Belief in aliens a new religion?

[Eldorado]

"Belief in aliens is like faith in religion — and may come to replace it."
---

"According to Diana Pasulka, a professor at the University of North Carolina and author of the new book American Cosmic, belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials is becoming a kind of religion — and it isn’t nearly as fringe as you might think.

"More than half of American adults and over 60 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This tracks pretty closely with belief in God, and if Pasulka is right, that’s not an accident."

Full article at Vox magazine: https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/4/18632778/ufo-aliens-american-cosmic-diana-pasulka

 

"Is belief in aliens a religious impulse?"

2017 article at Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/belief-in-aliens-may-be-a-religious-impulse/?redirect=1

[XenoFish]

So scientology is the future?

[quiXilver]

Shiva in Hindu system is described repeatedly as 'non-local', 'not human', and 'not of this world' and was said to come and go from earth and to take a pleasing human shape when he was around...  so I guess there's precedent.

 

[zep73]

It makes perfect sense.

Science has put spirituality under scrutiny. A scrutiny that makes many people deselect it. But they still feel the same woo. So they point it to the stars instead.

But it goes wrong, when they insist there are visitors from said stars. And that is the new battlefield for reason.

But the battle is still the same: Claims/faith vs. Evidence.

[the13bats]

i think a few right here worship aliens or the idea of them.

[Tatetopa]

Is belief in god or aliens the same as religion?  Does anybody worship aliens and pray to them for intervention or favors?  Just curious.

[Grey Area]

4 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Is belief in god or aliens the same as religion? 

Well the religion is the rules, the dogma that comes from having faith.  Doesn’t matter what that faith is if there is someone saying you have to do x y and z to truly believe there’s your religion.

A person can believe in a god and not subscribe to a religion.

 

[Orphalesion]

Haven't there been UFO cults and, yes, the substitution of "Aliens" for "God" in attempts to explain human existence for several decades now?

[Minimalists]

8 minutes ago, Orphalesion said:

Haven't there been UFO cults and, yes, the substitution of "Aliens" for "God" in attempts to explain human existence for several decades now?

Yeah..Heavens Gate was one..Here are a few more on Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UFO_religions

[freetoroam]

I would not really compare it to religion. There is no going to a building to pray or worship.an icon, there is no fictional.book written by man. 

I would say it is more like the belief in aliens has replaced the belief in a god for some people.

Gods are unproven and as time has gone by, many have wisened up.to the idea that there is no god and religion is a man made concept.

But alien life out there? Absolutely posible. 

Quote

But the belief that UFOs and aliens are potentially true, and can potentially be proven, makes this a uniquely powerful narrative for the people who believe in it.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/4/18632778/ufo-aliens-american-cosmic-diana-pasulka

True ^

I do not believe in a god, but do believe there is alien life somewhere in the Universe.

There are no similarities in religious belief and alien life belief, apart from them both being a belief, but one is  very posible.

She could just aswell have compared the belief in alien life to the belief in climate change.

The article starts of quite interesting, but it is soon clear the main focus is to promote her book. Fair enough, but i will not buy the  book as I do not think she should have dragged religion into.this at all. 

 

 

[the13bats]

3 hours ago, Alien Origins said:

Yeah..Heavens Gate was one..Here are a few more on Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UFO_religions

yeah...if im not mistaken doe the leader believed the key and must to enlightenment was castration...nope, no thanks.

[Chaldon]

So, according to Diana Pasulka, the USS Nimitz UFO video and the pilot testimony is a proof of God's existence?

[Chaldon]

20 hours ago, freetoroam said:

I do not believe in a god, but do believe there is alien life somewhere in the Universe.

There are no similarities in religious belief and alien life belief, apart from them both being a belief, but one is  very posible.

It depends on what God is to you. If it's what it is for me, as was for Giordano Bruno, his existence is just as possible.

Edited June 5, 2019 by Chaldon

[Talion78]

21 hours ago, freetoroam said:

I would not really compare it to religion. There is no going to a building to pray or worship.an icon, there is no fictional.book written by man. 

I would say it is more like the belief in aliens has replaced the belief in a god for some people.

Gods are unproven and as time has gone by, many have wisened up.to the idea that there is no god and religion is a man made concept.

But alien life out there? Absolutely posible. 

True ^

I do not believe in a god, but do believe there is alien life somewhere in the Universe.

There are no similarities in religious belief and alien life belief, apart from them both being a belief, but one is  very posible.

She could just aswell have compared the belief in alien life to the belief in climate change.

The article starts of quite interesting, but it is soon clear the main focus is to promote her book. Fair enough, but i will not buy the  book as I do not think she should have dragged religion into.this at all. 

 

 

100% agree, belief in something is in itself not a religion. Some people may have become cultists and turned it into a religion for them.

[freetoroam]

1 hour ago, Chaldon said:

It depends on what God is to you. If it's what it is for me, as was for Giordano Bruno, his existence is just as possible.

God is nothing to me, so there is no depending on my part.

There is still so much we do not know about the Universe, but the idea of alien life is not based on an idea or faith, it is based on what we know about Earth, the fact that a planet does have live on it and with the amount of other planets and the size of the Universe, would be naive to think we are the only planet with life.

We need only look around us to see where the posibilities lie in terms of alien life on another planet, because  Earth is filled with  life itself.

We know life was created, but the most simplest answer to the question 'how' would be 'a god made it'. I believe it is not that simple. 

We could go into evolution and explain how life begins and ends and why climate plays a big part in life on Earth, we also know that mutation is a big part of evolution, all this is posible on another planet too.

God..........we only have mans belief, infact we have more events throughout history to show there is nothing looking down on us and quite frankly, i find it pretty ridiculous in todays day and age to believe an alleged creator would cause so much destruction to his alleged creation. 

On that note, what does god mean to you? 

[Skulduggery]

It seems to me, the writer makes little to no distinction between belief in extraterrestrial life, UFOs, and UFOs being extraterrestrial in origin. The title itself is clickbait-y as hell.

I believe extraterrestrial life exists. I seriously doubt it is visiting the earth in spaceships. UFOs aren't by definition alien, just unidentified objects in the sky. Pieces like this are problematic. 

[the13bats]

i will fully respect everyone beliefs here, but heres my fear, not so much the end result but the messenger, what if hes right,

[TheFightingHellkitties]

That's a Trade Federation capital ship in the accompanied pic

[Trelane]

1 hour ago, the13bats said:

i will fully respect everyone beliefs here, but heres my fear, not so much the end result but the messenger, what if hes right,

 

[Big Jim]

Is there really a difference?  Both are beliefs in something "out there", unseen and unproven and perhaps unprovable.  The differences all seem to lie in the words we choose to describe whatever it is.  Mormons believe that people can advance to become gods of their own worlds, so there is at least one example of the blending of the two concepts.  They also believe that God (capital G) inhabits a planet called Kolob.  Unproven, perhaps unprovable.  There are many other cases where aliens, gods, angels, spirits and the like are interchangeable.  It could be that all believers believe in exactly the same thing, but have imagined or received different visions of it.  If people who speak different languages all see the same movie, their impressions will be the same but their descriptions will not.

[fred_mc]

I think these things are completely different. We know there is life on Earth and we know that there is from a practical point of view an infinite number of planets in the universe. Then it makes sense that life would also exist somewhere else, since the same physical laws apply. On the other hand, there is not the slightest evidence that there would be a God so belief in God is pure belief, not based on facts like the belief of alien life is.

[Gary Meadows]

If no one has been killed over it, it is not a religion.

[+DieChecker]

It shouldn't be too long till some alien "scriptures" start appearing online for the True Believers.

[Chaldon]

13 hours ago, freetoroam said:

God is nothing to me, so there is no depending on my part.

There is still so much we do not know about the Universe, but the idea of alien life is not based on an idea or faith, it is based on what we know about Earth, the fact that a planet does have live on it and with the amount of other planets and the size of the Universe, would be naive to think we are the only planet with life.

We need only look around us to see where the posibilities lie in terms of alien life on another planet, because  Earth is filled with  life itself.

We know life was created, but the most simplest answer to the question 'how' would be 'a god made it'. I believe it is not that simple. 

We could go into evolution and explain how life begins and ends and why climate plays a big part in life on Earth, we also know that mutation is a big part of evolution, all this is posible on another planet too.

God..........we only have mans belief, infact we have more events throughout history to show there is nothing looking down on us and quite frankly, i find it pretty ridiculous in todays day and age to believe an alleged creator would cause so much destruction to his alleged creation. 

On that note, what does god mean to you? 

God for me is the primordial intelligent origin which lies beyond the laws of physics, procreates them as the consequence of his own structure and manifests itself most clearly in mathematics.

[Rlyeh]

Raelism.