Answer 104

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Question 104

If the setai@home project discovers aliens, and it turns out that they are all theists, would this make you reconsider your position as an atheist?

Nope. We all have to evolve. Religion may just be one of the childhood necessities that we all have to unload when we grow up. (Michelle Malkin #1)

Yes. I would ask them for a description of their gods, afterlife, etc.. If their religion seemed self-serving, then I would question their honesty. If they said "God commands humans to be our slaves," I would doubt their religion. (Michael Alexander #18)

No. I would be interested in examining the basis of their theism. As an anthropologist (I guess *that* term would have to be modified) I'd be interested in their theism in the context of their culture.

Or maybe I'd just worship THEM.....not. (Joe Zawadowski #249)

If their god or gods exactly matched one of ours, I'd have to consider it. If however, they were made in the image of their god (two head, tail, spikes) I would rather think they went through the same development we did.

I wonder how long it takes for a culture to give up gods? (Scott Davidson #1045)

No, why should it? Extraterrestrials who believe in silly fairy tales are just that. Let me reverse the question: if atheist extraterrestrials came here and encountered theists, should they reconsider *their* position? Of course not. (raven1 #1096)

It would depend on what type of evidence they had. If they were theists based on nothing but bull and wishes like people are on earth, then no, I'll stick with atheism. (Treelo #1399)

Not for a moment. I see religion as a cohesive force in many societies, so it wouldn't be so strange to find alien religions. Not all religions need to be destructive... I hope. What I'd like to know is what would our fundies think about the aliens' religions. Heh. :) (Angel Arnal #1443)

No. Delusion is not going to be necessarily limited to homo sapiens. Any sentient species must inevitably question its origin and the road to species maturity is going to be littered with the corpses of discarded beliefs. It's an inappropriate assumption that any species we contact will be more advanced than our own and therefore devoid of superstition and mythology. Barring actual proof of the existence of "their" particular fetish the claims of theist ET's are no more valid than the claims of our own homegrown variety. (Mike Dahlke #1600)

Not in the slightest. Even if their religion was exactly the same as one here on Earth, I still wouldn't be convinced (after all, none of them convince me here, why would they convince me on some other planet?). And if it was different from all Earthly religions, that would be yet one more nail in religion's coffin for me. (Frank Wustner #119)

No, we would just be adding some number (depending on how many different religions these aliens have) to the total number of different postulated gawd beliefs. That would just weaken Pascal's Wager some more, and make the whole idea seem even more absurd.
Now, if we found aliens, and they all believed in some god that was the same as the Christian god, then that might make me pause for a moment...
But then, even Christians on *this* planet cannot agree on who and what their god is, so I doubt it will be an issue. (Jeff Heidman)

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