How would you explain religion to an alien?

(Yes, I love the hypothetical threads..good mental exercise).

So, you are given the opportunity to test out the first warp drive engine...it shoots you over to "that star over there...to the left"...ya, that one..well, you end up being tractor beamed by the Zorn empire...a alien race of course.


They discuss things about their culture and your culture. You let a word slip that they never heard about...."God"...or "religion".
They ask you to explain this concept (they are very scientific aliens, theology is unknown to them..lets say they are a race of nearly robotic type logic that has long ago tossed off even the most benign of superstitions when they were barely out of caves).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fd7f9b7dbfce.png[/atsimg]
How would you explain religion and god...and how your planet (Earth) deals with the very alien subject to them?

reply to post by SaturnFX


Nice thread saturn

But of course they would school us on their religion or they would explain there is nothing, no divine being of a greater good. Just maybe

S&F for putting this subject out there

I don't think i could explain, I'd be too embarrassed.

reply to post by SaturnFX



That is easy, just say David Icke is our leader and he can explain it to them, probably better than any one of us.

Show the Pope and other leaders of faith dripping in gold and jewels, then show them world poverty, the starving and explain its gods will. The church is rich but the most needy are poor.

Do something completely irrational, talk absolute nonsense, kill a few of their people and say that you had to purify their world, etc, etc....

Eventually they would understand....

Aliens would understand the concept of a creator of the universe. I find it impossible that an alien civilization hasn't ever had a history of people believing God or Gods. I would explain that most religion is based around this theory of a creator, and that most religions have stories of prophets whom spoke to the creator or spirits and the theory of heaven or after-life. Not really a tough concept to explain.

well, "THEY" probably know everything that's going on this planet anyway so i'm that "THEY'LL" be the ones explaining things to us

reply to post by SaturnFX


SaturnFX i would tell them very little because there is too much to tell. i would tell them different earth people have had different personal belief systems, but i would not want to muddy the waters. i would want to bring them to a sweet American public library, and let them read of the different people and their beliefs for themselves.

it is just too deep and wide. Meanwhile, i would find it very odd that aliens could understand me while speaking English with a NY area accent.

i would try to explain what we thought our god was.. then they would totally make us look like idiots by proving there wasnt one.. if there are aliens then there cant be a god.. he supposedly created us in his image so who created the aliens???
maybe there are more than one god.? nice thread

Personally I think we should break out the book of Kyle to have them understand

“Marklar, these marklars want to change your marklar. They don't want Marklar or any of these marklars to live here because it's bad for their marklar. They use Marklar to try and force marklars to believe they're marklar. If you let them stay here, they will build marklars and marklars. They will take all your marklars and replace them with Marklar. These marklar have no good marklar to live on Marklar, so they must come here to Marklar. Please, let these marklars stay where they can grow and prosper without any marklars, marklars, or marklars.”


-Kyle, 311

Heh I would not try to explain religion to them I would ask them if they had one. If so I would would be kinda interested to see if it is similar to any earthy religion.

"Maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up. But I have a great life and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don’t care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the Church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that’s stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls."-SouthPark

I'd tell them a bunch of people on this planet have a mental illness. One where they talk to an imaginary person from childhood to death.

I'd then tell them a lot of people think that they(Aliens) are actually "demons" and in cahoots with "satan". Then i'd be like "satan" is an imaginary person these "ill" people blame bad things on.

I'd ask them to explain it to me.

reply to post by SaturnFX


Good thread.

I would advise aliens to stay well clear from religion as it has caused more death than anything else on our planet.

But if and when aliens appear, I would say it will be start of the end for religion.

Originally posted by redwine425
I'd tell them a bunch of people on this planet have a mental illness. One where they talk to an imaginary person from childhood to death.

I'd then tell them a lot of people think that they(Aliens) are actually "demons" and in cahoots with "satan". Then i'd be like "satan" is an imaginary person these "ill" people blame bad things on.

You know not all religion is not based on Christianity right? There must be a "I don't like Christianity thread" someplace around here right?

ok, a honest response from me:

To: An'Tel, High Commander
Re: Aliens

An'Tel. The subject of religion is actually quite simple.
You have scientists and inventors. The concept is just that. A superior single scientist and inventor on a cosmic scale far beyond our technology one day decided to create, as a scientific experiment, our universe...this inventor may be from a different dimension, or may simply be in this dimension as a eternally existing sentient being.

Like any inventor, he made some test runs beforehand (angels, kingdom of heaven) and then finally got serious after beta testing and created what is now the complex universe we view today.

This is not a tested theory, but rather a very old hypothesis that conforms and contorts when new information is presented, but the hypothesis tends to remain even after soo long due to its untestible aspects overall. For this, we have entire movements on the planet that still agree with the hypothesis and make chambers of learning for the hypothesis (called churches, mosques, etc)...but there are mulitple hypothesis's on the subject, which means our scientists tend to clash in ideas as to what the most relevant hypothesis is.

This being said, it has become so hotly debated that people end up murdering one another over which hypothesis is the most valid. (we take our hypothesis's seriously)

There are also procedures preformed to try and further the hypothesis into the next phase (theory) however, it has yet to fully reach that point. So far, the only evidence presented for the hypothesis is various subjective claims that often times runs against the previously formed hypothesis...often creating even more splinters in the community.


I think that could explain it in a nutshell towards a scientifically driven mindset.

Ah, nothing I like more than a good "lolol People with beliefs are stupid. lol" thread.
We don't get nearly enough of them on ATS.
Even in threads that have absolutely nothing to do with religion, every fifth post is "Lol thers no gawd!" - so this thread should make for an interesting read.

Keep religiously practicing that sarcastic atheism, kids!

Originally posted by Evaux
Ah, nothing I like more than a good "lolol People with beliefs are stupid. lol" thread

Its interesting
The question was how would you explain religion to an alien...

and your mind immediately went to how religious people are stupid?

Why do you believe religious people are stupid? Are you feeling stupid about having a belief?

How would you explain religion to an alien?