You seem to have rather strong opinions about this. I would rather think ‘never say never’ when we are talking about future technology.
I agree that we do not yet know how interstellar travel would be possible, except generation ships. I assume that we do not have perfect knowledge of all phenomena related to this. Perhaps further study of quantum physics will open up some technological advancements that are now considered impossible - who can say that (s)he has perfect understanding of the phenomena happening at the quantum level.
Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
81
Not all opinions are equal. No one can achieve interstellar communication, let alone transport. Because if they could, we’d know. QM cannot provide FTL or ER bridges or raging jets of zero point energy or any other woo. Because it hasn’t. Anywhere in the past hundred million years. We know that.
PS the window for inhabited worlds will be bigger than that by an order of magnitude. Anywhere in the past billion years. Which means anywhere. If woo exists then intelligent life should find it within ten thousand years of civilization. Meaning it has been used from a billion years from a billion worlds. Space opera. Without a trace.
Not that I disagree with your point, but those are hardly compelling arguments and are in fact each a logical fallacy. And I bet you could give us its Latin name without looking it up.
I would make a distinction beween ‘extraterrestrial’ and angels etc. that could perhaps be called ‘extradimensional’ or something else.
Extraterrestrials live on or in some objects outside our globe. Mostly we think of creatures living very far from earth, in other stellar systems. Might also be organisms living on space ships or comparable structures. So far, we have no evidence of extraterrestrials although we have observations of potentially habitable planet systems. Habitable planet systems are not a proof of intelligent life outside earth.
I would not call angels and demons ‘extraterrestrial’. I don’t know what they are or where they live. What is told could perhaps be interpreted as something that is not tied to the same dimensions as we are, at least not as tightly tied. In that sense, ‘extradimensional’ creatures. ‘Extradimensional’ is just a potential label, it does not necessarily mean that angels live in other dimensions. I think that ‘spiritual creatures’ or something like that is a bit too vague label in this context, although we could talk about ‘spiritual realms’.
I agree that what is in the Bible was written for humans on earth. Gospel is about salvation of humans and, in a wider sense, of the creation living on earth.
Thinking that what has happened on earth is what matters in other galaxies is very human- and earth-centered thinking. It is not God-centered thinking. God has created the wonders of the universe. I see no reason why He could not have created life in other galaxies. If He has created life elsewhere, it is not our business to decide the fate of these other creatures.
Not gonna lie, I really don’t see the existence of aliens as any different from that of angels. We know as Christians that humans aren’t the only intelligent species God has made.
Do angels really qualify as a “species”? They seem to not really fulfill standard biological definitions of being alive: not requiring physical energy, not reproducing, etcetera.
With Klax, there is no probability. Only certainty.
2 Likes
Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
95
Aye, to assume that we are naturally the only sapient species on 10^24 worlds in our infinitesimal universe of infinity from eternity is… unsound. Wherever it can rain, life will almost inevitably follow and evolve, at least on rocky worlds.
The assumption that life evolves when conditions are beneficial is an assumption. There may be life on other planets but we do not yet have any evidence for or against the assumption. Using life on Earth as evidence is not a strong argument. When N=1, we cannot say whether the incident is unique or not.
Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
97
It’s an assumption of normality, of mediocrity, of uniformitarianism, of Kolmogorov Complexity, of common sense, of humility. In faith or not. You, me, humanity, Earth are nothing special at all, in God or no.
