Posted on 09/24/2015 10:14:39 AM PDT by lbryce
Yeah, where? Quote chapter and verse...I don't think that you can. Don't put limits on what God can create.
That said, I believe in God...but I also believe that in the incredible, nearly incomprehensible, vastness of space, there are other intelligent creatures with souls. They are playing out their own journey through life, with tests that are as difficult for them as those that we have. I don't necessarily believe that aliens have visited the Earth - that one has to be scientifically proven to me, and done several ways so as to be irrefutable. No one has yet convinced me of that, though I remain open-minded...very skeptical, but open-minded.
I’d bet that if a species had a 100,000 year lifespan, they wouldn’t be real big risk-takers. Would you be doing stuff that can kill you at age 25 or 2500, if you’ve got nearly 100,000 more years of life left? I’m not seeing that as being realistic.
I'd bet on the latter...which is a damned good reason to stop broadcasting, do everything via fiber-optics or satellites. Maybe even stage a world-wide nuclear war on TV and radio - and then stop broadcasting immediately. Oh, and when our technology permits it, go after the Voyager spacecraft, capture them and bring them back for museums (or just destroy them).
We are likely on a similar technological level to aliens as insects are to us. So long as we don't notice insects, they do just fine. When we notice them and they begin to annoy us, they die by the millions or billions without a single human casualty or bite/sting. We would be best served by being quiet and hoping to develop our technology for several thousand more years as we expand off this single ball of dirt.
When God speaks through the bible you have to listen very carefully. He didn’t bother saying the specific words “I didn’t put life on planets around the stars that I created on the 4th day.”
So then educate me - where is “no life anywhere else in the universe” even hinted at?
Well first let me say that I've been interested in astronomy for 40+ years. I used to believe in evolution and rejected anything about God. After becoming a Christian I had to re-learn my whole world view. So I searched out the bible to see God saying glorious and amazing things about the Cosmos as I'd heard Carl Sagan say so many times. So what do I find:
Gen 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
So little glorification from God of the universe. It tells me a lot about the glory of the universe vs the glory of God. The fact that it seems to be a side note on the 4th day shows the lack of importance of the cosmos compared to all the rest that the bible says about God and His plan for man.
Does it really make sense from the perspective of some distant planet made on the 4th day that there is a plan for life and salvation etc?
There's a very simple answer, really: For us, that distant planet circling around a star is just a curiosity, and the light from its star does what God says in Genesis - provide light for us....
...and our planet and sun do the same for them.
Our bible was written for us - when put on sheep skin some 3300 years ago, it was for the benefit of a nomadic people with little in the way of scientific knowledge - why would it necessarily have to include detailed acknowledgement of life elsewhere? Weren't (and aren't) our challenges here on Earth enough to keep us busy trying to make ourselves less imperfect, without dragging aliens into the mix?
As Schroeder shows in "Genesis and the Big Bang," the Bible accurately traces through the history of the Cosmos (or, more precisely, science proves what God said in the Bible). But how can you say that it is impossible that there is a similar Bible for aliens far from here? Again, don't limit God. Their Bible could detail the same opening sequence of cosmic events, including the creation of other stars to shine light on THEM, and then just have a different set of Patriarchs and Matriarchs (or whatever, depending on the nature of their biology), plus the events that followed - as would make sense for THEM.
I think civilizations are like individual organisms. They have a finite lifespan. But it’s just my opinion.
How dare I?????? I merely posted a possibility which had no real reference to the christian presumption and the alleged scientific assumption..........
It's the antagonistic alleged Christians like you who continue to make me question the validity of Christianity itself..........Sheesh!
He looked at me and said, "Mathematically, Ken, There HAS to be." Then he said, "Imagine a planet with life that is 1 or 2 Billions years older than us."
On human terms, yes, they might be very risk adverse and take few chances. On the other hand, maybe they would be born in clutches of 10,000 and become insanely open to risk once they have their millionth kid or so.
Freegards
You don't even need close to a billion years of technological difference to imagine all sorts of things.
50,000 years ago we were living of of nuts and berries that we collected, plus the occasional antelope, auroch or whatever that we could kill. We lived in caves or primitive shacks, and our most advanced weapons were stones, knives and spears. One Roman legion could have taken over that world, with communications being the only problem. We could take over that world in a couple of days, with the only limitation being how fast we could drop a few soldiers here or there and wipe out the natives. That's only 1/20,000 of a billion years.
Yeah, imagine. Such a technology would literally be indistinguishable (for us) from literal Divine action. They probably would be way beyond Dyson spheres, and would be able to move planets at will, or terraform them via nanobots in a very short time. Ants would have a more successful battle against humans than we would against such a technology.
You never know...and I don’t want to find out.
Of course that’s just as valid as any other theory, in my opinion. I guess I was just pointing out that given the theory of ‘finite lengths of civilization’s exploring capability’ is universally correct, this limit might be shorter or longer relatively. It’s hard to say that most high tech civilizations only last 100,000 earth years or whatever it might be, when the average life span of some species could be 100,000 earth years.
Freegards
I prefer the Walking Dead. Much more relevant to what time I have left.
How dare I?????? I merely posted a possibility which had no real reference to the christian presumption and the alleged scientific assumption..........
It's the antagonistic alleged Christians like you who continue to make me question the validity of Christianity itself..........Sheesh!
OK, calm down. First of all, I was just pointing out that we humans, and our interpretation of the Bible, are rather limited. God has no limits, save those that He places on Himself for His own reasons. No insult intended.
Second, I'm not trying to make you question your beliefs. Frankly, beliefs that are not challenged every once in a while - and which survive such challenges - are not worth much. Asking you to show me where in the Bible God says that there are no aliens, or to show me some kind of analysis to back up your opinion of that, isn't and wasn't intended to make you give up your beliefs - maybe I was just asking a question, maybe I was just trying to find out if you knew something that I didn't?
Third, I'm not an "antagonistic Christian" - I'm Jewish. Perhaps I'm antagonistic :>) However, I'd prefer to think that I challenge both myself and others to defend their beliefs...so as to make those beliefs more solid (see above). I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and if you are a Christian (and I have no reason to doubt your word), then so do you. Why would I try to change your belief?
Oh, it is definitely more relevant to us (and I enjoy both of the series, plus "The Strain" on FX). To me, the exact scenarios are just sci-fi, they can't happen. However, all of these series could be grouped under the category of "The Walking EBT-less." Suffice it to say that I watch for the plots, the special effects, and to learn how to avoid making various stupid tactical/strategic mistakes.
Yes. I do as well.
Greetings, fellow survivor-to-be!
:-) I still have to add a hand pump to my well but other than that we are pretty prepared.
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