How would the discovery of extraterrestrials affect the religious community in terms of structure belief faith
470313
It wouldnt, no discovieres have changed them in there ways. Case in point. The solar system is not geocentric, the earth is round, and evolution GET OVER IT ITS NOT A FING THEORY. sorry had to get my two sense in, just has some LDS folks come to teh door.
755326
Nothing of this kind would happen. The stranglehold of  religion is so strong on human minds that even the discovery that there are other parallel universes elsewhere would not loosen it. In fact, the findings of such a bewieldering variety of intelligent 'human beings'    would firm up their faith in God and belief in His infinite capacity of creation.Perhaps if the aliens are also religious they might be having similar ideas of their being created in the image of their god in which case there would a confluence of ideas further bolstering religion.When the monotheist and polytheist religions came into contact with each other both of them adjusted their beliefs to the new findings. The monotheists took that the many forms of god are but the multifarious manifestations of a single god. The polytheists joined in by saying that God is essentially one and only one and all others are his forms taken by him on various occasions. The Indian philosopher Shankaracharya says that even a savage performing human sacrifices is a religious person in no way inferior from the philosoher who attempts to attaain god merely through meditation.  The difference is only in degrees.The savage does not sacrifice human just for satisfying his tougue with flesh. He has an unclear and yet definitely an idea to rise above him.The clash of civilisations which is at present  much talked about is not essentially bad. It is an opportunity of evolving a deeper understanding of each other.
591399
Wow:  Thanks for the info about the DNA.  For those readers that wondered how the world comes into being without God creating what He alone is able and willing, such info as the DNA, let alone the rest of the whole complex of Created mass and masterpieces, it rests on this issue.  You see, you think, and you understand.  OR you see, and refuse to see, you think and you refuse to think, and you refuse to understand.  Part of that matter of Free choice.  The simple fact is, what you choose to believe is also part of the gift you were given in Creation.  You believe or not, and amazing, it gives you a part in the rest of the community.  There are adequate numbers of unbelievers, that will all affirm your faithlessness, just as there are adequate numbers of believers who will affirm your believe in pagan cult, just as there are adequate numbers of believers in Islam, or Christianity or any other form religion.  Numbers however, doesnt affirm factuallity.  Flat world theorists believe it.  Round world hanging in space believe it.  Sun circling the earth believers affirm it, as do earth circling the sun believers affirm their bit of observation.  \n   Did Noach go searching for the animals?  No, the Text says, according to Moses, affirming that GOd instructed him to write, that God caused the animals to come to the ark.  Noachs job was to build it and stock it with grain and grass, as all the animals would eat vegetarian while aboard, including Noach and family.  Is that possible?  Depends on how you view and believe.  Impossible for those who refuse to believe that GOD was involved.  Possible for those that choose to believe in such miracle process or natural process.   It is all amazing, no matter what you believe.  If you believe God created, thats amazing.  From my point of view thats acceptable.  What would be more amazing is to try to figure out how all this world in all its complexity came into being without a Creator God, since it is obviously more complex than any human can contrive.  Heck,,,we cant even create a blade of grass from nothing, let alone a human eye..or the rest of a human being.\n   The story of the group of scientists who were all working on a grand assignment, to duplicate life...and one day they all agreed, they had done it.  Accomplished the grand impossible,  they had developed a life form in a petri dish.   Eureka they shouted...we did it.  We dont need GOD any more.   THEN GOD SAID :  Now, try it without anything:  No dirt, no fire, no water, no air and no petri dish.
944737
We would probably discover as we explored the final frontier, boldly going where no man had gone before, that there were no new unknown lives to seek out, no new civilizations to study.\n\nIn any case, I do not know why that would change a person's beliefs either way. I don't think it would change who we are inside either. It never did in the past when the explorers searched out "new worlds" such as the Americas and so forth.
1155590
No one can say for sure, for proving Gods existence would remove the need for faith. Without faith God does not exist.\nThe concept of Gods was created by every culture independent of each other. Can the whole of humanity be wrong?
1103044
No, i do not think that people will believe in Jesus neither on nor after the day of the rapture. I believe that they would rather believe that there is an extraterrestrial force that caused millions of people to "disappear" and they will, of course, search for a solution. It's human nature to find an excuse for something we cannot explain or do not believe in.
746539
It would be the greatest thing that ever happened in respect to religion all that bullshit of creationism and religious intolerance will be washed away. For that matter all forms of control on this planet will be destroyed. It will happen. People cant deny this forever.
956118
OK - I don't have a religion. And I don't see what your question has to do with the title of your question. Religion doesn't play into the 5 'Entities' that you listed. So not quite sure where you are going with this but.... \n\nI am quite content to say that there is currently no answer to your question. If I could explain it - I should be paid many big bucks for the answer as it seems your question is one of those that is unexplainable, and one that scientists labour over daily.\n\nWe might never know. But in the same respect, I do not believe that a 'Higher Being' is necessarily the only other option to natural causes of life on this planet or the universe.\n\nI suspect that 'Intelligence' IS the basis and foundation of molecular biology, not separated from the article, not an outside force. Why do we need to personify that intelligence? In whatever form it exists - unlocking that intelligence will be a task-and-a-half.
838089
I don't care to define them. I just know that they're out there and I'm thankful for the good they they may do for me.\n\nBeing agnostic, I don't think it's possible to know. I don't think anyone can know, since there is and will never be any evidence of anything, only faith. And I really don't think faith is good enough to hold such strong, rigid beliefs over. But something had to have created all of this, and something must account for there being religion almost every known culture, even those that have been in isolation.
212978
Actually, all that stuff is too confusing for the average Joe to consider. I think it actually takes more faith to believe all that stuff than it does to believe in creation. Of course, that's just MY take on the whole matter. It's almost like believing a junk yard blew up one day, then came back together to form a cadillac. It's just too much to believe for me. <*)))><
607249
religion or family believes.
1103535
The universe created by God has influenced religion greatly.\n\nMany people believe in God just by contemplating the universe. \n\nI think we need to learn from history, live today like it's our last, and plan for the future.\n\nI don't think we should or need to predict the future.\n\nWe should trust the future to God, the creator of the universe.\n\nWith love in Christ.
918031
I don't think that should be a factor.  Our representatives should be experts in relevant fields.  Religion is not one of those fields.  There probably should, however, be someone knowledgeable about human culture who could explain to the aliens the place religion has on earth.
881761
Hi. You are pretty optimistic about the development of science without the wonder of the night sky. Assuming we were still a curious breed and tried to mimic birds then I would suspect the sight of the sun would start a new religion.
511392
So true.  It's funny to watch the christians distance themselves from the "raelien" religion.........they believe the SAME EXACT thing except their "god" was a space alien.
875740
The key words are faith and belief. that is why I get so on my high horse when religions try to invoke science to try and prove thier god exists, or even worse use their god to prove science doesn't.
208934
Results: http://www.selectsmart.com/PRO/beliefnet/index1.html\nThe top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.\nBelief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.\n\n1.  Unitarian Universalism (100%)  \n2.  Theravada Buddhism (99%)  \n3.  Mahayana Buddhism (92%)  \n4.  Neo-Pagan (88%)  \n5.  Liberal Quakers (87%)  \n6.  Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (83%)  \n7.  New Age (80%)  \n8.  Taoism (75%)  \n9.  Hinduism (73%)  \n10.  Jainism (69%)  \n11.  Sikhism (68%)  \n12.  New Thought (66%)  \n13.  Secular Humanism (64%)  \n14.  Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (63%)  \n15.  Bahá'í Faith (61%)  \n16.  Scientology (55%)  \n17.  Reform Judaism (55%)  \n18.  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (45%)  \n19.  Orthodox Quaker (44%)  \n20.  Nontheist (35%)  \n21.  Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (32%)  \n22.  Jehovah's Witness (27%)  \n23.  Orthodox Judaism (26%)  \n24.  Seventh Day Adventist (22%)  \n25.  Eastern Orthodox (15%)  \n26.  Islam (15%)  \n27.  Roman Catholic (15%)  \n\nLOL, well, you asked !   :)