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One of my dearest wishes is that humanity will find solid evidence for other lifeforms in the universe (whether it is through remains or actual contact). This
by GuiA 14y ago
One of my dearest wishes is that humanity will find solid evidence for other lifeforms in the universe (whether it is through remains or actual contact).
This moment, if/when it happens, will be so mindblowing on so many levels and affect us deeply as a society/species/etc. that I just WANT to see it.
- bjoe_lewis 14y agoSo you just want to see all religions on earth, dead.
- njharman 14y agoYes, but this (nor anything else) would not do it. Note: religion != belief. Religion is a societal construct used to control, limit, and oppress people.
- jlgreco 14y agoNot all religious people have gods that they have so narrowly restricted you know. Only those who have assigned an unjustifiable importance to themselves or really love cramming their gods into artificial boxes would find such a discovery disturbing. The realization that those dots moving across the sky are not gods did little to eradicate religion. Nor did the realization that gods did not carve the canyons or raise mountains, or even create the species or the stars. Why should finding some living junk on Mars be the game changer that everything else failed to be?
- krapp 14y agoReligion will survive. It survived learning the sun didn't revolve around the Earth. It survived learning disease wasn't caused by demons and that Zeus wasn't hurling lightning from Olympus. It survived evolution and the Big Bang. People will say the mysteries of God* were just greater than they realized, and their mythologies will start to seem a bit more like Star Wars. * or what have you
- crusso 14y agoYou're correct. Religious belief is an evolved memetic/genetic survival mechanism. Those parts of the human brain were never about logic and accurate observation of the material world - so they are safe from new facts and logic for now. Probably at some point (assuming we survie), our own genetic/cybernetic modifications will so increase our intelligence, that religion will fall away completely... but that's beyond the Singularity.
- krapp 14y agoWell, assuming the Singularity itself is not a doctrine of religious faith, sometimes it sounds like one.
- kevinbluer 14y agoCouldn't agree more...this would be amazing.
- stevewilhelm 14y agoI suspect finding evidence of other lifeforms in the universe, even highly intelligent lifeforms, would briefly be novel, but would have very little long-term effect on most people's daily lives.
- raldi 14y agoMany people's religion has a huge effect on their daily lives, and news like this would have a huge impact on their faith. Also, the information we exchange with them would have a huge impact on everything. What if they have the secret to efficient solar power? Or AI?
- mixmax 14y agoreligions have an uncanny ability to either ignore scientific facts or bend their religion to fit with the facts. Remember that originally it was thought that the Earth was in the center of the universe because God had put it there. When the facts changed religion was eventually bent to acomodate the facts. Science changes and religion adapts.
- wubbfindel 14y agoReligious tradition and dogma changes yes, but their "holy" books can't rewrite themselves. Interestingly the bible doesn't make any comment to suggest there is no other life in the universe. In fact it does refer to extra terrestrial life; God sent "angels", literally translated "messengers", to the earth.
- vacri 14y agoThe holy books aren't like a country's constitution. They're all 'interpreted'. "What this passage means is...".
- joshuacc 14y agoTo be fair, a country's constitution must also be interpreted. That's why things like Supreme Court rulings are so important. The SC gets to decide, "What this amendment means is..."
- mark_integerdsv 14y agoI share this with you... Kind of. Personally, I'd not be that mind-blown, more like vindicated for years of conjecture and lively debate.