I think that's one of those things that's better to have been born well after (assuming a good outcome) or born well before (assuming a bad outcome). It's really hard imaging the transition as anything other than misery and chaos.
You're right, I'm sure the billions of deeply religious people would cope with literal proof that we're not a privileged and special "creation". Even worse, they might not accept that.
Plus new tech, new perspectives, old power structures being overthrown, etc... etc...
Things would change, and change is good for the future, but dangerous to those living through it.
> I'm sure the billions of deeply religious people would cope with literal proof that we're not a privileged and special "creation".
Muslim scholars have considered the possibility of life in the heavens as far back as the Middle Ages. Companions of the Prophet openly considered the possibility of religious beings in the heavens. It was recorded of Ibn-e-Abbas that "He even went so far as to say that they may have a Prophet like Muhammad (pbuh), a Adam like our Adam, a Noah, like our Noah, an Ibrahim like our Ibrahim, and a Jesus like our Jesus."
The Roman Catholic Church has also officially accepted that there may be intelligent aliens. So that covers a pretty large chunk of the world's religious believers already explicitly ok with it.
Generally people ignore changes that don't directly affect their life within a short timespan. Global warming will cause far more disturbance in the near future than anything else will and people seem to be mostly oblivious to it. Extraterrestrials would provide a brief philosophical shift and when people realize they are not coming to visit us and we really can't say anything concrete about them they would continue their life mostly unaffected. Says I.
What is it with tech/science forums and the belief that religious people are crazy, backwards, zealots who would go crazy causing enormous destruction when faced with compelling new scientific revelation. . . this despite the fact that theologians from nearly every religion, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism have considered extraterrestrial life and claim it does not contradict with their religious beliefs.
What is it with tech/science forums and the belief that religious people are crazy, backwards, zealots who would go crazy causing enormous destruction when faced with compelling new scientific revelation. . .
You're right that lots of theologians are frankly much more impressive than the average adherent. What a pity that we're not surrounded by billions of theologians.
When you talk about biblical flat Earthers you are talking about a very small subset of Christians, to claim that all Christians are like them is akin to claiming that all Muslims are like ISIS.
Similarly Zionism is not really a religious view as much as it is a political one. This can most clearly be seen in the fact that orthodox Jews oppose the state of Israel. They correctly interpret the Torah as saying that Jews have had the holy land taken away from them by God and it can only be re-established by God, not by the the act of men. Similarly the Koran says outright that Allah had given the holy land to the Jews, and groups like the Muslim brotherhood and Hamas that seek take Israel are motivated by political, not religious goals.
If anyone is going to create violence and chaos at first contact, it's not religious people but rather politicians that have a stake in a system that exposure to other, more equal or efficient systems may upend and industrialists that have a stake in the technologies that first contact will replace. There are so many other, historically consistent places to look for potential sources of revolt than mere ordinary people (in fact the majority of the human population) who are merely in search of the divine and greater meaning.
It's always a "small subset". A "small subset" is rabidly anti-abortion. A "small subset" thinks women should be subservient to men, wear burkas, or stay at home and have lots of kids. A "small subset" thinks the Earth is 6000 years old. A "small subset" thinks that it's just a matter of time before the End Times. A "small subset" thinks that Shia/Sunni is apostasy. A "small subset" thinks gay people are evil, thinks that people shouldn't use contraception, etc... etc...
It's always these little small subsets hiding the allegedly "vast silent majority", but unfortunately they add up, they fight, and they ruin it all for the rest of us. I don't worry about the physicists with faith, I worry about the other 99.9999%.
Thinking that Israeli politics has anything to do with religion or that the Israeli Arab conflict has any religious basis is a common but a very big mistake people make.
Have you been to Israel lately? I have. Putting aside the Arab-Israeli conflict, just looking at internal social issues, education, politics... it's the ultra-orthodoxy running the show.
I never thought I'd live to see the day Netanyahu was "moderate".
The use of the term "Ultra-Orthodox" is again problematic, it's not used correctly, it should be used to describe the "Haredi" Jews which aren't really controlling anything, in fact I would go as far as say that even "Haredi" aren't a good fit for the "Ultra-Orthodox" moniker, as there are more hardcore groups than they are including those who want nothing to do with the state of Israel as they believe that the state of Israel cannot be established until the messiah comes the dead have risen and all that fun end of days stuff happens.
And when people use that term to describe the "settlers" that's even beyond, they are nationalist not ultra-orthodox.
Just a random thought, your reality is made up of your environment. Ever imagine being taken out of the Earth and being in space. Suddenly, no bills, no kids, no debt, no whatever. Also nothing else either. You'd probably be dead haha. Still, if there are aliens, it's kind of dumbfounding like "Huh... am I free now?" Is there something greater than this government that controls me? Not saying the government does, I make my own dumb decisions that create my own misery.
It would be a slap to the face though, look at these aliens that can choose to anihilate us or enslave us. (bad case). Just my thoughts, I'm nobody, no credentials, this is purely opinion/current mental maturity haha.
I don't know it's always depressing to me how massive space is, 40 years traveling at 50-150,000mph and the voyager just leaves our solar system hahaha. Crazy. (my numbers might be off depending on reference but that idea of 4 years of 9,000,000 feet per second) to get to the nearest start (dot in the sky) holy christ.
edit: haha holy crap it's approximately 984 million feet per second for like 4.6 years
edit: voyager speed ~36,000 mph, not sure how long that took to build up to that speed.
You have the comfort and leisure to comment on HN, the education to do so coherently, and you've never lived in chaos, but you think you have more to gain than to lose.
