Space religion

neutrino_cannon · 23rd April 2003, 11:08 PM

Would a religion formed by a space faring civilization (I'm talking no time earthside) be significantly different then a planetary one? Could a religion even form in space? What about an extremly martial religion? Would they shun Spafesus, dark godess of submunitions failure? How much is religion affected by position of origin?

Just a thought that occured to me. Now, I want to know what the rest of you think.

23rd April 2003, 11:19 PM

Well, you could read some of Niven's books. There's a "space-religion" in there.

I think if we went inter-stellar, it would be bad news for whatever less developed civilizations we encountered.

You think the Jehova's Witlesses are annoying knocking on you door? Wait 'till they show up and threaten to bombard your planet from space if you don't worship their god.

I have "faith" that people would make a religion out of any dumb thing. Naturally people can make religion of space travel.

Whatever form it takes is only a matter of what sort of hypoxic brain damage their "religious leader" has from trying to breathe vacuum several too many times.

neutrino_cannon · 23rd April 2003, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by evildave
Whatever form it takes is only a matter of what sort of hypoxic brain damage their "religious leader" has from trying to breathe vacuum several too many times.

Pitty that "violent decompression" thing doesn't actualy happen.

CWL · 24th April 2003, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by neutrino_cannon
Would a religion formed by a space faring civilization (I'm talking no time earthside) be significantly different then a planetary one? Could a religion even form in space? What about an extremly martial religion? Would they shun Spafesus, dark godess of submunitions failure? How much is religion affected by position of origin?

Just a thought that occured to me. Now, I want to know what the rest of you think.

One might think that once a civilization is advanced enough to travel into the far reaches of space, no new religions would emerge - not courtesy of the people involved in the travelling at any rate. One might however suspect that pseudoscientific new age cults would develop on the home planet - very much like the modern UFO cults that have developed recently here on Earth. Pseudoscience seems to thrive in the aftermath of any new scientific discovery.

Anyway, may the Force be with you.

MRC_Hans · 24th April 2003, 02:32 AM

Quote:

You think the Jehova's Witlesses are annoying knocking on you door? Wait 'till they show up and threaten to bombard your planet from space if you don't worship their god.

Mmm, that would suddenly make Pascal's Wager pertinent and practical!

Hans

Dancing David · 24th April 2003, 07:28 AM

Religion is probably as nessecary to humans as toilet paper, it serves a function that probably can't be replaced. Modern politics is much like religion and so is the way some people talk about science. I am afraid that the need to have other people interptret the mystery is going to stay.

Zen koan- the buddha is a sh*t-stick!

Peace
dancing david

PS I think that they would worship thier families and spaceships!

abramis · 24th April 2003, 09:18 AM

The Star Trek series "Deep Space Nine" is worth checking... All seven seasons (

) is involved(deeply) in the subject Religion/Science/Humanity/Aliens.... it´ll take to long to explain here... But they do have some good points on what lifeforms consider "god" to be....

arcticpenguin · 24th April 2003, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dancing David
Religion is probably as nessecary to humans as toilet paper, it serves a function that probably can't be replaced.

Would you refuse to shake the hand of an atheist?

c4ts · 24th April 2003, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by neutrino_cannon
Would a religion formed by a space faring civilization (I'm talking no time earthside) be significantly different then a planetary one? Could a religion even form in space? What about an extremly martial religion? Would they shun Spafesus, dark godess of submunitions failure? How much is religion affected by position of origin?

Just a thought that occured to me. Now, I want to know what the rest of you think.

I think they'd come up with Logical Deism.

plindboe · 24th April 2003, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by evildave
You think the Jehova's Witlesses are annoying knocking on you door? Wait 'till they show up and threaten to bombard your planet from space if you don't worship their god.

x1000

24th April 2003, 09:56 PM

But seriously folks, all we have to do is look to the past for a model.

What were the Conquistadors, if not GOOD Christians?

Those heathen natives all needed to be taught a good, godly lesson.

A solar sail 100 miles across deploys to slow a spacecraft from interstellar speeds.

Imagine the natives, looking up into the night sky, seeing something bright in the sky, like a comet. Something falls out of the sky and lands among them. They investigate and find an inflatable church has auto-erected its self, and a robotic missionary standing at the pulpit begins...

"Have you let Jesus into your life?"

c4ts · 24th April 2003, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by evildave
But seriously folks, all we have to do is look to the past for a model.

What were the Conquistadors, if not GOOD Christians?

Those heathen natives all needed to be taught a good, godly lesson.

A solar sail 100 miles across deploys to slow a spacecraft from interstellar speeds.

Imagine the natives, looking up into the night sky, seeing something bright in the sky, like a comet. Something falls out of the sky and lands among them. They investigate and find an inflatable church has auto-erected its self, and a robotic missionary standing at the pulpit begins...

"Have you let Jesus into your life?"

Of course, by the time humans arrive on the converted planet, they'll find out how the aliens just added the robotic preacher they called "Jesus" into their pantheon of Gods. That is, if something like religion were comprehensible to them. Otherwise, who knows what they might do with it? Eat it, maybe. Or react with hostility. Sure would be funny if by the time humans arrived, they were greeted by a legion of zealous aliens armed with sharpened rocks and huge needles attempting to pop the spacecraft.

23rd April 2003, 11:08 PM	#1
neutrino_cannon Master Poster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Seventh circle of limbo Posts: 2,573	Space religion Would a religion formed by a space faring civilization (I'm talking no time earthside) be significantly different then a planetary one? Could a religion even form in space? What about an extremly martial religion? Would they shun Spafesus, dark godess of submunitions failure? How much is religion affected by position of origin? Just a thought that occured to me. Now, I want to know what the rest of you think.
	__________________ "Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to the visible objects which interested him, he had employed, to perfect his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his education, one half-the efforts he has put into his researches on the Divinity" -Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

23rd April 2003, 11:19 PM	#2
evildave Guest Posts: n/a	Well, you could read some of Niven's books. There's a "space-religion" in there. I think if we went inter-stellar, it would be bad news for whatever less developed civilizations we encountered. You think the Jehova's Witlesses are annoying knocking on you door? Wait 'till they show up and threaten to bombard your planet from space if you don't worship their god. I have "faith" that people would make a religion out of any dumb thing. Naturally people can make religion of space travel. Whatever form it takes is only a matter of what sort of hypoxic brain damage their "religious leader" has from trying to breathe vacuum several too many times.
evildave Guest Posts: n/a

23rd April 2003, 11:23 PM	#3
neutrino_cannon Master Poster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Seventh circle of limbo Posts: 2,573	Quote: Originally posted by evildave Whatever form it takes is only a matter of what sort of hypoxic brain damage their "religious leader" has from trying to breathe vacuum several too many times. Pitty that "violent decompression" thing doesn't actualy happen.
	__________________ "Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to the visible objects which interested him, he had employed, to perfect his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his education, one half-the efforts he has put into his researches on the Divinity" -Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

24th April 2003, 12:53 AM	#4
CWL Funkateer Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 1,370	Re: Space religion Quote: Originally posted by neutrino_cannon Would a religion formed by a space faring civilization (I'm talking no time earthside) be significantly different then a planetary one? Could a religion even form in space? What about an extremly martial religion? Would they shun Spafesus, dark godess of submunitions failure? How much is religion affected by position of origin? Just a thought that occured to me. Now, I want to know what the rest of you think. One might think that once a civilization is advanced enough to travel into the far reaches of space, no new religions would emerge - not courtesy of the people involved in the travelling at any rate. One might however suspect that pseudoscientific new age cults would develop on the home planet - very much like the modern UFO cults that have developed recently here on Earth. Pseudoscience seems to thrive in the aftermath of any new scientific discovery. Anyway, may the Force be with you.
	__________________ "All is not true which resembles truth" - Swedish Code for Judges (probably composed around 1540) "The obscurely spoken is the obscurely thought" - Swedish poet Esaias Tegnér (1782 - 1846) "Precisely because of human fallibility, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - Carl Sagan

24th April 2003, 02:32 AM	#5
MRC_Hans Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Whithin earshot of the North Sea Posts: 16,602	Quote: You think the Jehova's Witlesses are annoying knocking on you door? Wait 'till they show up and threaten to bombard your planet from space if you don't worship their god. Mmm, that would suddenly make Pascal's Wager pertinent and practical! Hans
	__________________ Don't. Just don't.

24th April 2003, 07:28 AM	#6
Dancing David Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Central Illinois Posts: 34,716	Religion is probably as nessecary to humans as toilet paper, it serves a function that probably can't be replaced. Modern politics is much like religion and so is the way some people talk about science. I am afraid that the need to have other people interptret the mystery is going to stay. Zen koan- the buddha is a sh*t-stick! Peace dancing david PS I think that they would worship thier families and spaceships!
	__________________ Hell, dynamiting fish in a barrel is more challenging. - Ladewig I suspect you are a sandwich, metaphorically speaking. -Donn And a shot rang out. Now Space is doing time... -Ben Burch You built the toilet - don't complain when people crap in it. _Kid Eager

24th April 2003, 09:18 AM	#7
abramis Thinker Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Umeå Posts: 146	The Star Trek series "Deep Space Nine" is worth checking... All seven seasons ( ) is involved(deeply) in the subject Religion/Science/Humanity/Aliens.... it´ll take to long to explain here... But they do have some good points on what lifeforms consider "god" to be....
	__________________ "Hypothetically yes... and hypothetically no." - Swedish medium on the show Andarnas makt.

24th April 2003, 09:21 AM	#8
arcticpenguin woo ban clan Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,717	Quote: Originally posted by Dancing David Religion is probably as nessecary to humans as toilet paper, it serves a function that probably can't be replaced. Would you refuse to shake the hand of an atheist?
	__________________ The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it. - George Bernard Shaw

24th April 2003, 08:55 PM	#9
c4ts Philosopher Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Your base Posts: 8,427	Re: Space religion Quote: Originally posted by neutrino_cannon Would a religion formed by a space faring civilization (I'm talking no time earthside) be significantly different then a planetary one? Could a religion even form in space? What about an extremly martial religion? Would they shun Spafesus, dark godess of submunitions failure? How much is religion affected by position of origin? Just a thought that occured to me. Now, I want to know what the rest of you think. I think they'd come up with Logical Deism.
	__________________ Ha ha ha ha.... Stupid signature size limit.

24th April 2003, 09:16 PM	#10
plindboe Graduate Poster Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Denmark Posts: 1,244	Quote: Originally posted by evildave You think the Jehova's Witlesses are annoying knocking on you door? Wait 'till they show up and threaten to bombard your planet from space if you don't worship their god. x1000

24th April 2003, 09:56 PM	#11
evildave Guest Posts: n/a	But seriously folks, all we have to do is look to the past for a model. What were the Conquistadors, if not GOOD Christians? Those heathen natives all needed to be taught a good, godly lesson. A solar sail 100 miles across deploys to slow a spacecraft from interstellar speeds. Imagine the natives, looking up into the night sky, seeing something bright in the sky, like a comet. Something falls out of the sky and lands among them. They investigate and find an inflatable church has auto-erected its self, and a robotic missionary standing at the pulpit begins... "Have you let Jesus into your life?"
evildave Guest Posts: n/a

24th April 2003, 10:06 PM	#12
c4ts Philosopher Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Your base Posts: 8,427	Quote: Originally posted by evildave But seriously folks, all we have to do is look to the past for a model. What were the Conquistadors, if not GOOD Christians? Those heathen natives all needed to be taught a good, godly lesson. A solar sail 100 miles across deploys to slow a spacecraft from interstellar speeds. Imagine the natives, looking up into the night sky, seeing something bright in the sky, like a comet. Something falls out of the sky and lands among them. They investigate and find an inflatable church has auto-erected its self, and a robotic missionary standing at the pulpit begins... "Have you let Jesus into your life?" Of course, by the time humans arrive on the converted planet, they'll find out how the aliens just added the robotic preacher they called "Jesus" into their pantheon of Gods. That is, if something like religion were comprehensible to them. Otherwise, who knows what they might do with it? Eat it, maybe. Or react with hostility. Sure would be funny if by the time humans arrived, they were greeted by a legion of zealous aliens armed with sharpened rocks and huge needles attempting to pop the spacecraft.
	__________________ Ha ha ha ha.... Stupid signature size limit.