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Isn't the whole "existence of aliens" question functionally religious? If you believe in God as an origin of life, we are the only intelligent life in the unive

Isn't the whole "existence of aliens" question functionally religious? If you believe in God as an origin of life, we are the only intelligent life in the universe. If you believe in abiogenesis, we aren't. Obviously that's a big generalization and there's lots of room for fun sci-fi speculation, but that's kind of the big turning point, no? As for explaining UFO's/UAP's as aliens, that seems to be the least likely explanation, but shutting down all talk of UFO's/UAP's because of the association of the terms with aliens/"I want to believe" people is silly. There's plenty of room for conversation both valuable (what terrestrial technology and motives could be behind these?) and just fun and enjoyable (wild speculation about technology and motives). I love scifi, this strikes me as a community filled with people who love scifi, I am excited about secrets and technology and a future filled with continued technological advancement. I'll never stop enjoying this type of speculation.

rhn_mk1 4y ago
I only agree inasfar as the Christian religion goes. There's nothing fundamentally preventing religions from claiming that humans aren't the only ones (scientology anyone?). There's nothing fundamentally requiring non-religious people to claim that there are others.
sigspec 4y ago
The reality is the universe doesn't care what we believe.
DamnYuppie 4y ago
I don't know which religion you are referring to but I am not aware of any scripture that says we are the only creations of God. Only that God created life and man.
- grondo4 4y ago
  Christianity states that the only ensouled and conscious creatures are the descendants of Adam and Eve.
widowlark 4y ago
I think if you're a fan of sci-fi, it can be easy to miss the damage that this belief actually has on our culture. It's not borne out of a love of the unknown or speculation of the universe around us, it seems to be borne instead out of a distrust for authority, belief in conspiracy that helps explain chaos, and an anti-science, anti-democratic view of world events and history that tends to lean into other conspiracies, leading up to Qanon. Personally, I love sci-fi and aliens, but I dont think that aliens are real, visiting beings among us and anyone who does seems likely to also think that vaccines are ineffective, global warming is fake, the earth is flat, and the moon landing was fake.
joshuacc 4y ago
That’s true about most important questions. But you’re factually wrong about the implications of most religions. Many (most?) major religions teach that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe. The Abrahamic faiths teach the existence of angels, for example. And even if we restrict it to intelligent biological life, most religions don’t really say anything about that at all.
- grondo4 4y ago
  In Catholicism our consciousness comes from our souls which we inherited by being the literal descendants of Adam and Eve. That would at least exclude sentient extra terrestrial life.
whoisjuan 4y ago
I don't understand your argument. So God can only exist if we are the only intelligent life in the universe? That's some outdated geocentric reasoning.
scottLobster 4y ago
Depends on the specific religion. Just look at how many denominations/factions there are in a given faith. And the article seems to be less targeting people having fun with the concept and more that fringe minority who take such things seriously, and perhaps indirectly journalists/bloggers who prey on such people for ad revenue. Also if there's one thing I learned over the past few years, never underestimate the ignorance of the masses. I remember reading about a lawsuit against Walmart, and the Walmart legal team released a pretty boring PR statement saying "we are looking into the complaint...blah blah blah", and the most up-voted comment was along the lines of "well you can tell how much Walmart cares about this lawsuit when they just dismiss it as a "complaint"". Never mind that "complaint" is just the correct technical legal term, you file a "complaint" with the relevant court to start a lawsuit. Not defending Walmart, but clearly a lot of people were getting spun up over nothing and reveling in it, and it isn't healthy. I imagine the Alien stuff falls into the same category, albeit less on HN than elsewhere.
JohnFen 4y ago
> If you believe in God as an origin of life, we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Only with a few specific religious beliefs. Most have no theological problem with the idea of life elsewhere in the universe.

rhn_mk1 4y ago

I only agree inasfar as the Christian religion goes. There's nothing fundamentally preventing religions from claiming that humans aren't the only ones (scientology anyone?). There's nothing fundamentally requiring non-religious people to claim that there are others.

sigspec 4y ago

The reality is the universe doesn't care what we believe.

DamnYuppie 4y ago

I don't know which religion you are referring to but I am not aware of any scripture that says we are the only creations of God. Only that God created life and man.

grondo4 4y ago
Christianity states that the only ensouled and conscious creatures are the descendants of Adam and Eve.

widowlark 4y ago

I think if you're a fan of sci-fi, it can be easy to miss the damage that this belief actually has on our culture. It's not borne out of a love of the unknown or speculation of the universe around us, it seems to be borne instead out of a distrust for authority, belief in conspiracy that helps explain chaos, and an anti-science, anti-democratic view of world events and history that tends to lean into other conspiracies, leading up to Qanon. Personally, I love sci-fi and aliens, but I dont think that aliens are real, visiting beings among us and anyone who does seems likely to also think that vaccines are ineffective, global warming is fake, the earth is flat, and the moon landing was fake.

joshuacc 4y ago

That’s true about most important questions. But you’re factually wrong about the implications of most religions. Many (most?) major religions teach that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe. The Abrahamic faiths teach the existence of angels, for example. And even if we restrict it to intelligent biological life, most religions don’t really say anything about that at all.

grondo4 4y ago
In Catholicism our consciousness comes from our souls which we inherited by being the literal descendants of Adam and Eve. That would at least exclude sentient extra terrestrial life.

whoisjuan 4y ago

I don't understand your argument. So God can only exist if we are the only intelligent life in the universe? That's some outdated geocentric reasoning.

scottLobster 4y ago

Depends on the specific religion. Just look at how many denominations/factions there are in a given faith. And the article seems to be less targeting people having fun with the concept and more that fringe minority who take such things seriously, and perhaps indirectly journalists/bloggers who prey on such people for ad revenue. Also if there's one thing I learned over the past few years, never underestimate the ignorance of the masses. I remember reading about a lawsuit against Walmart, and the Walmart legal team released a pretty boring PR statement saying "we are looking into the complaint...blah blah blah", and the most up-voted comment was along the lines of "well you can tell how much Walmart cares about this lawsuit when they just dismiss it as a "complaint"". Never mind that "complaint" is just the correct technical legal term, you file a "complaint" with the relevant court to start a lawsuit. Not defending Walmart, but clearly a lot of people were getting spun up over nothing and reveling in it, and it isn't healthy. I imagine the Alien stuff falls into the same category, albeit less on HN than elsewhere.

JohnFen 4y ago

> If you believe in God as an origin of life, we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Only with a few specific religious beliefs. Most have no theological problem with the idea of life elsewhere in the universe.