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There's the possibility that God created life on Earth but it has evolved naturally elsewhere through the same processes by which our created version of life mu

by ewzimm 10y ago

There's the possibility that God created life on Earth but it has evolved naturally elsewhere through the same processes by which our created version of life mutates. I haven't seen this argument much, but I could imagine it becoming more popular with the discovery of alien life. This is just a report on our most recent astronomical data, but the existence in life in theory could have a large effect on how much effort we put into searching for it.

woofyman 10y ago
>There's the possibility that God created life on Earth but it has evolved naturally elsewhere through the same processes by which our created version of life mutates. That's a religious argument. It's unprovable and unknowable.
- ewzimm 10y ago
  I'm not making any kind of argument for proof of this idea, just stating that the idea of creationism on Earth doesn't reduce the probability of evolution to 0. Some religions even make the claim that God is an alien.
  - VLM 10y ago
    Given the language issues of the time, perhaps it is Biblical that life was created elsewhere and our ancestors arrived on this particular lump of dirt as spores on a meteor. Perhaps the same on the aliens planet. That would make aliens cousins rather than ... independent test tube creations or whatever. I suspect that given proof of alien civilization this would be a fairly popular outlook among existing believers.
jessaustin 10y ago
If one must attempt to salvage the idea of divine creation in such desultory fashion, why not assume that the aliens are the intentional created creatures of the divine, and we are just the random evolutionary accidents?
- danbruc 10y ago
  That seems as weird as the other way round. Wouldn't it be the simplest explanation to just say God created life on various planets but didn't tell anyone about each other?
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    Haha I wasn't seriously advocating such a bizarre aition. Rather I was encouraging a reconsideration of parent's proposal, which as you say is "as weird". Perhaps my encouragement was too obliquely ironical, as is often the case.
    - gknoy 10y ago
      Today I learned that "aition" was not merely a typo, but rather a new (to me) word! (cool!) Aition: a tale devised to explain the origin of a religious observance
jerf 10y ago
If the universe has an intelligent creator of any kind, there's no particular reason to believe that there wouldn't be more than one species in here with us. Even from the perspective of fundamentalist Christianity, which I'd hazard a guess many people would tend to assume to be the most hostile to the idea, there's no reason to believe there aren't aliens somewhere out there. It gets more complicated if fallen humanity is allowed to interact with those other species, but even then you can argue either way within that axiom set. Really, I'd say the reason that most of us, religious or otherwise, believe "we are the only life in the universe" (or "observable universe") is because that's the simplest explanation that fits the facts. It may well be wrong, but at the moment, there's not even a whiff of convincing evidence that we are not alone, even as we must also all acknowledge there's plenty of room in the "gaps" for alien life, even intelligent alien life, even intelligent alien life that spans several star systems. It depends on how far away we're talking, but even fairly close to home it could take a Kardashev level 2.3-ish at a minimum for us to be sure. No matter what your ideological disposition may be, there's just a huge "NO DATA" out there right now.
dmichulke 10y ago
"God's own planet" - no one in his right mind would ever ...
- coldtea 10y ago
  Actually, it seems like a perfectly logical and totally reasonable idea, given empirical evidence back in the day (e.g. earth seems to be the center of some vast empty expanse of stars, humans seem to be the only intelligent creatures around, etc), and the prior that they already believed in a creator (which makes sense too -- about as much as believing things were there since forever).

by ewzimm 10y ago

woofyman 10y ago

>There's the possibility that God created life on Earth but it has evolved naturally elsewhere through the same processes by which our created version of life mutates. That's a religious argument. It's unprovable and unknowable.

ewzimm 10y ago
I'm not making any kind of argument for proof of this idea, just stating that the idea of creationism on Earth doesn't reduce the probability of evolution to 0. Some religions even make the claim that God is an alien.
- VLM 10y ago
  Given the language issues of the time, perhaps it is Biblical that life was created elsewhere and our ancestors arrived on this particular lump of dirt as spores on a meteor. Perhaps the same on the aliens planet. That would make aliens cousins rather than ... independent test tube creations or whatever. I suspect that given proof of alien civilization this would be a fairly popular outlook among existing believers.

jessaustin 10y ago

If one must attempt to salvage the idea of divine creation in such desultory fashion, why not assume that the aliens are the intentional created creatures of the divine, and we are just the random evolutionary accidents?

danbruc 10y ago
That seems as weird as the other way round. Wouldn't it be the simplest explanation to just say God created life on various planets but didn't tell anyone about each other?
- jessaustin 10y ago
  Haha I wasn't seriously advocating such a bizarre aition. Rather I was encouraging a reconsideration of parent's proposal, which as you say is "as weird". Perhaps my encouragement was too obliquely ironical, as is often the case.
  - gknoy 10y ago
    Today I learned that "aition" was not merely a typo, but rather a new (to me) word! (cool!) Aition: a tale devised to explain the origin of a religious observance

jerf 10y ago

If the universe has an intelligent creator of any kind, there's no particular reason to believe that there wouldn't be more than one species in here with us. Even from the perspective of fundamentalist Christianity, which I'd hazard a guess many people would tend to assume to be the most hostile to the idea, there's no reason to believe there aren't aliens somewhere out there. It gets more complicated if fallen humanity is allowed to interact with those other species, but even then you can argue either way within that axiom set. Really, I'd say the reason that most of us, religious or otherwise, believe "we are the only life in the universe" (or "observable universe") is because that's the simplest explanation that fits the facts. It may well be wrong, but at the moment, there's not even a whiff of convincing evidence that we are not alone, even as we must also all acknowledge there's plenty of room in the "gaps" for alien life, even intelligent alien life, even intelligent alien life that spans several star systems. It depends on how far away we're talking, but even fairly close to home it could take a Kardashev level 2.3-ish at a minimum for us to be sure. No matter what your ideological disposition may be, there's just a huge "NO DATA" out there right now.

dmichulke 10y ago

"God's own planet" - no one in his right mind would ever ...

coldtea 10y ago
Actually, it seems like a perfectly logical and totally reasonable idea, given empirical evidence back in the day (e.g. earth seems to be the center of some vast empty expanse of stars, humans seem to be the only intelligent creatures around, etc), and the prior that they already believed in a creator (which makes sense too -- about as much as believing things were there since forever).