Hits?
Did I hear a bong being cleaned?
I just had my hits, though ... happy 4:20 to all.
But I do think the notion of alien religion makes a huge difference to the topic. That is, if the aliens are atheistic, that in and of itself becomes its own issue.
But if the aliens have religion ... well, how big a war does anyone expect? Or will the theologies be easily reconciled? What if that religion points toward common
living values that transcend the human species: love, fidelity, perpetuity, security, trust ....?
I mean, think of the poor Capitalist who would ask the aliens about economy only to find out they've gone communitarian to the point that currency has no use. Think of the poor preacher who asks of miracles merely to find that the technology has advanced so much that doctors merely lay the hands and nanotechnology does the rest? Or what if they've mastered organic energy control so that they're merely causing the healing or other change directly through manipulation of electrical force? The vegetarian that finds that though they don't kill animals, the food base is laboratory-synthesized animal products because of dietary necessities? The genetic supertomato-guy who finds out that vegetarianism worked until they accidentally destroyed the plant kingdom on their world and had to rebuild it? The poor human species, for instance, if there are few common values and this is a Zerg or Gamilon or other warrior-cult?
What if they say alien-seed is true? What if it turns out they were lying?
The questions of whether the aliens have religion and what that religion looks like, does, and represents, offer strong indicators of what the future experience could be like.
I'm thinking of putting together a topic to "build a religion", and this gives me a link I need. Here's the preview: What can you say about the planet of a grey alien? Short, agile, long fingers, black eyes; these are the characteristics I'm starting with, taken from common witness reports. Well, higher gravity (short, agile), possibly young geological structures (long fingers for picking food out of rock crevasses, suggesting younger rock formations), and a stronger UV presence (grey skin, black "shields" over eyes as per scandalous "Alien Autopsy" video). It's all speculation, but there's my first round of speculation.
So high-grav, high-UV, geologically young ... what does this say about water, food economy, &c.? Can we build a broad speculation about the alien world? What would the religious values likely be? If the environment is strapped for water, would the redeemer be aquarian? If the environment is harsh, would the god be wrathful and militant? If the environment provided economic surplus, do we see a more introspective, philosophical ideological development? If the environment was demanding economically, do we see a civilized practicality?
It's all about what's important to people, on this planet or any other. And if the aliens have no religion, we can restrict the argument to what it means for religious people on earth; if the aliens have religion, though, gods get another chapter in the book of the living experience.
It is a fascinating question in all its dimensions.
thanx,
Tiassa