On Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 2:30:20 PM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:

On Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 12:01:41 PM UTC-6, Gary Harnagel wrote:

I haven't said it's certain. I believe I used the term "virtually certain"
once or twice, which isn't the same thing. And if you agree that it could
have happened before then we are in agreement. That's enough to place a
stumbling block in front of the dedicated atheist.

As I've noted, even though Arthur C. Clarke took a view that might harmonize
with yours:

"They will not be like gods, because no gods imagined by our minds have ever
possessed the powers they will command." - Arthur C. Clarke, _Profiles of the
Future_, in the chapter "The Long Twilight" -

I'm dubious because advanced aliens, godlike though they may be in many ways,
miss the theological definiton of "God" in several ways.

The problem with theologians (and philosophers, for that matter) is that
their thoughts aren't anchored in authenticity.

They came into existence naturally, the same way we did. There is no reason
to believe someone else in the sense of an advanced alien was our creator -

To a proclaimed atheist, that is a futile claim.

life clearly developed on Earth by itself.

Is it really? Suppose you were a long-lived being with a very long view,
how would you terraform a world. Would you not start with simple lifeforms
and introduce complexity eon by eon? Would you not choose lifeforms from
your own world(s)? If you look at Genesis in that light, it follows that
pattern (just replace "day" with "a billion years" or whatever).

The God of theology, Who is self-existent, on the other hand helps to answer
the question "why is there anything instead of just nothing".

It doesn't answer the question of where He came from :-)

They have not come to us and told us what they want of us. *That's* the main
thing that makes acceptance of the notion that advanced aliens might exist...
not at all troubling to an atheist. As long as they're not demanding belief,
worship, and obedience... there's nothing to "get religion" about.

John Savard

Maybe they ARE religion. It's just their way of condescending to our level..

I don't think we will, though, because we're being watched over.

Events in Europe, particularly Germany and Poland, from about November 9,
1938 to May 8, 1945, appear to convincingly refute that hypothesis.

There's a contrary story about General Patton at the Battle of the Bulge.
He asked the chaplain to write a prayer for him asking for good weather
the next day for the coming battle. He got it and defeated the enemy.

Your argument depends upon what YOU assume "their" goal is. What do you
THINK would happen to a civilization (or an individual) if all their
problems were taken care of for them?

"Any man who thinks he can be happy andÂ*prosperous by letting the
government take care of him had better take a closer look at
the American Indian." -- Anon.