4 ms·

The difference is that aliens aren’t magical and all-powerful. They’re likely having similar struggles and fight the issues using technology. It’s a big differe

by f6v 3y ago

The difference is that aliens aren’t magical and all-powerful. They’re likely having similar struggles and fight the issues using technology. It’s a big difference to a god who just waves the hand and creates the universe.

burnished 3y ago
Heads up; that isnt an even remotely accurate reduction of religion or deities as a concept. I could see the misunderstanding if your only exposure to religion was via christian sermons - they are real big on describing their god as the perfect being that is all powerful and blah de blah - but even their creation myths don't portray an omnipotent being, and much of their bible depicts a deity that strives and mistakes as we do (albeit writ large). The truly salient difference is that aliens unlike gods aren't focused around our loves but their own.
- stephenhuey 3y ago
  Not sure what Christian creation story you read, but omnipotence is commonly believed to be a core trait of God. And there's a difference between God allowing bad things to happen and making a mistake. Even when having a dialogue with a human in which it sounds like God is changing his mind, the implication is that God is letting the human work out what, if anything, he needs to change in his heart, and also letting the human exercise his faith in reaching out to God for help, and learning to trust God (similarly to how we have a need to interact over time to build trust in relationships with other humans). And I would argue that God is not ultimately focused just on us, but one of his interests is in helping us to get to know him since that is beneficial to us and he loves us. A big difference with an alien is that they would be a created being just like us (in Christian understanding). If they exist, we can't really presume to know whether they'd be just into their selfish interests, or perhaps know God and be committed to loving others the way God calls us to, etc.
  - burnished 3y ago
    The book of Genesis specifically - took a really neat class that was a deep dive on that part of the bible specifically. That implication you mention is not present in the text at all, and if you think about what it says and what that means it paints a very different picture. I mean, the very process of creation is the shaping of a chaotic potential over a period of time that ends in a rest - that doesn't depict an all powerful god. Specifically I'd suggest that you are uncritically repeating this perspective that lacks a basis in the text, and its justifications replaces persuasion with insistence and repetition . But it does not make sense and its sole reason for existing is to try and harmonize 'god is perfect' with the actual text. Edit: To your second paragraph I'm uninterested in how a specific culture views the relationship between men and spirits, I'm referring to how they are human creations that are inherently anthropocentric - they are stories told by humans for humans to explain human things and so their stories are centered around human things. So the difference between 'people that know other life exists because they believe in spiritual life', and 'people that know other life exists because they recorded a signal that was demonstrably extra terrestrial' is that the former group believes other life is centered on them/us and the latter group does not - I presume we'd ascribe to them similar internal life as to our own, but at the very least we wouldn't assume that their core purpose or sense of place would intersect with us in any way.
  - wl 3y ago
    Genesis 1: God fashions the heavens and the earth out of primordial chaos, not the creatio ex nihilo people often read into it. Genesis 2:4 et seq: The earth is already there in rough form. God finishes it and populates it with life. A very powerful being, yes, but nothing requires omnipotence. Job 38 seems to reflect more of an omnipotent God. But it's also much later than the Genesis creation accounts, by which time Hebrew culture had likely been exposed to Greek philosophical ideas about what properties God should have to be worthy of the title.

by f6v 3y ago

burnished 3y ago

Heads up; that isnt an even remotely accurate reduction of religion or deities as a concept. I could see the misunderstanding if your only exposure to religion was via christian sermons - they are real big on describing their god as the perfect being that is all powerful and blah de blah - but even their creation myths don't portray an omnipotent being, and much of their bible depicts a deity that strives and mistakes as we do (albeit writ large). The truly salient difference is that aliens unlike gods aren't focused around our loves but their own.

stephenhuey 3y ago
Not sure what Christian creation story you read, but omnipotence is commonly believed to be a core trait of God. And there's a difference between God allowing bad things to happen and making a mistake. Even when having a dialogue with a human in which it sounds like God is changing his mind, the implication is that God is letting the human work out what, if anything, he needs to change in his heart, and also letting the human exercise his faith in reaching out to God for help, and learning to trust God (similarly to how we have a need to interact over time to build trust in relationships with other humans). And I would argue that God is not ultimately focused just on us, but one of his interests is in helping us to get to know him since that is beneficial to us and he loves us. A big difference with an alien is that they would be a created being just like us (in Christian understanding). If they exist, we can't really presume to know whether they'd be just into their selfish interests, or perhaps know God and be committed to loving others the way God calls us to, etc.
- burnished 3y ago
  The book of Genesis specifically - took a really neat class that was a deep dive on that part of the bible specifically. That implication you mention is not present in the text at all, and if you think about what it says and what that means it paints a very different picture. I mean, the very process of creation is the shaping of a chaotic potential over a period of time that ends in a rest - that doesn't depict an all powerful god. Specifically I'd suggest that you are uncritically repeating this perspective that lacks a basis in the text, and its justifications replaces persuasion with insistence and repetition . But it does not make sense and its sole reason for existing is to try and harmonize 'god is perfect' with the actual text. Edit: To your second paragraph I'm uninterested in how a specific culture views the relationship between men and spirits, I'm referring to how they are human creations that are inherently anthropocentric - they are stories told by humans for humans to explain human things and so their stories are centered around human things. So the difference between 'people that know other life exists because they believe in spiritual life', and 'people that know other life exists because they recorded a signal that was demonstrably extra terrestrial' is that the former group believes other life is centered on them/us and the latter group does not - I presume we'd ascribe to them similar internal life as to our own, but at the very least we wouldn't assume that their core purpose or sense of place would intersect with us in any way.
- wl 3y ago
  Genesis 1: God fashions the heavens and the earth out of primordial chaos, not the creatio ex nihilo people often read into it. Genesis 2:4 et seq: The earth is already there in rough form. God finishes it and populates it with life. A very powerful being, yes, but nothing requires omnipotence. Job 38 seems to reflect more of an omnipotent God. But it's also much later than the Genesis creation accounts, by which time Hebrew culture had likely been exposed to Greek philosophical ideas about what properties God should have to be worthy of the title.