God outside Earth

[Tiago]

((sorry for my english, this one is quite difficult to express myself))
((spelling is not working harrison...vb spell error))



I am sure all of you thought about life outside our planet.
Is there life in other planets? Inteligent life forms in other solar systems?
Yes or No is a difficult question.
And what about God? Does he exists? Yes or No? Difficult question to. If he exists, i cannot prove that he exists, and if he dont exists
i cannot prove he don't exists... (don't want to offend any one, but is the way i see it)


Lets suppose that he exists... and now imagine that some years from now, cientists or NASA or whatever, discover an intelligent life form in other galaxy.
My question is: (supposing that God exists)

What "kind/type" of God will be there in that new planet? Will it be God similar to Roman Catholicism? Orthodox Christianity?
Judaism? Buddhism?
In this new planet was there any Jesus walking thru the land?
The bible was written based on a earth context. How would it be in this new planet? Imagine that this life form, is not human shape...
What would church/religions say about this?
Some people say that God is the same in all religions...some people say God is not the same...
Do you think if would be a complicated situation for religions?


I dont want to offend anyone with this question ok? I respect any kind of religion, faith or belief.

[Buleste]

I personally do not strictly believe in the God as defined in religions. I think that there is a creative energy that gave life to what was little more than a collection of chemicals billions of years ago. As for religions, I believe that the god/gods for all earth religions are the same one as religion as all religions have one common goal and that is to unite and organise people in a common cause.

As for intelligent life on other planets. To quote Monty Python
"pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth."

For a full copy of this quote goto Galaxy Song

If you want a good book on theology I recommend reading Terry Pratchett Small Gods. I don't know if the humour translates well into Portugese but certainly in english it's a very thought provoking a funny book.

[Harrison]

The discussion of religion and the existence of God is an age old one that can be discussed and argued over forever without ever reaching any firm conclusion. This is because, as you pointed out, there is no way of proving or disproving any religion (unless you include Scientology) or the existence of God.

I also don't believe in a God as depicted by the fiction of religion. I therefore always state that I'm Agnostic in regard to religion as I neither believe or disbelieve in the existence of a God. There is definitely a greater force in the universe, beyond our current understanding, controlling and dictating the nature of existence, but what it is or how it works is, at the moment, impossible for us to comprehend.

As for the existence of life on other planets. We would be very arrogant to assume we are a happy accident and are the only evolved life forms in the universe. I personally think there must be many other worlds throughout the universe where life is forming and evolving. At what state it is at is impossible to tell. We might be more evolved, or we might have a very long way to go before we reach the same level as some. It is impossible to say, but life definitely exists beyond Earth.

People argue that life could not exist in the extremes of other planets we have so far discovered. Why? This is only based on a direct comparison with ourselves and with our current level of understanding. And to prove otherwise, just look at some of the extreme places on earth life has been discovered. One example is the quite recent discovery of life forms living in the extremely hot water surrounding a volcanic fissure in the seabed. If they can exist and thrive there then why not in a completely different atmosphere or set of conditions?

As for your main question, would god exist on another world, and would he take the same form as one of our own religious gods? Yes and No. As is shown on Earth, as cultures evolved religions formed, initially independent from each other, and each of these religions formed their own ideas, names and philosophies of the mechanics of their religion. Only once societies spread and started to merge did religions then start to become tainted with many aspects of one religion crossing over and being adopted, or reworked by another, until today we now have many major religions throughout the world that actually share a lot of the same basic philosophies or underlying structures.

Therefore I would fully expect cultures on other planets to have religion and to worship a deity of some form, but I would not expect their religion, Gods or Prophets to take a form anything like any religion found on Earth.

This is until we reach them. As is always the case throughout history, if we discovered a culture on another planet I would fully expect the dictators of Earth to try and take it over, and the religious leaders to try and convert them.

Just like the shift of power changes over time throughout the world, the same is true of religion, with the followers of one increasing and swamping another. The ideas and beliefs of one being rewritten by another for their own gain or the suppression of old beliefs.

spelling is not working harrison...vb spell error

I just tested it and it works fine for me. Anyone else get an error with the forum's built in spell checker?

[Tiago]

This is the error, it happend again:

"vB Spell installation problem, please notify the webmaster. "

I changed from working server... i dont know, but it happends all the time, with any kind of text. probably is something to do with my work server...

[Buleste]

God obviously has issues with this topic.