Advanced life on Mars
Several days ago I went to the Tech Museum in San Jose and saw an IMAX movie about roving Mars. The Mars rovers found numerous signs that water once existed there. That made me think.
Is it possible that intelligent life developed on Mars, but millions (or even a billion or two) years before it developed on Earth? Think about how far humans have advanced just in the past 100 or 1000 years. Multiply that by 1,000 or 100,000.
Take that a step farther. What if, far beyond what we can perceive as the universe, another planet existed billions or even trillions of years longer than anything in our 'universe'. Multiply the previous thought by a million.
Is it possible that these ultra-advanced beings had the capability to create matter and energy, virtually without limit? Maybe one of them (let's call it/him "Yahweh") created what we know as the universe, including human life in his image. Let's say he decided to give a few hints about this to his creation. How would they describe him? Would it not be similar to the way God is described in the Bible?
How would an atheist deal with this? If they say there is no God, wouldn't they also have to say there couldn't be any life forms in the universe that could've (over millions of years) developed the capability to create and arrange matter and energy? That might be hard to justify considering their belief about how life came into being on Earth.
posted by Matt @ 11:30 PM
8 Comments:
Enjoyed the visit yesterday... you have such interesting thoughts... I really enjoy reading this blog!
that is an excellent theory. I dont believe there are very many true aithest's. Most people who say that are really just agnostic. They just dont seem to know. Most people at least beleive in somthing. You prove a point in order for anyone to be a true aithest, they would have to turn their heads to knowledge itself.
hmmm... what existed before Yahweh?
I think most Atheists would be very happy with that explanation, assuming it could be scientifically proved of course. There is a fundamental difference between a super-evolved being with, what seem like to us, godlike powers and a true, infinite supreme being. Denial of a omnisentient being does not mean a denial of very advanced and very powerful aliens.
For the record I'm agnostic.
I wonder if there's any practical difference between an omniscient/omnipotent being and a very advanced and very powerful alien.
I'm a Christian, and I think the God described in the Bible would qualify as a very advanced, very powerful alien. He's certainly very advanced and powerful, and didn't come from Earth.
I wonder if the concept of infinity (as we understand it) was ever meant to be implied by the Bible writers. A very powerful alien, in my opinion, would appear to them to have power without limit.
Well, as Arthur C Clarke once said "Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". So certainly a very advanced alien could be seen as a god, and might be one for every practical purpose (even to an afterlife). I suppose it all comes down to each person's view of what God means to them.
To an atheist being, even potentially, able to describe this beings existance scientifically is all that matters, though for a being that powerful that has essentially created all we accept as reality that might be impossible.
I suppose the main difference to me is that this superevolved alien would not be the ultimate truth of existence. It could be as adrift in its reality as we are in ours. I suppose any 'true' god to me would be all-powerful at all levels of existance. Though at our level how could you possibly know the difference?
Certainly something to think about though!
There may not be a practical difference between an omniscient/omnipotent being and a being merely with the power to create matter and energy. But then there's no practical reason for such speculation, either. Among Christians, it misses the point, and with non Christians, it also misses the point. Matt, do you think there is a point at which intellectual exercise becomes self-destructive? I think we discussed this once, when you saw 2 Timothy 3:7 as speaking about your experience. Of course that speaks of false teachers, but I think Deuteronomy 29:29 may bear on this matter.
But then, perhaps that's just me holding onto the "no God but one" dogma and my own Amselmic ontological argument.
David Bowie!
w00t!
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