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Not if they are from Kolob

Or if the aliens themselves believed in a Creator. The implicit assumption always seems to be that aliens must be atheists. But who knows? Maybe all advanced races eventually discover that elusive, definitive proof of God's existence and only species in the intermediate stages of development go through an atheist phase.

Would the discovery of E T cause the collapse of religion

Perhaps it might. Who'd want to hang around Earth for the tribulation when one could hie to somewhere else and avoid it?
lol

Depends on the religion. It could potentially help Scientology.

I think most religions would incorporate the existence of aliens into their belief structure. Most Christians, in particular, would read their scriptures as if it spoke to the subject. Religious demographics probably would shift to the more alien friendly religions. And, most importantly, it would be a period of time where new religions spring up. The 50's and 60's were a time of a lot of creativity in the development of new alien cults. It would be like that on crack.

EAllusion wrote:I think most religions would incorporate the existence of aliens into their belief structure. Most Christians, in particular, would read their scriptures as if it spoke to the subject. Religious demographics probably would shift to the more alien friendly religions. And, most importantly, it would be a period of time where new religions spring up. The 50's and 60's were a time of a lot of creativity in the development of new alien cults. It would be like that on crack.

I do think religions like Scientology would benefit, and new religions would probably emerge. Traditional ones may lose members, but would change and adapt. Many Christian religions may do better then LDS in that they don't view God as some exalted Human, so having intelligent aliens who look nothing like a human would be fine. It might even be worse for LDS since an alien race coming here would most likely be more intelligent then us, but I do think even LDS would adapt. You might even get some new revelation(unfalsifiable of course) to explain it.

If Aliens are smart enough to travel to Earth, they are smart enough to present the Earthlings with false deity/deities as well.

Themis wrote: Many Christian religions may do better then LDS in that they don't view God as some exalted Human, so having intelligent aliens who look nothing like a human would be fine.

If the aliens are 'made in His image' in a physical sense, then Heaven is going to a lot scarier than I had imagined. Some people are liable to be a bit put off if this guy shows up at the pearly gates to greet them:

Phillip wrote:

Themis wrote: Many Christian religions may do better then LDS in that they don't view God as some exalted Human, so having intelligent aliens who look nothing like a human would be fine.

If the aliens are 'made in His image' in a physical sense, then Heaven is going to a lot scarier than I had imagined. Some people are liable to be a bit put off if this guy shows up at the pearly gates to greet them:

On the other hand...