Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Reggie on August 28, 2011 at 9:00pm

Who cares what delusional people have to say about hypotheticals?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Unseen on August 28, 2011 at 10:06pm

I'd find it interesting, for one.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Reggie on August 29, 2011 at 8:02am

Then by all means, carry on!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by STEVIE NICHOLL on August 28, 2011 at 10:27pm

Interesting thought :)

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Athiel Deophagy on August 28, 2011 at 10:36pm

Have you never listend to Art Bell? If not, you're lucky. But the popular "theory" is that any extraterrestrials MUST be the fallen angels since the Bible would never omit something as crucial as life on other planets (conveniently overlooking other important missed omissions like a spheroid planet, curved space time, universal constant speed of light, gravity, particle physics, genetics, the value of pi, dinosaurs, erosion, a heliocentric solar system...)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Galen on August 28, 2011 at 11:04pm

Even when I was a Christian, the expectation that the Bible should answer everything didn't make sense to me.  If God were real, then he would've intended the Bible to be a history of his interaction with humans and a guide to salvation, not The Handy Dandy Guide to All Reality.  Really, saying that the Bible doesn't include this fact or that fact isn't an argument against the Bible since nobody would EXPECT such a book to contain such things.  Why the hell would a religious book have any need to include genetics, the value of pi, etc.?  I mean, if I were God, I wouldn't have included any of that stuff in my book, cuz I'd feel like I made my people smart enough to figure that shit out on their own.  Or maybe God is just following the Prime Directive :)

 

*sigh*  But then, even as I say this, I'm sure there are xtians out there somewhere who claim that all those things ARE in the Bible "if you just know how to interpret it!"  LOL!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Athiel Deophagy on August 28, 2011 at 11:25pm

Except that the Bible does actually give the value of pi... I forget the exact verse, but it claims that Pi=3, which while a workable approximation isn't true. And I actually agree with you on this: I wouldn't expect such information to be included in the Bible either and yet people are determining the future scientific and cultural progress by interpreting, or rather misinterpreting, what is in there: Abortion, stem cell research, evolution, gay marriage, etc are just NOT in the text and yet...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Athiel Deophagy on August 28, 2011 at 11:56pm

In I Kings 7:23-26. It doesn't call it pi, since that label hadn't been applied yet, but it gives the exact dimensions of a circle: http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/pibible.htm.

And as far as homosexuality is concerned, it is not "clearly condemned". At best you can say the sex act between the same genders is condemned, but nothing about a union between the two. And even that's a bit of a stretch, as the verses which deal with homosexuality are still vague (http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gay/long.htm). And by the same token, if you accept that homosexuality is "clearly condemned" you also have to accept that so is having long hair (1 Corinthians 11:14), that women should not speak(1 Corinthians 14:34-36) and more silliness.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Godless Conservative on August 28, 2011 at 11:30pm

No, but you would expect it to be 100% right about the things it did say.

 

When it tells stories that are impossible like Adam or the flood you know it can't be inspired by the force that made the Universe.  All religions seem to have that one thing in common.  Science has shown something in their mythology to be laughable.

 

http://godlessconservative.com

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Garrett Taffer on August 28, 2011 at 11:54pm

I asked the alien question during my tenure at religionville. I got different opinions. The usual answer I got was NO; God created us and we are far too special. On occasion, I would get a MAYBE. And then I would get a YES, with the possibility that we will visit them in order to take care of them. That one was interesting. We would go to a planet that God made, filled with little aliens still in their infancy stages of EVOLUTION and help them along so that we may.... what? Use them as slaves? Have them worship us and therefore God through proxy?

Regardless, it was the 'most best' answer I've received. I think I will write a book based on it and call it Dying Edicts.

Ha!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Arcus on August 29, 2011 at 11:43am

"Why put the species he loves best here?"

Interesting question. Seeing as we have yet to be extincted by natural causes I guess one argument is that he wished for us to have the safest possible location and therefore placed us a bit "remotely". Another theory is that he placed us just close enough to have the possibility of one day communicating with his other creations, but not so close that they would pose a danger to our well being, or ours to their, until such time we are ready for contact.

Or perhaps he haven't studied marketing and the mantra "location, location, location". ;)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Laura Benedict on August 29, 2011 at 2:54pm

With my upbringing in Mormonism, this was (surprisingly) addressed from time to time. Mormons believe in extra-terrestrial beings- more specifically, in extra-terrestrial human-like beings. Jesus died for the salvation of all creation. That includes the animals and such on this planet as well. The Bible does request for the disciples to go and preach the Gospel to all of creation. Funny enough, that means the horses, the fish, and the spiders, newts, and slimy creatures. It probably means the rocks and the trees, too.

By the way- just as a side-note, Mormons believe that God thinks of us humans (those of us on Earth) as the "Red-headed Step-Children" of the Universe. He has other Begotten Sons and Daughters on other planets, but Jesus is the ONLY Begotten Son on this planet. Kind of interesting to think about.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page