Two hypothetical situations, for both atheists and believers alike...

This is retarded.

> Their evidence for God would likely be so complicated
Can at least they show the miracles of their technology? Like ressurect people or turn a water into the wine? If bible is believed than same miracles have the same credibility.

These are words.

Yes, of course. I should have clarified in the OP, but assume that they do show some evidence of their hyper-advanced technology. They're capable of making people immortal, they can resurrect the dead, etc etc. Like I said, shit that seems like magic. Teleportation, levitation.

I think I hate agnostics more than any other group of people. Every single one of them is such a pretentious cunt.

These are more words.

Wow! What a deep insights.
>>> r/reddit

Situation 2

Colonize them like we did africa

Christian here, neither of those scenarios would change my mind. There would be a lot of inter-denominational debate on whether the aliens have souls, require salvation, or are sinless, and a lot of that would depend on the nature of the aliens in question, but it wouldn't be faith shattering by any means, merely intriguing. I would be excited to spread the faith to the far reaches of the galaxy.

Hm... What if some humans would be confirmed to be aliens? Would they be free from faith being necessary for them for theological reasons? How alien nature means that you are sinless? Maybe other way around?

In regards to situation 2, has christian teaching specifically stated that we are alone in the universe? Furthermore couldn;t it be argued that the divine message was simply anthrocentric?

Here again. I fail to see how situation 2 would be a test of faith for either group

According to God himself, there will be a recompense for everyone according to their works. The saints will live again, and there will be no more suffering or death.

I never said that "believer" meant Christian, just that you believe in a higher power. But no, it doesn't say anywhere in Christian teaching that we are alone in the universe because throughout most of human history it was assumed that we are. That doesn't mean it's necessarily contradictory, but it very much presents a problem for Christians specifically that if we were created in His image, that doesn't leave much room for the myriad of countless intelligent species we would discover.

As for it being a "test of faith," it essentially would be for both groups for this reason:
For most believers, it would mean that life on Earth, and humans specifically, are not special. For many this would be hard to take because most religions teach the sanctity of human life, that we are somehow different from everything else for one reason another, be it our ability to reason, or speak, or our possession of a soul, whatever.

For non-believers, the second situation would pose a problem because it would show that Life, and human life specifically, IS unique and special. And if billions of other planets had the capacity to sustain life, and yet none of them did, then it would mean that it was just one hell of a coincidence that we existed, and science doesn't like coincidences. For a lot of people, I think that realization would point them in the direction that perhaps there is a reason we exist, and if there is a reason, there would likely be a higher power that guided that reason.

> IS unique and special
We could always be the first one to exist... Or the last one to survive.

It depends on the actions and history of the aliens. If the aliens act like Adam and Eve before they ate the apple, and are generally innocent and pure (though not incapable of making mistakes) then most would come to the conclusion that they are an unfallen alien race. Whether that is because they never ate the equivalent of the "fruit" or because they are lesser than humans (since God did not see fit to give them the choice between choosing or rejecting him) remains to be seen.

However, if the aliens act like we'd expect them to act, normal and capable of doing wrong, then one of two conclusions could be reached. Either they are a fallen alien species that is in need of a savior like us, or they are just a really smart animal without a soul. Whether there is a Christ-like savior figure in their history or religions will definitely influence this as well.

I just think you're hypothetical is flawed; atheists do not perceive the question of human existence in the universe in terms of exceptionalism / and or the implications of this on the existence of god.

Nor, from my understanding, do religious people hinge the existence of a higher power on some kind of understanding that humans are a unique species in the universe.

I couldn't possibly give a fuck.
I'm pretty sure that most Christians wouldn't be able to recognize the founder of their own religion if he showed up in front of them.

And for a very good reason.

This.
t. Jesus Christ

I would ask the aliens to show that proof.

And i'd colonise some planets yet would keep the searching up

The only thing you need to know is that spot on Jupiter is really an eye and its watching us.

It's ok, it's God.

There's a lesser-known Great Dark Spot on Neptune, though, pointed directly at the Earth.

That's the other guy.

Oh thanks, i glad im not the only who noticed.

>The same situation, only the hyper-advanced aliens reveal that they are an incredibly pious and religious race, that they believe in a God with a theology not unlike that of Christianity, and that they believe they have in fact proved his existence through their study of the very fabric of reality.
Wouldn't buy it until their results could be confirmed by our scientists, but if they could I would.

>We branch out into the universe only to discover... we really are alone. Out of billions and billions, possibly trillions, of solar systems surveyed, not one of them has life in them. Not so much as a single bacterium, or even an amino acid. We, as a planet, are truly alone in the Universe.
I don't see how this would be a problem. I kind of already suspect it's the case. Life needs a very specific set of circumstances to arise and it doesn't seem that outlandish to me that it would have happened only once (so far).

Actually, as of last year I think, the Great Dark Spot on Neptune disappeared.
It would take thousands of years for our scientists to replicate the results. As I said before, they are hyper-advanced. But they have faster than light travel, and they're capable of such miracles as raising the dead and walking on water. Would that not be proof enough for you?

>But they have faster than light travel, and they're capable of such miracles as raising the dead and walking on water. Would that not be proof enough for you?
Not really. Sounds to me like we're the Indians and they're the Eurpoean missionaries. Being technologically advanced doesn't mean they're above superstition.

You can't make that comparison. The Europeans were technologically more advanced than the Indians, sure, but at least there were analogues to their technologies. You could explain a carrack very easily to an Indian as a large canoe with sails. You could explain a musket as a tube with fire that pushes out the bullet. You could explain tools and clothing easily.

This would be something we have no analogue to. It would be like trying to explain a microchip to a caveman, they just don't even have any fuckin clue what you're talking about.

I'm just really trying to hit home that in my hypothetical, these aliens are, for all intents and purposes, gods. They can raise people from the dead, they can travel anywhere in the universe as quickly as they please. They've unlocked the very secrets of how the universe exists, what it is made up of at its most fundamental level. And through this research they have not only found the "how" to everything, they've found the "why" too.

>And through this research they have not only found the "how" to everything, they've found the "why" too.

So then, not gods.

Stop smoking weed, this thread is literally retarded.

>This would be something we have no analogue to. It would be like trying to explain a microchip to a caveman, they just don't even have any fuckin clue what you're talking about.
But that's also what I'm getting at. Just because we can invent something beyond a caveman's comprehension doesn't mean our religions are more true than his and just because an alien can invent something beyond our comprehension doesn't mean we should accept their religion. Even if they claim it's based on real evidence, we couldn't just take their word for it without understanding it ourselves because if they're anything like us they would be prone to interpreting evidence in a way that confirms their own beliefs.

>and that they believe they have in fact proved his existence through their study of the very fabric of reality.
Can the proofs be replicated and do they make sense?

I mean, the whole "god is the greatest possible being; the greatest possible being would exist, therefore god exists" is allegedly a proof of god too, but c'mon. A god with the world record for eating skateboards would inherently be greater than a god without, by the same logic.

>We, as a planet, are truly alone in the Universe.
Why? Great Filter? Did they all get killed off beforehand? Is there no life of any kind, or just no sapient life? Is there a coherent reason, or some thing we can guess at?

None of these seem like very compelling "question your atheism beliefs" questions. They're just sort of... odd, and if you're an atheist you probably don't react to strangeness by immediately adopting religion.