Last Question From Me Regarding Religions

[David Sklansky]

"On those planets where average IQ's are over 1000, David's perspective on the issue will be considered comically naive."

PairTheBoard

I'm confused. Why would they consider my ideas naive? And if they did, why wouldn't it just mean that they were wrong. You can't just assert things. You need to give a good reason.

[PairTheBoard]

DS --
"I'm confused"

Correct


PairTheBoard

[Cyrus]

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What religion please?

[/ QUOTE ]

Darrylslam. It's based on Islam. There is no print version of the Darryls'ran, though.

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I can't trust a prophet who writes the name of his religion two different ways in the same post.

[Darryl_P]

One is the name of my religion, and the other is its bible...

Darrylslam is to Islam what Darryls'ran is to Qur'an

[Wes ManTooth]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm ready to wind down this subject and give my final verdict.

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Give your final verdict?? I didn't know it was going to come to this. No need for you to annouce this though, I think we all have a general idea of what you will say... nothing will be surprising.

Personally I love to come up with final verdicts on debatable topics... this way I will never have to debate them, become close-minded and safely assume that my verdict is right. It's just easier.

[The once and future king]

I practise Buddhist meditation. This is a practise with many benefits one of which is increased intellectual function as a consequence of massively improved concentration.

Luckily for me Buddhism dosnt even approach the idea of God, and one of the central concepts is that there is no monadic soul.

Green men would be more than welcome and wouldnt challenge any of the core principles of Buddhism and neither would any advance in scientific understanding.

It might once have bothered me that you lump buddhism in with all the other God worshiping religions but these days Im more than able to let such things ride, buddhism is much like poker in that most people have a mis conception of what it is and what it is about.

[bossJJ]

"Does your religion allow for the possibility of intelligent, conscious, beings existing on other planets?"

Yes, Judaism allows for this possibility.


"If yes, are these beings, if they exist, as important to God as humans?"

"If yes to the above two questions, would these beings be offered your own religion (suitably changed for the circumstances) regarding prayer, good works, afterlife, etc."


Regarding these two questions, I can't answer with something like "Judaism believes..." or "according to Judaism..." God hasn't told us one way or another. There is certainly no "official" Jewish belief about this, nor even a widely accepted opinion, not being discussed much at all.

As you know, accept for the general commandment to believe in God, Judaism tells us what to do, not what to believe. There are of course some general beliefs that are widely accepted within Judaism, like these, but no official dogma or creed. Regarding many issues, we have wide latitude to essentially believe what we want. The important thing is whether one is doing the right thing. This is an area (intelligent life on other planets) that has no practical applicability for us, and an individual Jew can believe whatever he wants regarding this topic.

Having said all that, there has been a little discussion of this. The following opinions have been expressed (and there may be others): If these intelligent beings have free will, they would need Torah or something like it. The Torah does give the view that man is God's most important and cherished creation. Could Torah really exist on other planets? Yes or no (both expressed). If no, this means that those intelligent beings don't have free well and man is unique in this sense.

example 1

example 2

[radar5]

1) Yes

2) Yes

3) Nope, you gotta find this one on your own. It's not shoved at you.

[jon462]

1. yes, of course.
2. Yes, since all created beings are equally important to God.
3. If necessary. I say that because it is entirely possibly the other race of people never suffered the effects of original sin, a humanity has. If this were true, they would be immortal and very closely in tune with God, as Adam and Eve were before the fall.
However, assuming they sinned and fell, then I dont know, God chose to save man out of mercy.. although I would assume he would do that for the other race, how can I know?
4. ^^^ If they never fell, as I said in 3, then they likely see Jesus all the time. If they fell, and God chose to save them, it would indeed have to be Jesus (the Son-God), he would have to die for them also, I assume.

To be honest, these are just hypothetical guessing.. the only true answer to #3 and #4 a Christian can give is "I dont know."

[Stuey]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm ready to wind down this subject and give my final verdict.

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I missed it. Seriously I would like to hear the summation.