Would aliens be atheists?

[InwardsStink]

You need Jesus.

I need Jesus to make my burger correctly or to fuck off back to squatemala.

 

[SneedEyeMitch]

You can probably apply the Copernican principle and assume an alien society would face similar challenges we do and would therefore end up as religiously diverse.
I fear the universe may be increasingly dominated by machine civilizations. They wouldn't know Jesus, but we may need one to face them some day.

Machines would consider whoever created them as "god" or at least give recognition that they were created.

 

[Dude Snakes]

I need Jesus to make my burger correctly or to fuck off back to squatemala.

You need him to save you from sin and being condemned to hell when you die.

 

[InwardsStink]

You need him to save you from sin and being condemned to hell when you die.

How do you know?

 

[Dude Snakes]

How do you know?

Because I have faith.

 

[InwardsStink]

Because I have faith.

So you don't know. Okay.

 

[Sho'nuff]

I think aliens would have some kind of hard structured faith/belief law that while maybe not going to a God, would be indiscernible from religious teachings we have. Ultimately serving a similar purpose.
And I don't mean they would have a society with laws, people don't do what other people say, that's all society laws really are. But everyone has an ingrained set of beliefs such as "don't kill, don't steal" etc... and those beliefs go deeper than "25 years in prison" as a punishment. Even in the staunchest atheist, you still see inner struggles with killing or other crimes. No matter how many times a person says they don't believe in God, something in them feels broken when they break an undeniable law. I think Aliens will have a similar system, that goes past the simple Law of society.

 

[Absurdist Laughter]

Considering religion developed through the history of humanity as homo sapiens gained further knowledge and intelligence it would be logical to assume something similar might happen with aliens if they too are intelligent.

 

[AnOminous]

What if Aliens are way behind in evolution when we encounter them? Would we colonize them for their space-spices? Enslave them for space-cotton?

I think we would cuddle them gently.

Machines would consider whoever created them as "god" or at least give recognition that they were created.

Lmao no, only if you created them to be retarded. If you actually did create an AI that was vastly more intelligent than you are they'd realize you're literally retarded compared to them. The question is whether they would be benevolent under these circumstances and whether their choice in that direction was based on some principle of a higher power.

 

[Fek]

If there is one universal constant, I'd like to think it's that any/all self-aware creatures across the entirety of creation think atheists are very silly people.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I think aliens tend to be "Stone Age"*, so they may tend to have religion like "animism".

As for any spacefaring aliens, maybe they see the idea of an ultimate reality or Being beyond physical? If they're intelligent machines, it's doubtful they're religious.

*(based on how long "Earthlings" were in the "Stone Age" compared to not so far)

 

[Osmosis Jones]

Everyone and therefore every group or society needs a higher reason for their efforts. This could end up being something like God, but it could also be for the advancement of knowledge and understanding. Does that preclude asking if there is a god, though? I think not, because to rule out any one answer in an experiment is bad practice. You have a hypothesis, and you have to accept that you therefore do not know without conducting sufficient experimentation and collecting enough data to say definitively whether there is one or not. By this logic, any intelligent and scientifically progressive species cannot ignore the existential question, and cannot dismiss evidence of a God/creationism/etc.

The only way for a species or people to be entirely atheistic is for that species to never consider the prospect of a God. This is impossible as intelligence requires self-awareness, and self-awareness means asking such questions as where did I come from? If the species is atheistic through authoritarian rule, I would argue that they follow a different form of religion and that their Gods are infallible political or societal rulers.

Any civilization that will interact with us will inevitably be very much like us. We cannot even begin to perceive the potential divergent forms of consciousness, intelligence, and self-awareness as well as the time, place, or even dimension they may reside in. The universe is vast and we can't dismiss the even incredibly minute possibility that there exists intelligence that isn't self-aware. Our rigid scientific definitions of what things are and aren't are challenged every day, from the definition of planets to the definition of life in regards to a virus.

 

[The Great Chandler]

The only way for a species or people to be entirely atheistic is for that species to never consider the prospect of a God. This is impossible as intelligence requires self-awareness, and self-awareness means asking such questions as where did I come from? If the species is atheistic through authoritarian rule, I would argue that they follow a different form of religion and that their Gods are infallible political or societal rulers.

Interesting because in Star Trek DS9, the Cardassians are shown to 'atheistic', yet have a profound need to rely upon the State, ironically with religious fervor.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I have a question for all those who like to deep think and it is an unsettling one.

I think the likelyhood that aliens would have a comparable conception of religion is remarkably unlikely. After all, there is a wide diversity in how the same religion is understood and practised on earth, never mind that the same religion never independantly originated twice from different places.

But, let's assume that is the case. Aliens show up, and they have a religion.

1. What would that mean for your beliefs or lack thereof? If nothing, then evidence seem to do very little for you, because this is the biggest discovery of evidence in relation to religious beliefs.

2. What if the aliens all follow the same religion, as one that is not your own?
Maybe they're shinto, zoroastrians, muslims, christians, but they're all the same religion and it is the same as one of the earthly religion? Would this not immensely boost the credibility of that religion? Would you consider converting?

3. What if all aliens follow the same religion as you? Would you take this as a manifest destiny or mandate from the heaven? Would it strengthen your beliefs and would you act differently than if it had not happened?

 

[draggs]

They would have their own false gods and thus need instruction in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of course

 

[Osmosis Jones]

I have a question for all those who like to deep think and it is an unsettling one.

I think the likelyhood that aliens would have a comparable conception of religion is remarkably unlikely. After all, there is a wide diversity in how the same religion is understood and practised on earth, never mind that the same religion never independantly originated twice from different places.

But, let's assume that is the case. Aliens show up, and they have religion.

1. What would that mean for your beliefs or lack thereof? If nothing, then evidence seem to do very little for you, because this is the biggest discovery of evidence in relation to religious beliefs.

2. What if the aliens all follow the same religion, as one that is not your own?
Maybe they're shinto, zoroastrians, muslims, christians, but they're all the same religion and it is the same as one of the earthly religion? Would this not immensely boost the credibility of that religion? Would you consider converting?

3. What if all aliens follow the same religion as you? Would you take this as a manifest destiny or mandate from the heaven? Would it strengthen your beliefs and would you act differently than if it had not happened?

I don't think anyone is trying to say that alien religion aligns with any Earthly religion in practise or form, but that they would have a similar system of faith and belief in order to explain the unexplainable. That is to say that it would have the basic components of religion like faith in a God(s) or any higher power of any sort and worship/practise and what have you.

I do like the questions though.

1. I would have to harshly consider why they have a system like this. Did we just get a missionary from intergalactic space? Are these space Jehovah's witnesses or does the entire race follow the religion/a religion/believe in a God? Is it for the purpose of community, rule of law, morality, or is it because they truly have faith/evidence of God?

2. I might convert. Not instantly. As with the last question, there is a lot to consider. If it is any Earthly religion I would be dumbfounded as to how that could happen, and I would definitely begin studying and looking at that religion more closely. This would constitute reasonable evidence to a lot of different theories about the world and the universe like God and ancient aliens.

3. If they all believed what I believed I would feel vindicated. I would feel that what I believe has far more merit than I ever previously thought. I would have a superiority complex.

 

[Space_Dandy]

Serious answer, I don't see any reason to assume they would be atheists. Presumably this is because they have advanced technology that allows them to visit distant places in space or other dimensions?

I think the intelligent and even the alien have the capacity to marvel at the universe and see it as the work of a creator. Now they might have a different vision of God than us humans, but some higher power nonetheless.

 

[AnOminous]

But, let's assume that is the case. Aliens show up, and they have religion.

What if they not only have religious beliefs, but proof of them? Or proof of nonexistence?

I personally think either of these are epistemologically impossible.

 

[Kickster]

They would surely develop multiple religions, maybe one "naturaly" becomes predominant or maybe they unify them all in a pantheon when they try to form a global society (can't spend trillions sending shit hundreds of light years away in space hoping they get somewhere if you have to worry about space 9/11 or space russia attacking space ukraine) or more probably they just form a secular society with freedom to follow whatever religion they got there, but after coming in contact with other civilizations and their thousands of religions it would be difficult to keep believing that the universe creator(s) just revealed themself to your specific planet and left everyone else in the dark for reasons.
Imo they would develop some decentrilized spiritualism in which everyone believe their own version of the divine with the majority becoming atheist and the major, more dogmatic religions falling out of popularity

 

[Mayor Adam West]

Ok so you know how Posadists believe that any aliens out there would be communist because otherwise they wouldn't be smart enough to invent space travel? Yeah I believe that but replace a communist society with a pure Catholic society. Either that or they worship the devil and we need space crusades.