Answer182

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Answer182

Question182

Do you think it is possible that extra-terrestrials ever visited this planet? Do you think bible passages could be explained that way?

Of course it is possible, but there's no evidence of that ever happening, so the point is moot. As for the bible, why explain *any* of it, no matter what the explanation, it's still full of crap. (kalle.helenius #907)

Of course it's possible. I don't think it's likely, though.

=Do you think bible passages could be explained that way?

Makes as much sense as traditional "explanations," IMO. (Mike Smith #1164)

But of course!

But, if they were anywere like us *and* not too far in their science, they sure must have feared our germs.

Whether they visited our planet *in human history* is a lot less likely.

> Do you think bible passages could be > explained that way?

YHVH being an alien? Funny hypothesis, but it isn't very convincing: God is portrayed too much like a barbarian.

But, the hypothesis that Jesus was a time traveller is more funny. There are passages where Jesus shows knowledge of events in another village. (Daneel #323)

I guess in the broad realm of things it could be possible. I don't believe it has happened and I see no proof of it.

Remember that the bible was written by people who would have been impressed by shiny things. There was a time when a solar eclipse was a great mystery and surely an omen from some god being upset. The bible was simply somebody cleaning up and writing down their choice of the legends that were floating around. The only difference between their legends and Native Americans is that they are completely human-centric. All of their gods and heroes take human shape. That is probably why it has lasted so long. People have learned to devalue animals, nature and even others, but they still highly value themselves. (ClaySkye #4)

> **************************************************************************** > #182a. Do you think it is possible that extra-terrestrials ever > visited this planet? > ****************************************************************************

Anything that doesn't violate any natural laws is "possible". A better question would be to ask whether we think it is *likely*. And the answer to that question is no.

> **************************************************************************** > #182b. Do you think bible passages could be > explained that way? > ****************************************************************************

Anything can be offered as an explanation for anything. A better question would be to ask whether such an explanation would fit the available evidence better than other explanations such as actual supernatural events, poetic propaganda, or mushroom-induced hallucinations.

Well, it works better than the supernatural event explanation, because extra-terrestrials don't violate any natural laws. But it doesn't work as well as the poetic propaganda explanation, because that's a behavior that has actually been observed in humans. And it doesn't fit as well as the mushroom hallucination explanation, because hallucinogenic mushrooms (and their effects) have also been observed. (Jeff Dee #1355)

What sort of extra-terrestrials? If you're willing to grant any life, not just intelligent, then I say damned near certainly yes. If I recall correctly people have shown that some bacteria can go dormant and survive a trip through space, and they've found them high up enough in our atmosphere for them to escape into intersteller space and be blown along by solar winds. If I remember right it would take something like 4 thousand (or was it million?) years to go a lightyear, but in terms of how long we've been around that's not that bad, even if it's 4 million per light year. If I remember right these bacteria are one of the older forms of life we have, so they've had time to go out, "colonize" some other planet in another solar system that is ripe for such, and for their decendants to come back, and that's assuming life showed up here first, which I think of as "worst case".

Of course, I could be remembering all this wrong and talking out of my ass... But I do think that we've had bacteria land here that is not from earth.

As for intelligent life, I have no idea, though I rather doubt that any religions have been spawned by them. The human tendancy to try to explain the unknown is enough to explain how we ended up with a bunch of gods and religions, anyway where the heck did they go? Why wouldn't we still be slaves of technologically superior masters? If they did show up they sure didn't leave any signs of their existance here, and we're definately not their decendants or any of that tripe, or we wouldn't be so closely related to chimps, cats, etc.

It seems unlikely that intelligent aliens would land and not leave signs of their existence though, even with a prime directive like on Star Trek they would have had to have come quite recently for them to see us as sentient or close to it. Had they come not too long ago there would have been no intelligent life and they would have had no moral reason not to colonize. If they did colonize and the colony failed, why aren't we finding artifacts of their technology?

There are UFO sightings and such, so I imagine they could be amoung us, studying us, but it seems unlikely. Why would they be altruistic enough to form a non-interference rule?

So, my final answer is I dunno. (Rian B. Jensen #317)

Are you referring to Chris de Burgh's "A Spaceman Came Travelling", a song suggesting god and angels are little green men?

Sure, it's possible aliens stopped by three billion years ago and said "there's no life here, let's go" and the feces they left behind included germs which became life on Earth. But that's highly unlikely. How difficult it is for *us* to find planets in other solar systems, never mind other life, and _then_ couple it with the distance to get there. We've only put out radio signals for the 100 years and there's been no detectable source of life before that, so finding Earth in infinite space would be pure luck.

Within our sight via radio telescopes there is no known life; even at light speed, the distance to the nearest undiscovered planet would be longer than all of human existence, so without any concrete evidence, the answer is undoubtedly no.

And even if they got here, why didn't they stay? To start a religion as a cosmic practical joke?

"C'm'ere, Xiphap, look through this telescope! The idiot humans are *still* building statues of uncle Xophot! Ha ha ha ha...." (Bob Dog #153)

Why trek across space to a planet and not colonise it? There should be evidence in the strata, in local space, on the moon. I cannot regard the Great Silence and deduce visitations. As for the Bible the aliens would have to be bloody minded, comical or both. (Lion #1871)

Quite possible IMO, but there is no proof of it. It would sure be an interesting day if they did. If anything has occured during human history, I think it might have been the "Roswell Incident" While there certainly isnt any proof for what they say happened, the military has told several different stories that simply dont add up. These events, IMO, lend some creedence to the idea that something extra terrestrial might have occured there. Keep in mind also that if it did occur, Western religion would be destroyed and since religion is a major part of many Americans lives, the government wouldnt let this happen no matter how good the trade off.

> Do you think bible passages could be explained that way?

The only one that comes to mind is Eziekiel and the wheel. Again though, this was all inference and someones interpretation of what they read. Just like all the different views of religion. (Stalker Steve #1926)

Non-intelligent primitive forms of life: possible, and perhaps probable. We're finding some of the building-blocks that may lead up, eventually, to abiogenisis, out in space; but the evidence that they develop into life per se is so far exceedingly tentative.

Intelligent extraterrestrial visits before human history: possible; probability unknown. We have, to date, not seen any evidence that extraterrestrial intelligence exists, let alone that it's capable of or interested in visiting our planet.

Intelligent extraterrestrial visits during human history: possible; highly improbable, based on the lack of preserved signs and artifacts, and other circumstantial evidence one might expect in the event.

Biblical passages based on visits of extraterrestrial intelligence: possible, *extremely* improbable. The style of folklore in the Bible is very similar to folkloric styles from other cultures, *but* very different in the precise events recounted. Some sections may have a historical basis; others appear clearly mythic. The theory that the Bibllical text arose as have numerous other folkloric texts is sufficient to explain them. To postulate extraterrestrial visits is to unecessarily multiply the number of postulated entities - and Occam's Razor indicates that we should avoid doing so.

Of course, all of this is *possible*, in that it contradicts no physical laws deduced from observed evidence. It's also possible that *I* am an extraterrestrial in disguise, trying to throw you off the track. But what're the odds? (Rosa "April" Williams #1723)

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