Your Faith and Extraterrestrial Life

[Audie]

More of the Bible according to your interpretation. Below is one Bible believer's interpretation of resurrection, with which I fully agree. It is completely different from your idea of a future paradise on earth, but is supported by the Bible. Go figure. I (don't) wonder why that is.

421. When the body is no longer able to perform the bodily functions in the natural world that correspond to the spirit’s thoughts and affections, which the spirit has from the spiritual world, man is said to die. This takes place when the respiration of the lungs and the beatings of the heart cease. But the man does not die; he is merely separated from the bodily part that was of use to him in the world, while the man himself continues to live. It is said that the man himself continues to live since man is not a man because of his body but because of his spirit, for it is the spirit that thinks in man, and thought with affection is what constitutes man. Evidently, then, the death of man is merely his passing from one world into another. And this is why in the Word in its internal sense “death” signifies resurrection and continuation of life. Heaven and Hell, p. 351

The continuing popularity of the bible has to be in part because it says whatever anyone wants it to say.

 

[Trailblazer]

Christendom ( so-called Christian ) are part of the fake ' weed/tares ' and that is why the understanding is Not there - Matthew 13:24-30
The words of 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 can never be exhausted, but goat-like Christendom will be exhausted in this Harvest Time.
This coming ' time of separation ' on Earth as found at Matthew 25:31-33,37.

Funny thing, that is what Christendom says about your beliefs, yet you are all reading the same Bible.

Can't you even TRY to explain why you think this happens without citing a Bible verse?
It is called using your rational mind and thinking for yourself.

If you push the envelope any further I will give you the Baha'i interpretation of the verses you cited.

 

[Trailblazer]

The continuing popularity of the bible has to be in part because it says whatever anyone wants it to say.

Which means that people can believe whatever they want to believe.

 

[Audie]

Which means that people can believe whatever they want to believe.

Sort of

 

[Trailblazer]

Sort of

Why sort of?

 

[Audie]

Why sort of?

Coz its not the same thing.

 

[Trailblazer]

Coz its not the same thing.

Do you mean what people believe and what they want to believe is not the same thing?

 

[Audie]

Do you mean what people believe and what they want to believe is not the same thing?

I suppose there is overlap, self deception, wishful thinking and whatnot.

Just saying, whatever one sets out to find in the Bible you can find it. Flying saucer, secret code, justify slavery,...

 

[Trailblazer]

Just saying, whatever one sets out to find in the Bible you can find it. Flying saucer, secret code, justify slavery,...

No truer words were ever spoken.
There is no coherence in the Bible and that is why Christians have so many different beliefs.
Why Christians cannot understand that is anyone's best guess, I write it off to a lack of logical abilities.

 

[rational experiences]

What does your faith have to say about other biological life in the universe?

Does your faith teach we are "alone," so to speak, the only planet in the universe to support life?

Or perhaps it teaches there are many other planets with life?

If we discover life on other planets, would that change your religious view in some way?

My spirit understanding is that spirit as cell presence bio did not own presence until spatial emptiness had been refilled with gases and was water oxygenated gas light illuminated supported.

That it came out of the highest body that emptied out space had separated.

As every mass form ended facial or boundary cooled as it's highest cold form.

What it released into space. Gas returned spirit form into space. Only when a planet could develop that event. As known only by our own human conscious story would it exist.

Which would prove that cosmology did not create life. As cosmology proves it ends bio life.

If our spirit. The same. In eternal kept releasing itself due to gas mass returned then the lowest life forms would prove we were nearly exterminated. As when eternal started releasing.

How we would claim once a bacteria would have been a human spirit also if only it was released spiritually when our parents were.

All their spirit bodies now just ghosts.

As the highest place historic never in creation that as a spirit had released itself.

Due to its burnt spirit body cooling and remassing as a lower form once was a higher form.

As we all came from the same spirit history I would expect other planets owned the same returned conditions as earth had. And would possibly own bodies of proof.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I believe that there are many worlds of God, because Baha'u'llah wrote that, but I am not concerned about them because I will not see them until after I die. Meanwhile, I think we have to be concerned about THIS world, because this is the only world we can have an effect upon.

I am certain that the human race will survive into the future, and thrive, but that is because of my beliefs.

I believe that this is the Dawn of a New Era and the future will be glorious...

Unlike many Christians, I do not believe it will be the end of the world, but a whole new beginning for all of humanity. I believe that Jesus was referring to the end of an age, not the end of the world, and many newer translations of the verse say that: Matthew 24:3 in all English translations

The end of an age indicates that a new age will unfold. The sun is starting to set on the old age from which humanity has emerged, and we do not have to look very far to see the changes happening all over the world. However, given how old you and I are, I do not believe we will live long enough to see the new age unfold. But for me, it does not matter if I see it, because I know future generations will see it and benefit from it, and that is what really matters.

Each to their own, and what will be, will be.

 

[exchemist]

As we've seen in this thread, some people's faiths do have something to say about it. Thus why I asked. You're welcome to not believe them, of course.

Yeah but you had to wait for the Jehovah's Witnesses to arrive before anyone took the bait.

Speaking for what I know of Christianity, there is nothing in scripture that speaks of life on other planets one way or the other, for the simple reason that the question would never have occurred to the writers of it. I suspect the same will be true for the founding scripture of most other religions. This is an issue that has only arisen since the end of the c.19th.

The only Christian writings on this subject I know of are the novels of CS Lewis that speculate about other life and whether or not it might have avoided the Fall - also whether in other worlds God might have become incarnate in a different form.

But I have found a comment by Fr. Jose Gabriel Funes SJ, who runs the Vatican astronomy programme:

“Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on Earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God,” Funes said in 2008. “This is not in contrast with our faith because we can’t put limits on God’s creative freedom.”
“To say it as St. Francis [of Assisi], if we consider some earthly creatures as ‘brother’ and ‘sister,’ why couldn’t we also talk of an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? He would also belong to creation”.

This seems reasonable to me.

From: The Vatican says there can only be one Jesus in the universe. (Beware misleading headline - as usual )

 

[Jennifer.919]

The Bahá'i Faith states, "Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planets its own creatures, whose number no man can compute." As well as, "Verily I say, the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures." There is likely more that I have not quoted from Bahá'i scripture, as the majority of Bahá'i scripture actually has yet to be translated into English.

 

[Jennifer.919]

It's simply irrelevant for an Earth-based religion. My focus is on developing relationships with that which I can experience and know directly. I see no benefit to orienting my way of life around speculation of things I will never directly know or experience. The only use such ideas have is for creative storytelling or as an academic curiosity.

 

[Jennifer.919]

Many people (including myself), have actually had contact with extraterrestrials on Earth; so it's interesting that you apparently seem to have a clear opinion as to what your future holds. In fact, there are at least two movies and a smartphone app developed by Steven M. Greer, that are geared to teach humanity protocols for initiating peaceful contacts with advanced ET civilizations. When one opens their mind, they may be surprised as to what they'll find.

 

[exchemist]

The Bahá'i Faith states, "Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planets its own creatures, whose number no man can compute." As well as, "Verily I say, the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures." There is likely more that I have not quoted from Bahá'i scripture, as the majority of Bahá'i scripture actually has yet to be translated into English.

A bit off topic, perhaps, but why do people translate scripture written in the c.19th into a sort of cod- Shakespearean English? Nobody spoke like that in Victorian Britain.

 

[exchemist]

Many people (including myself), have actually had contact with extraterrestrials on Earth; so it's interesting that you apparently seem to have a clear opinion as to what your future holds. In fact, there are at least two movies and a smartphone app developed by Steven M. Greer, that are geared to teach humanity protocols for initiating peaceful contacts with advanced ET civilizations. When one opens their mind, they may be surprised as to what they'll find.

Yeah right.

 

[Left Coast]

The Bahá'i Faith states, "Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planets its own creatures, whose number no man can compute." As well as, "Verily I say, the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures." There is likely more that I have not quoted from Bahá'i scripture, as the majority of Bahá'i scripture actually has yet to be translated into English.

Hi! It's unfortunate that the Baha'i Faith got the first one wrong there. We'll see if the second one turns out to be true.

 

[firedragon]

What does your faith have to say about other biological life in the universe?

Does your faith teach we are "alone," so to speak, the only planet in the universe to support life?

Or perhaps it teaches there are many other planets with life?

If we discover life on other planets, would that change your religious view in some way?

In the Islamic faith, the Quran never claims anything that alludes to earth being the only planet with life, and in fact speaks of all the heavens and the earth and creatures spread out in them. I dont think one could make the claim it speaks of alien life, but there were people who claimed this is speaking about life outside of earth.

Anyway, discovering life on any other planet would not change anything.

 

[Almighty God]

I personally would be shocked if Earth is the only planet that has life.

Indeed, I suspect that bacterial life is common. But that is just a wild guess.

Since we have absolutely no idea how often life forms in the universe or the likelihood of life forming, how could we have any idea whether other life exists or not?