SETI Receives Message from ET: How would you react?

[Radrook]

Some speculate that such a message regardless of its nature would turn religion on its head. That many Christians would be devastated by it because of its implications.
I personally would have absolutely no problems with it. Would like to hear your opinions.

 

[dysert]

I would react with a great deal of skepticism. I know there are a boatload of scientists who want there to be ETs out there, so they may interpret a signal to indicate such even though it didn't come from an ET. I'd adopt a wait-and-see posture. Although I don't believe there are any ETs, even if a signal proved to indicate such it wouldn't "devastate" me. I'd just admit I was wrong and move on.

 

[Goonie]

I personally doubt that Humanity will ever encounter intelligent aliens. Given the size and age of the universe, whilst there is almost certainly intelligent life, the odds of humanity encountering, or even identifying a signal from them is very very small.

 

[DogmaHunter]

I'ld react to it with a great deal of skepticism as well.

I guess it would all depend on the exact nature and/or pattern of the signal.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I would just accept the news with cautious optimism.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Some speculate that such a message regardless of its nature would turn religion on its head. That many Christians would be devastated by it because of its implications.
I personally would have absolutely no problems with it. Would like to hear your opinions.

I'd want to know if the message was an invitation to meet us, ... or a dinner bell.

 

[Goonie]

I'd want to know if the message was an invitation to meet us, ... or a dinner bell.

I'm more worried that it'll be along the lines of "I'm here to tell you about our Lord..."

 

[PapaZoom]

I'd be very curious to learn more and to lean the exact nature of the messages received. Also, is it possible to send a message out from earth undetected, aimed precisely at a given point to bounce it back?

 

[PapaZoom]

I'd want to know if the message was an invitation to meet us, ... or a dinner bell.

There's an old movie about that very thing.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I'm more worried that it'll be along the lines of "I'm here to tell you about our Lord..."

Yeah, well ... I guess that could happen too. (LOL) Or maybe they'll just have some kind of all encompassing New Age fluff, like the Na'vi do in the movie, Avatar, that fits with just about anything.

2PhiloVoid

 

[2PhiloVoid]

There's an old movie about that very thing.

Yeah, there's a lot of old movies about that very thing. Not to mention that it's one of Stephen Hawking's major concerns, of sorts.

So, will it be "Contact" or "War of the Worlds"? (I can't say "Independence Day" because the latest installment was such a let down for me.)

 

[PapaZoom]

Yeah, there's a lot of old movies about that very thing. Not to mention that it's one of Stephen Hawking's major concerns, of sorts.

So, will it be "Contact" or "War of the Worlds"? (I can't say "Independence Day" because the latest installment was such a let down for me.)

I think it was a Twilight Zone flick I'm thinking of. They have a book they leave at the United Nations titled "To Serve Man" but it turns out to be a cookbook. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734684/reviews

edit: http://www.sherryshriner.com/sherry/to-serve-man.htm

 

[Radrook]

Yeah, there's a lot of old movies about that very thing. Not to mention that it's one of Stephen Hawking's major concerns, of sorts.

So, will it be "Contact" or "War of the Worlds"? (I can't say "Independence Day" because the latest installment was such a let down for me.)

Hawkins did recommend that we stop advertising ourselves via transmissions and Voyager-probe messages and diagrams indicating exactly where we are since that could lead to attracting the wrong kind of super-technologically advanced alien attention against which we would might be very helpless.

But how would Christians react religiously to the idea that the Creator has made other material creatures in his image as well. I wrote an as yet unpublished novel which portrays humans very resentful to that suggestion. A snobbery based on religious assumptions isn't uncommon for us humans, and in the novel most humans tenaciously hold on to the idea that no one but they are the children of God
regardless of the indications to the contrary. Would you have any religious issues with aliens who claim such a thing?

 

[Radrook]

There's an old movie about that very thing.

Might you be referring to the Twilight Zone episode entitled "To Serve Man".

To Serve Man

 

[PapaZoom]

Might you be referring to the Twilight Zone episode entitled "To Serve Man".

Yes that's the one. I loved that show. The Outer Limits was good too but Twilight Zone was the best. Black and white TV at its finest.

 

[Radrook]

Yes that's the one. I loved that show. The Outer Limits was good too but Twilight Zone was the best. Black and white TV at its finest.

I just placed a link to it but it is better watched on YouTube where the full screen option is functional.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I think it was a Twilight Zone flick I'm thinking of. They have a book they leave at the United Nations titled "To Serve Man" but it turns out to be a cookbook. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734684/reviews

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734684/reviews

I'm going to have to see if that is indeed a TZ episode, and whether or not it's available on Netflix. It's sounds funny...

edit: http://www.sherryshriner.com/sherry/to-serve-man.htm

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Hawkins did recommend that we stop advertising ourselves via transmissions and Voyager-probe messages and diagrams indicating exactly where we are since that could lead to attracting the wrong kind of super-technologically advanced alien attention against which we would might be very helpless.

But how would Christians react religiously to the idea that the Creator has made other material creatures in his image as well. I wrote an as yet unpublished novel which portrays humans very resentful to that suggestion. A snobbery based on religious assumptions isn't uncommon for us humans, and in the novel most humans tenaciously hold on to the idea that no one but they are the children of God
regardless of the indications to the contrary. Would you have any religious issues with aliens who claim such a thing?

I don't know -- I guess I'd have to look at them, and then (wrestling with vestiges of racial impiety) contemplate whether I think they qualify as being made in the Image of God, or not. I'm tempted to say that...heck...if they arrive, and they look like the Spaghetti Monster, ...and they want to eat me, I'm probably going to have more than just religious issues with them showing up on my doorstep, or housetop ...

 

[Radrook]

I'd be very curious to learn more and to lean the exact nature of the messages received. Also, is it possible to send a message out from earth undetected, aimed precisely at a given point to bounce it back?

The problem with sending messages isn't reaching the intended target, the problem is the vast distances which make the intended targets reachable only after most of the senders are long dead. As long as we are restricted to the universal light-speed limit of 186,000 miles per second, such messages will prove highly impractical.

They are even troublesome when sent to relatively nearby places such as Mars.

Time Delay Between Earth Mars Messages
http://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars-and-earth/

But the real issue is whether our sense of specialness, of being a chosen creation will be dealt a severe blow by any contact with others who can reason and have other faculties which we possess and have always considered as of divine origin.

 

[Radrook]

I'm going to have to see if that is indeed a TZ episode, and whether or not it's available on Netflix. It's sounds funny...

I have watched it repeatedly on You Tube and once on HULU.

BTW
The naïve way in which humans reacted in the film to the lanky, taciturn, rather lethargic aliens seems a bit unrealistic. Humans are far too suspicious to accept that kind of benevolent declaration without harboring deep suspicions that malevolent ulterior motives are involved. Why? Because humans themselves are notorious for engaging in that sort of shenanigans.

Also, why would the aliens provide the humans with the very thing they need to find them out-a book declaring their malicious intentions?. On the other hand they might have been so technologically advanced as to consider any type of human resistance insignificant.


As for the religious aspect, I seriously doubt whether humans would accept any creatures who significantly deviate physically from the human form as made in God's image.

I read a short sci fi story once where two species contacted Earth simultaneously. One was angelic-like in appearance and the other hideous.
One species acquired all the attention and the other was virtually shunned.