http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/0...ler/index.html

From the above link:


Hunt for habitable planets

NASA is hoping to find much more habitable worlds with the help of the upcoming Kepler mission. The spacecraft, set to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida next week, will search for Earth-size planets in our part of the galaxy.

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Kepler contains a special telescope that will study 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years. It will look for small dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front of it -- an event called a transit.

"It's akin to measuring a flea as it creeps across the headlight of an automobile at night," said Kepler project manager James Fanson during a during a NASA news conference.

The focus of the mission is finding planets in a star's habitable zone, an orbit that would ensure temperatures in which life could exist.

Boss, who serves on the Kepler Science Council, said scientists should know by 2013 -- the end of Kepler's mission -- whether life in the universe could be widespread.

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More on the Kepler Mission:

http://kepler.nasa.gov/


God loves Science and Scientists, and He wants us to find beings on other planets and throughout the universe.

-Zeno

I'm not sure what this is supposed to prove. This has been a fairly well-covered, if not exactly mainstream, topic amongst theists.

You do understand that there was a reason that early religions were associated with stars, planets, and constellations, right?

Yes. No light pollution and no TV.

So, what happens if the aliens show up and claim to be your creator? What then?

I will ask for some evidence backing up their claim, examine it and make my best judgment as to whether their claim is true or false.

How would you be able to discern if the visitation was physical, metaphysical, or a spiritual manifestation?

If they can evidence it, I will immediately start high fiving other atheists about winning the debate on religion.

I'd assume they're lying. Then I'd ask the 1,000 smartest people on Earth what they think.

I don't know the difference between metaphysical and spiritual manifestation. I'll assume they're the same. I have no concept of the metaphysical. I can't even imagine what something metaphysical would look like given that everything I "know" about this universe is physical.

I would just assume that the alien is an advanced being that evolved in the same Darwinian sense as me, unless I had a very compelling reason to believe otherwise, but I really don't have a clue what type of reason would sway me. Clarke's third law comes to mind here: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Another question here would be: How would I know if the alien is "real"? I could be deluding myself. It would help if there we're other witnesses, but if I'm alone I guess I would just wing it one way other the other and hope I'm right. That's kinda what I'm doing now. Right now, I'm assuming I'm not dreaming, and I'm assuming I'm not hallucinating as I type this post. So in this sense, we're all winging it.

This presents a problem

You pride yourself on truth and evidence, do you not? If presented with such a quandry, you would be wise to avoid assumptions.

Consider what would happen if the following report is indeed factual:

http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0307/tremble.html

Perhaps, that would be enough to give you a little bit of pause if such an event did occur? If you were able to speak directly to one, you could even have a testable hypothesis.

This is a very good question to ask yourself.

The problem that you run into, even if you're with a group, is that you still can't solve the first question....and that is the very distinct possibility that aliens could be something else entirely.

I agree. I have no idea how to solve it.

This is impossible. The bedrock of all thinking strategies IS assumption.

Consider what would happen if the following report is indeed factual:

I'm sorry, I'm too lazy to get through that crazy article. Could you sum it up in a few sentences.

If I could speak directly to the alien what kind of testable hypothesis would I have to know it's real? (assuming that's what you meant by that sentence)

Well yes, nothing can be proven. I can't rule out any possibility. I'm just saying, with other people to verify the experience, the probability I'm dreaming or hallucinating goes down imo. I know I could just be dreaming about those other people...ad infinitum, but this just goes back to what I said before. AFAIK, we're all forced to make an assumption somewhere in any information gathering system.

I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Let us play them in basketball"

unless they're these aliens imo

jordan's too old to save us this time