Kepler is going to change a lot of minds in the coming years. My guess: Kepler will find that rocky earths are more common in our galaxy than we previously thought. I think this will make the topic of extra terrestrial life at an extremely high probability…even though most scientists already know this. This mission will forever change our perceived place in the universe. It’s extremely exciting.

I think finding any life outside of earth would be the final nail in the coffin of most religions. Even if was just microbes in Europa's oceans or fossils on Mars it would take a lot of squirming to still think we are the chosen ones that most earthly gods claim. Come on one time.

Are you kidding? Maybe you just know less zealous theists than the ones I do, but I already hear "well, God made life on Earth and he made the whole universe, so why wouldn't He make life on other planets too?" come up on a regular basis when the question is put to theists.

Even a worst case scenario for a theist - finding hundreds or thousands of world with intelligent life, all with religions of their own - would require only minor theological adjustments, if any. Once a person makes a jump from "life is what we see" to "a magical Jewish Sky God has a fetish for underage Jewish girls and now we all go to heaven yaaaaaay!" you think space microbes will dissuade them?

I am also VERY EXCITE for this mission. Discussion of this would be better in SMP imo.

Kepler can't find life...just planets where it might live...we have to wait until another mars mission searches for microbes

I think religious people who already accept evolution and scientific truths would have an easier time adapting their beliefs to a new reality. The zealots would have a much harder time, they would have to through out the idea that the Bible is the infallible word of God. No more literal Garden of Eden, no more created in 6 days crap, even if it was just microbes.

When I said nail in the coffin I didn't mean instant off switch, but it's all down hill from there for most of earths religions.


If intelligent life was found that's a another ballgame and would take more then minor adjustments. The do you know God or Jesus question would get some interesting answers if asked to an alien. I would assume most other intelligent lifeforms would have their own Gods or more likely Gods that they gave up long ago. Add in all the scientific knowledge about the universe they would bring to the table and it would be all but over.



I know it cant find life but it can increases the probability of its existence outside of earth. Not that that would change many religious peoples point of view but maybe some. I was just making an unrelated comment sry.

if we can ever prove string theory, but that seems doubtful

Eh. I've heard theists argue it before, and trust me, they'll disappoint you. If the Bible is God's word to humankind, a zealot can be just as dismissive about life on other planets as anything else.

For example, take your average young Earth creationist. They ignore all the facts about evolution, to say, "No, God poofed it into existence in six days!" This is, of course, utterly unfalsifiable. Find aliens, and they'll just say "God poofed them into existence in six days like that!"

And even if, somehow, young-Earth types could be utterly disproven (say our new alien friends have some hypothetical ironclad proof that the Earth is billions of years old), it wouldn't necessarily cause the religion to decline. The Catholic Church insisted that the Earth was the center of the universe for ages. Even after they were utterly disproven, the religion soldiered on.

My guess is, if alien life is discovered, your average hyper-religious type is just going to see a universe full of potential converts.

I do not know that many religions claim that there cannot be life on other planets.

I think that if we found intelligent life on another planet it could either strengthen or destroy many religions.

If you found intelligent life and they also were religious, I think that it would significantly increase the probability of a theistic God.

On the other hand, if they had absolutely no concept of religion, I would say that it would pretty much destroy any theistic religion. You could still make a case for a deistic creator, but not a theist one.

Classic the more people/beings that believe it the more likely it's true. Glad to see we are not getting anywhere in this forum

Surely you believe only humans go to heaven, if we find intelligent life/ they find us then I'm pretty sure Religion as we know it is ****ed.

Care to make an actual argument to support this statement?

That's not what I said at all. If other life also had religion then it would be less likely that your answer to religion, ie "evolutiondidit", is correct.

If intelligent life were to visit/contact us, it's very likely that they will be advanced well beyond humans (#1 just the fact that they were able to visit us, and #2 they couldn't be less intelligent...for obvious reasons). IMO, it's also very likely that they will either say "Religion? WTF is that?" or "Oh, religion...we did away with that silly concept xxx years ago."

If they did have religion(s), what if that(those) religion(s) completely contradicted every religion we had ever conceived of?

I could be underestimating the impact but I don't think so. Our vary basic scientific knowledge of evolution, geology and astronomy are already chipping away at religion and converting its people from their beliefs. We as a species are barley out of the cradle and have only been around for about one or two hundred thousand years, advanced science is only hundreds or thousands of years old . Now think about possible alien species that are millions or billions of years ahead of us. What type of knowledge or truths about the universe would they have. What happens when they say no we never heard of your God or Jesus, no we never got his infallible words in that book you call bible. I really think it would be game set match.

We can talk about that if that time comes.

lol, of course you think that. Just like I think they would probably say,

"You mean you actually have people that do not believe in the divine creator? Wow you guys really are way behind. We have myths about people like that back on our world, but no one actually thinks that someone that ignorant could exist."

Jibninjas do you think if aliens exist they have copies of the bible sent to them by the divine creator? Did Jesus visit them?

if they had copies of the bible, then it would certainly increase the probability of a theistic god (the Christian god most of all)

if they practiced a religion very similar to one practiced on earth, then it would increase the probability of that religion being correct (a lot or a little depending on the similarities as the extent to which it would accounted for considering evolutionary preasure...but in any case not nearly as much with the bible example)

if they were religious, it might increase the probability of a theistic god(by virtue of the fact there's almost no chance it would decrease it, and I don't see it being neutral), but in any case, only very slightly imo, mainly because it's hard to imagine an environment in which the same evolutionary advantages that may have been had by the religious (individuals and societies) on this planet would not be had by those on another planet (this gets much trickier if we consider much more advanced civilizations/beings)

...on second thought, it may decrease the likelihood of a theistic god if none of the religions practiced resemble one practiced here (this is hard to imagine for me though...with so many religions, there's bound to be many similarities...and that's enough for many people to view it as God's way of spreading the same word tailored to that civilization.)

If aliens said something like this, we'd have every religion in the world fighting to claim "divine creator" as their own god and we would be in no better shape (theism-wise) than we are today.

Thanks a lot vague alien *******s.

welp, scientology is fked

Why? You'll just cut and run eventually.


Evolution does not explain how all this matter got here, and is no one's sole "answer to religion". No one ever says evolutiondidit about anything like theists say goddidit. You can't just swap the words out and have it make sense, jeez.