Mars and the Strangers From a Strange Land
This week a German scientist announced that he believes that he has found signs of life in Martian soil experiments conducted in 1976, during the Viking mission. If this were to hold up, and there is life on Mars (albeit different), does this have implications for the world view of many religious fundamentalists? Can they still maintain their hold on the Earth-centered universe of God if there is life on other planets, and perhaps on many planets? I wonder.
Tags: Religion
At the very least fundamentalists Christians (people who believe in the “literal” truth of the bible) would have to acknowledge that information was left out of Genesis.
Since fundamentalists also believe in the omnipotence of God they could probably change gears pretty quickly and adopt a “The bible is the literal truth with regard to things that happened on the planet Earth” type of position.
As for Mormons, they believe in the 1950’s sci-fi versions of extraterrestrials that look like us and speak English.
From wikipedia:
(In the LDS Church) It is believed that this earth is not unique, but one of many of his creations. As such, it is believed that there are other worlds that are peopled and that they would also have been created in his image and after his likeness similar to this world. Though the LDS Church has not explicitly adopted any official doctrines on the existence or absence of extraterrestrials, there are a number of scriptural passages in the church’s scriptural canon which can be interpreted as implying the existence of life on other planets in the universe. For example, in referring to Jesus Christ, the Doctrine and Covenants states
“That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.”[1]
Individual men and some church leaders have espoused opinions that demonstrate their personal beliefs in other life in the universe.
Oh ye, of no faith (hallmark of liberalism).
“God created the heavens and the earth.” I need nothing more than that. It would be folly to assume that we were the only planet he created life on. I am a firm believer that life exists out there. It would be extremely ELITIST to believe that this is the only planet with life. So logic would dictate an earth-centric view for liberals.
Ah, Chris. You are truly a moron of the highest order. Are you saying that there are not fundamentalists (in positions of authority) that do have the elitist view of Earth as the center and only source of life? These are the same people that believe that evolution is a bunch of bull and that the Earth is 6000 years old.
Just because you have a liberal view of life on other planets, please don’t think that this wouldn’t be a huge shock to the system of many fundamentalists. They will hold book burnings to destroy books that claim that there is life on other planets. And your ilk will be there handing out matches.