The problem lies in the Christian doctrine of original sin. If there are aliens, then either 1. they fell or 2. they didn't fall. If 1 is true, and they fell, the need to be redeemed by the Savior - and it's a little hard to see how fair it would be for them to wait to make contact with earth to wait for Jesus (the Catholic approach, which worked so well with the Native Americans - for the record, I was raised Catholic), unless we join the Mormons and postulate that Jesus has made missions to societies beyond easy contact with ancient Palestine.
If 2 is true, we have Lewis's Perelandra.
Oo, you get points. I wonder, is there anything in the Bible that specifically goes against the Mormon theory? Or perhaps there are other ways that God can redeem people, he just chose to use Christ in our case. I'll have to think about that one.
There isn't much problem with Christian theology and finding alien life, aside from those that take Genesis literally. Intelligent alien life, however, reaches beyond just how one reads Genesis. The basic theology of Christ dying for the sins of all mankind would need to take other intelligent life into account and fit it in somehow. That would be a big stumbling block, and it would apply to all Christianity.
That is a decent point, but I think it could be reasoned out for now, at least until actual aliens are found and their religion investigated. You could say that Christ was only for the atonement of human sins, and that God found other ways (or maybe sent Christ again) to solve the issue with other civilizations. Like I said, I suppose you would have to compare Christianity to the alien's religion, see what did and didn't line up, and if you could find anything along the sin-atonement lines.
What if gods messages to one galactic civilization differes from another?
I think that's the best argument I've heard, I'll have to think about that one. I suppose you'd have to check and see how their religion lines up with Christianity. If Christianity were true, the basic beliefs would have to line up pretty well.
As far as the lordship bit, you could easily say that humans having lordship over this world, not others.
Fine, say everyone takes it literally. There still isn't anything in there that says that God didn't go off and create other people on other planets. DavidTC put it nicely a bit above this post.
Exactly. But for some reason everyone, Christians and atheists alike, seems to think that finding aliens will somehow kill Christianity, yet no one seems to be able to give a good reason why. Just people taking sides without thinking, maybe?
Many Christians (and other theists, for that matter) think that evolution at all conflicts with theology. God created everything perfectly (man in his own image after all) the first time, and nothing changed after that. After all, God's image is perfect, isn't it?
Even for creationists, how would finding life elsewhere prove them wrong (maybe they already conflict with science, sure, but I'm referring to just finding aliens)? They could simply say that God created the aliens too. "In his own image" obviously doesn't mean physical appearance, because then everybody would look the same, right?
Christianity and extraterrestrial life just don't seem to be mutually exclusive, but for some reason everyone thinks they are. I once heard a big-time intelligent design guy give an entire 2-hour lecture on supposedly scientific reasons of why there can only be life on earth, because he felt that life elsewhere would prove that Christianity was bogus, but he never gave a good reason why he felt that way.
I've never understood why Christians are so afraid of finding life on other planets or why atheists are so adamant that it will prove the Christians wrong. The Bible doesn't say anywhere that there is only life on Earth. If you take the creation story in Genesis metaphorically (lots of Christians do), then life evolving on other planets doesn't clash with theology at all; unless of course I'm totally missing something, in which case please point it out because I'm curious. From what I see, religion and science aren't necessarily incompatible.
Ah, is that if you purchase the DLC online instead of getting it in disc format? Because I have the Knights of the Nine disc and The Shivering Isles and I'm not aware of any authentication.
Must be. Oblivion doesn't even have a CD-key. And it also doesn't mind if you pop out the disk while you're playing and give it to a friend.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was going for funny, not insightful, nor do I claim to have any idea what I'm talking about. But please, feel free to keep flaming people and bolstering your ego.
My company goes around looking for engineering students all over the country that want to work. There just aren't enough graduates.
We are in a constant state of hiring....
And what company is this, exactly? I know an engineering student that wants to work:D
I went to a high school where they gave a take-home laptop to every student. Other than some decent tech training we got from finding ways to get around all the blocks the IT department had set up to keep us from installing games and such, I'm still not sure what educational value they had. Honestly they were more of a distraction than anything; we once had so many people online playing Counterstrike (in class) that we slowed the network to the point that the principal actually got on the PA and politely asked everyone to stop killing the network.
And don't think that you would be able to stop the students from installing games/watching movies/getting to Facebook. It was like a constant battle at my school between the students and the IT department; they would constantly be trying to find ways to lock us out and we'd constantly be finding ways to counter. Granted, this was a magnet school focused solely on IT so we had a school full of nerds who knew what they were doing, but I'm sure that even at a normal school the nerds would pass their secrets along.
If you come from a family with a history of heart trouble, the alcohol might help keep that under control. Sure you'll get some fat build up in the liver, but your body can cope with that. Someone with a history of degenerative neurological disorders might want to shy away from it.
Great. My paternal grandmother died of MS, and my maternal grandparents both have very serious heart issues. So basically, I'm screwed either way, so I suppose I may as well do whatever I feel like.
Hell, my kids tell me that they can do homework while watching TV and chatting online.
They probably also tell you that ice cream makes them sleep better at night and that they want money from you so they can donate it to the poor kids at school, right?
I'll try. There are basically two kind of people who play eve:
- the serious players, who actually get it ("nerds who are to are to other nerds what nerds are to real people"?)
- the people who would love a good online space sim and eve is the closest thing . I'm one of those.
This. The absurdly complex market also attracts me. I've yet to see another MMO where it is fairly common for players to write up full fledged business proposals to attract investors, and then actually have that proposal summarily ripped apart by critics. Kinda beats the WoW auction house.
Yea, that's my main issue with Chrome. The crazy scrolling gives me a headache. I'd love to use it if they ever fix that, it seems pretty nice on all other counts.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm... "birth of the Crab Nebula" or "death of the Great Crab Civilization"?
You decide.
Huh, I checked it out and believe it or not they're actually right, escaping from a federal penitentiary will get you an extra 5-7 years. Who knew?
Sea world begs to differ.
The problem lies in the Christian doctrine of original sin. If there are aliens, then either 1. they fell or 2. they didn't fall. If 1 is true, and they fell, the need to be redeemed by the Savior - and it's a little hard to see how fair it would be for them to wait to make contact with earth to wait for Jesus (the Catholic approach, which worked so well with the Native Americans - for the record, I was raised Catholic), unless we join the Mormons and postulate that Jesus has made missions to societies beyond easy contact with ancient Palestine. If 2 is true, we have Lewis's Perelandra.
Oo, you get points. I wonder, is there anything in the Bible that specifically goes against the Mormon theory? Or perhaps there are other ways that God can redeem people, he just chose to use Christ in our case. I'll have to think about that one.
Heh, point. I wouldn't be surprised if we get assimilated and we here a few minds going "Sweet, this finally proves x wrong!"
There isn't much problem with Christian theology and finding alien life, aside from those that take Genesis literally. Intelligent alien life, however, reaches beyond just how one reads Genesis. The basic theology of Christ dying for the sins of all mankind would need to take other intelligent life into account and fit it in somehow. That would be a big stumbling block, and it would apply to all Christianity.
That is a decent point, but I think it could be reasoned out for now, at least until actual aliens are found and their religion investigated. You could say that Christ was only for the atonement of human sins, and that God found other ways (or maybe sent Christ again) to solve the issue with other civilizations. Like I said, I suppose you would have to compare Christianity to the alien's religion, see what did and didn't line up, and if you could find anything along the sin-atonement lines.
What if gods messages to one galactic civilization differes from another?
I think that's the best argument I've heard, I'll have to think about that one. I suppose you'd have to check and see how their religion lines up with Christianity. If Christianity were true, the basic beliefs would have to line up pretty well. As far as the lordship bit, you could easily say that humans having lordship over this world, not others.
Fine, say everyone takes it literally. There still isn't anything in there that says that God didn't go off and create other people on other planets. DavidTC put it nicely a bit above this post.
Exactly. But for some reason everyone, Christians and atheists alike, seems to think that finding aliens will somehow kill Christianity, yet no one seems to be able to give a good reason why. Just people taking sides without thinking, maybe?
Many Christians (and other theists, for that matter) think that evolution at all conflicts with theology. God created everything perfectly (man in his own image after all) the first time, and nothing changed after that. After all, God's image is perfect, isn't it?
Even for creationists, how would finding life elsewhere prove them wrong (maybe they already conflict with science, sure, but I'm referring to just finding aliens)? They could simply say that God created the aliens too. "In his own image" obviously doesn't mean physical appearance, because then everybody would look the same, right?
Christianity and extraterrestrial life just don't seem to be mutually exclusive, but for some reason everyone thinks they are. I once heard a big-time intelligent design guy give an entire 2-hour lecture on supposedly scientific reasons of why there can only be life on earth, because he felt that life elsewhere would prove that Christianity was bogus, but he never gave a good reason why he felt that way.
I've never understood why Christians are so afraid of finding life on other planets or why atheists are so adamant that it will prove the Christians wrong. The Bible doesn't say anywhere that there is only life on Earth. If you take the creation story in Genesis metaphorically (lots of Christians do), then life evolving on other planets doesn't clash with theology at all; unless of course I'm totally missing something, in which case please point it out because I'm curious. From what I see, religion and science aren't necessarily incompatible.
Ah, is that if you purchase the DLC online instead of getting it in disc format? Because I have the Knights of the Nine disc and The Shivering Isles and I'm not aware of any authentication.
Must be. Oblivion doesn't even have a CD-key. And it also doesn't mind if you pop out the disk while you're playing and give it to a friend.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was going for funny, not insightful, nor do I claim to have any idea what I'm talking about. But please, feel free to keep flaming people and bolstering your ego.
Twenty-two volunteers who played a cycling game
Good to see they're using a nice large group of test subjects.
My company goes around looking for engineering students all over the country that want to work. There just aren't enough graduates.
We are in a constant state of hiring....
And what company is this, exactly? I know an engineering student that wants to work :D
I went to a high school where they gave a take-home laptop to every student. Other than some decent tech training we got from finding ways to get around all the blocks the IT department had set up to keep us from installing games and such, I'm still not sure what educational value they had. Honestly they were more of a distraction than anything; we once had so many people online playing Counterstrike (in class) that we slowed the network to the point that the principal actually got on the PA and politely asked everyone to stop killing the network.
And don't think that you would be able to stop the students from installing games/watching movies/getting to Facebook. It was like a constant battle at my school between the students and the IT department; they would constantly be trying to find ways to lock us out and we'd constantly be finding ways to counter. Granted, this was a magnet school focused solely on IT so we had a school full of nerds who knew what they were doing, but I'm sure that even at a normal school the nerds would pass their secrets along.
reasons of cost (too high)
As opposed to it being too cheap to implement?
If you come from a family with a history of heart trouble, the alcohol might help keep that under control. Sure you'll get some fat build up in the liver, but your body can cope with that. Someone with a history of degenerative neurological disorders might want to shy away from it.
Great. My paternal grandmother died of MS, and my maternal grandparents both have very serious heart issues. So basically, I'm screwed either way, so I suppose I may as well do whatever I feel like.
Hey, put a warning when you post things like that! I was lost in his dreamy eyes for a good 20 minutes.
Hell, my kids tell me that they can do homework while watching TV and chatting online.
They probably also tell you that ice cream makes them sleep better at night and that they want money from you so they can donate it to the poor kids at school, right?
I'll try. There are basically two kind of people who play eve: - the serious players, who actually get it ("nerds who are to are to other nerds what nerds are to real people"?) - the people who would love a good online space sim and eve is the closest thing . I'm one of those.
This. The absurdly complex market also attracts me. I've yet to see another MMO where it is fairly common for players to write up full fledged business proposals to attract investors, and then actually have that proposal summarily ripped apart by critics. Kinda beats the WoW auction house.
Yea, that's my main issue with Chrome. The crazy scrolling gives me a headache. I'd love to use it if they ever fix that, it seems pretty nice on all other counts.
waiting for that blasted straight piece in Tetris
Random? That isn't random. It comes right after you block off the slot you were saving for it.
Unfortunately, you fall into the 'everyone' category of my plan.
.........actually, I can't see that happening. Give us some real news please!
You obviously haven't been reading the ridiculous headlines CNN seems to be putting up these days...