you or anyone would.

Heck yea I believe in ghosts!

I wonder if anyone here does believe in ghost? Or what about reincarnation? Would be interesting if someone does, I just don't see how anyone would.

I doubt the discovery of alien life would change the majority of people's opinions on religion. In fact the Vatican made a statment about this a few years back, basically saying there is conflict between belife in God and the possibility of alien life: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7399661.stm

As far as ghosts go, I think people have the ability to precieve things beyond the physical that we don't fully understand yet. If that's "spirits" or the engery of dead people I have no idea, but I think there is something to the notion that the brain is a filter as well as a processing centre. That is, we take in more information that we can process, and the brain simply filters out what we don't specifically need in order to function in the day to day world. Part of what gets filtered out almost all the time could be what people sometimes experience as ghosts or other paranormal phenomenon under certain circumstances.

OU wrote:

I wonder if anyone here does believe in ghost? Or what about reincarnation? Would be interesting if someone does, I just don't see how anyone would.

There's a better chance of Aliens existing than ghosts.

oggy420 wrote:

how do you know we won't find higher forms of life? We've just established that earth like planets exist and can possibly harbor life. Anything is possible.

Im in the same boat as Captain so it wouldn't effect me.

We've established what exactly? We've established that through a series of unproven theories that a planet might exist some 120 trillion miles away that might be Earthlike enough to "support" life similar to ours.

Again, if there's life out there, it's much more likely to be of an origin we've never seen or understand. Problem is scientists are spending all of their efforts trying to find possibilities of support systems for life similar to ours. They'll find a few possibilities through theory rather than proof, but the chances that they'll find life like ours is the same as it's always been... Unlikely with our technology and limited ability to travel beyond our own solar system.

Ring wrote:

GDPofDRC wrote:

Not mine. What do you mean by higher?

Highly evolved, such as animal life on Earth.

I pose this question because most creationists/fundamentalists seem to believe that while their "god" created the entire Universe especially for them, only Earth has living creatures.

I'm no Biblical scholar by any means... But is there a spot in the Bible that says life exists only on Earth?

Ring wrote:

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Ya Christianity just changes to match the world it lives in.

Funny how after science/common sense dispels religious myths, the clergy and it's adherents change their positions to suite their apologetics. Evolution, which has now been accepted by much of organized religion, is a good example of this.

Organized religion has accepted evolution? I have many religious friends and know of no one who believes in evolution. Hell, I'm trying to figure out what species of monkey-fish-bird we supposedly evolved from and why the rest of that species or why all of the species' didn't take time to evolve as well. I can only conclude that we happened by spontaneous combustion. A couple of pissed off particles happened upon eachother and... BOOM. The first embryo dangling from a cliff's edge...