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Alien Ideas: Christianity and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
CRISIS magazine via CERC ^ | BENJAMIN D. WIKER

Posted on 12/17/2002 2:21:52 PM PST by Polycarp

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To: yendu bwam
Yeah, perhaps there are many beings in this universe who don't suffer the effects of original sin. I sorta hope that's true! And you're right. The last place they'd want to come is here.

Or maybe they do suffer the effects of original sin. There they are, happy in their alien Eden, when one day God comes along and says, "Sorry, but you'll have to go. No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. I have to do this all over the universe, because some creatures called humans ate one of those fruits I told you not to. Eh? Yes, I told them not to, but did they listen? They're on a planet called Earth, Milky Way galaxy; maybe you can look them up someday, and inform them of your inconvenience. Tell you what...here, have a bite of this tree-of-knowledge fruit. The secret's out anyway, and you'll need it where you're going."

161 posted on 12/18/2002 12:41:50 PM PST by Physicist
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To: Physicist
Or maybe they do suffer the effects of original sin.

One would tend to think that God would cause those who disobey Him and distrust Him and distance themselves from Him to suffer the effects of original sin - and that He wouldn't cause races of beings who don't do those things to so suffer. But we are both in far out speculative mode, yes?

162 posted on 12/18/2002 12:47:28 PM PST by yendu bwam
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To: KevinDavis
I disagree, however the universe is more like B5 in which I mean there are going to be some major league bad guys out there who is just plain evil.

That's certainly possible, KevinDavis. Just like whole races of humans were wiped out by hostile (human) invaders and their biological diseases and advanced technologies, and just like whole races of humans were colonized by invading (human) invaders, we may well end up suffering the same fate at the hands (or whatever!) of aliens. Not a nice thought, but thoroughly possible.

163 posted on 12/18/2002 12:51:01 PM PST by yendu bwam
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To: crystalk
I don't dispute you; Mark 16:15 does use the Greek word "Kosmos". However, Matthew 28:19 uses "ethnos" which can mean nations or even Gentiles. However, see #6--this quote is the most stirring that might indicate other life forms. (a Greek scholar).
164 posted on 12/18/2002 12:52:48 PM PST by pankot
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To: RightOnTheLeftCoast
Glad to see you caught this. I did some years ago and even my seminary profs couldn't explain it. It certainly leaves the door open, doesn't it?
165 posted on 12/18/2002 12:55:44 PM PST by pankot
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To: stuartcr
If they don't suffer the effects of original sin, do they have a hell?

I would guess they don't need to think about such. Why have a hell for those who don't seek to distance themselves from God?

166 posted on 12/18/2002 1:12:23 PM PST by yendu bwam
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To: Physicist; Valin
Proof that intelligence doesn't prevent someone from being an idiot.

Thought you were talking about Bill Clinton.

167 posted on 12/18/2002 1:14:56 PM PST by yendu bwam
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To: KevinDavis
It is going to be more like B5 than Star Trek.

Straczynski definitely seems more realistic about politics at the basic level than Roddenberry (or the current keepers of the Trek Franchise).

Ironically, JMS (a professed atheist) is also more respectful of religion.

168 posted on 12/18/2002 1:19:31 PM PST by steve-b
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Well, I may not know everything, but I do know my limitations.

Every good Mathematician should know his "limits"....

;-)

169 posted on 12/18/2002 1:33:14 PM PST by longshadow
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To: Polycarp
All Christians know there are no ETs.
170 posted on 12/18/2002 1:40:11 PM PST by biblewonk
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To: RightOnTheLeftCoast
Mormons emphasize that one also, and make it refer to the residents of the Western Hemisphere.

I find references, unmistakable proofs, of the existence of other inhabited planets throughout the OT and the Kabbalah.

Mars, of course, formerly was a delightful inhabited planet: we are even told that "What Earth now is, Mars once was; what Mars now is, Earth will some day be." In the NT, Peter says the Earth will be burned up and left without inhabitants.

Sumerian myth even explains the present global warming, if any. Perhaps. It says that when Olam [Nibiru] starts to get closer again on its long circuit of the nearby universe, the Earth starts to warm up as if to welcome it.

"Cursed be Meroz, and cursed be its inhabitants," says the OT. In the Talmud, a rabbi and his disciples meet an ET one day, and ask of him in Hebrew, what planet he comes from. He apparently knows Hebrew well and tells them. "Oh, really! exclaims the rabbi, I had no idea that planet had inhabitants! ...and they go on and have quite a friendly chat.

Enoch, after leaving Earth, is said to have visited a number of different inhabited planets, and the characteristics of some of these races are described. On one, he is said to be able to see seven moons in the sky at once.

In the book of Job, the leading representatives of all the inhabited worlds come together before God in a regularly scheduled meeting, and Satan attends as the god of THIS world.

Very recently, I heard Billy Graham say again that Satan IS the god of this world.

171 posted on 12/18/2002 1:48:50 PM PST by crystalk
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To: Desdemona
Othello and Roderigo were tied up.
172 posted on 12/18/2002 1:51:05 PM PST by crystalk
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To: yendu bwam
He wouldn't cause races of beings who don't do those things to so suffer.

What's with this race thing? Whatever happened to individual responsibility?

173 posted on 12/18/2002 1:54:12 PM PST by js1138
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To: crystalk
Othello and Roderigo were tied up.

So, Iago was an alien?
174 posted on 12/18/2002 1:58:22 PM PST by Desdemona
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Yeah, translating "olam" as "everlasting" or even "world,"... or translating "Cosmos" as "world," ...

those are definitely for the birds, all right.

175 posted on 12/18/2002 2:13:23 PM PST by crystalk
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To: js1138
What's with this race thing? Whatever happened to individual responsibility?

Good question.

176 posted on 12/18/2002 2:16:49 PM PST by yendu bwam
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To: Physicist; RadioAstronomer; KevinDavis; yendu bwam; agrace
There is an interesting underlying assumption in one of your earlier posts regarding the 'cost' to build an interstellar ship and the 'cultural implications' of losing touch with a significant amount of your parent civilization. We have several types of life forms here and in the insect kingdom, the cost is a 'whole hive' experience. Would a civilization arising from a hive mentality have the same cost-benefit reasoning as we mammals? It is not outlandish to propose an intelligent life form from some other niche in our own galaxy that arose to technical civilization along a very different path than ours, and such a civilization may actually ignore cost-benefit ratios in favor of pure exploration, for instance.
177 posted on 12/18/2002 2:41:35 PM PST by MHGinTN
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To: Johnny Shear
Yeah, well I guess Scientology would survive.

And when the aliens say, "Who the heck is Xenu?"

Saying fundamentalist Christianity would be destroyed by a few microbes is wishful thinking.

178 posted on 12/18/2002 3:02:05 PM PST by A.J.Armitage
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To: Physicist
Because the laws of nature are universal, and these are physically hard problems for us.

Hard isn't the same thing as impossible.

179 posted on 12/18/2002 3:04:26 PM PST by A.J.Armitage
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To: RadioAstronomer
Even if you take into account the Lorenz Transformation and you were able to build a ship that would travel at near "c" (the speed of light). Would anyone want to undertake a journey where they would know for a fact that not only everyone they knew back home would be dead, but their entire civilization may be also? Even if the journey took only 20 years "ship time", would you do such if you knew 20,000 years would pass back on you home planet? (These numbers I am pulling out of the air. They would be different depending on how close you approached c and how far you traveled.)

Why would any of that matter if you were never planning a return trip? If you're going to colonize, not explore and return, you won't see anybody back home anyway. Or maybe, everybody from home you care about is coming with you.

180 posted on 12/18/2002 3:16:37 PM PST by A.J.Armitage
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