Relation between UFO belief and religion?

I had thought of this last week, and after I have seen this thread I thought I should go ahead with this.

My idea is to try to understand if there is any relation between the belief in the presence here on Earth of extra-terrestrial intelligent beings and the religious beliefs of those who may answer this post.

My opinions are:
1. I believe in the possibility that intelligent beings exist somewhere in the universe.
2. I believe in the possibility of those beings coming to Earth, but I do not believe that they are here on Earth established in secret bases.
3. I do not believe in the existence of any god or gods.


Anyone wants to add their points of view?

[edit on 26/8/2006 by ArMaP]

It would be a wise move to firstly prove the conveyence that you have claimed. That is a heavy exclamitory statement to make. Prove that no God exists. God is the initiator. There is a lack of honest detective work on your existence if you truly believe that everything is here by chance. Extra-terrestrials certainly exist. This is not a religion, yet an intelligent inquisition, and for me a case of first hand experience. To leap a box further: perhaps religion was given to us by means of covert extra-terrestrial interactions.

[edit on 26-8-2006 by dgoodpasture]

Originally posted by dgoodpasture
It would be a wise move to firstly prove the conveyence that you have claimed. That is a heavy exclamitory statement to make. Prove that no God exists.

Why?

I am only trying to see if there is any relation between those beliefs, the belief in extra-terrestrial intelligent beings, their presence on Earth, and the religion of the people who believe or not in the other two possibilities.

I am not interested in changing people's beliefs or arguing what is wrong or what is right, I just want to know what other people think.


PS:
If had said that I believe in God and are a Catholic, for example, would you have stated your opinions?

My opinion is this: We are Gods. Why? Because without us the universe is not aware of itself. There is also an initiating force behind all that exists. This force has blessed us with the ability to understand it. This force really did "create" us in its image. Both inside of its image as the universe, and in its image... as human beings in the energetic form. We are allowed to be creators while also being the creation. We are allowed to question the creator and the creation. These things should not be hidden under a half balled palm of taboo like significance. These thoughts and these questions exist for us to ponder in beauty and in awe.

If you had said you were catholic and that you believed in God, yes I would have attended to the matter in an altered response. Just for informative purposes: I am not religious. I am existential.

[edit on 26-8-2006 by dgoodpasture]

Don't just suddenly deny that there is or isn't a God.

Think about what came before everything. What made what is here today? You can't just create something from nothing. But that's what made us here today.

What can make something from nothing?

I am not interested in discussing the existence of god or if people believe in god or not, I am interested in knowing if there is any relation between the belief in extra-terrestrial intelligent life, the belief that they are here on Earth and the type of religious belief of the members of this forum, just that.

If I was interested in a religious discussion I wouldn't had made this thread on this forum, I had made it in a religion forum.

So, in an attempt to restart this, I ask.

1. Do you believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligent life?
2. If you do, do you believe that they are present here on Earth?
3. Are you a religious person and what is your religion?

In answer to your questions, I do believe that inteligent extra-terrestial life exists, and that at some point that it has visted Earth (however, I also believe that very few reported UFO cases are ETs). Also, I am a religous person, and I am a Christian (Lutheran to be specific).

Thanks, at least an answer...

Anyone else?

If you're not interested in discussing God or the belief of God, then you shouldnt convey such context in your opening post. Just trying to help you be aware of yourself, sir.

[edit on 26-8-2006 by dgoodpasture]

I do believe that extraterrestrials exist and that they have visited Earth at some point in time. Perhaps they even guided our progression. I really don't see what my religious beliefs would have to do with my belief in extraterrestrials although I do believe that some of the world's religious texts may be interpreted to indicate extraterrestrial intervention. Of course that depends upon one's individual interpretation. I was raised as a Catholic.

Originally posted by dgoodpasture
If you're not interested in discussing God or the belief of God, then you shouldnt convey such context in your opening post. Just trying to help you be aware of yourself, sir.

I thought that the more honest attitude was to post my opinion about those three subjects since I was asking for your own opinions.

And I am aware of myself, thank you, maybe my post wasn't clear enough, my knowledge of English (specially written) is much limited.

Originally posted by dar721
I really don't see what my religious beliefs would have to do with my belief in extraterrestrials although I do believe that some of the world's religious texts may be interpreted to indicate extraterrestrial intervention.

That is what I am trying to understand, if there is any relation between the belief in extraterrestrials and religious beliefs.

Maybe I have used the wrong words, apparently I wrote this in a way nobody understands.

i know what u mean

its just some people are extremely defensive of their "gods" when someone else claims they think they dont exist

Cuz u know, people gotta defend their god because their god cant defend themselve or something *sarcasm*

u want my opinion?

I dont think religion and aliens have anything to do with each other directly

Theres a huge differance ,
Aliens = another organism from another world / products of reproduction

Gods / Angels = spritual entitys from ether realm which are not products of reproduction etc

to believe in aliens all u gotta do is see them or infer that it is possible to see them if one is in the right place at the right time

to believe in gods/angels one has to utilize faith in the "unseen" and infer the existance of spirits and such which cannot be seen

in this perspective, the awareness of alien possibility is far easier and more logical than to take great leaps of Faith and attempt an awareness of spirits and such

i however and led to believe in both tho, due to personal expierance

seeing a UFO up close opens ones mind to the possibility of aliens rather easily

and seeing a dead 4year old boy floating and knocking on your window at 5am , floating up to a 7foot high window over 3 feet of snow, tends to open ones mind to the existance of ghosts and such rather quickly

it really doesnt matter if other people believe or not, because everyones crazy in their own way anyhow

but conjecture and sharing of ideas is fun, because it furthers our species survivability rates significantly

Thanks muzzleflash.

Apparently there are still some things better left unasked...

Well, I learned something with this thread, but not what I was expecting...

Perhaps a poll of some sort would have been easier.

I'll try and answer your question specifically.

1. I think it would show tremendous ignorance to not believe in the existence of off-planet cultures. The universe is simply too damn big to ignore that possibility.

2. I have not seen one shred of verifiable evidence that any off-planet culture has interacted with humanity. But that doesn't mean that I won't at some point.

3. My view on God has been expressed here but to recap for those not wanting to switch to another window:

To begin, God is Love. If you can embrace that, you cannot claim to hold an exclusive path to God, which, unfortunately, is what most institutional-based religions do.

My God of Love is big enough to hold all paths.

For some, the path to God is through an institutionalized religion; i.e. Christianity and all her forms, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.

For others, the path to God is very different, paganism, meditation, etc.

For one of my sons, it was jumping on the trampoline. Yes – he told me that was when he felt closest to God.

So be it.

Just as we are unique, our path to God is also unique. I honor all paths to God as I know my God of Love does.

Always,
Shawnna

[edit on 27-8-2006 by Shawnna]

Thanks Shawnna.

Originally posted by Shawnna
Perhaps a poll of some sort would have been easier.

I thought of that, but how would I do it?

It is easy to make a poll outside ATS, but I did not wanted the poll to be publicly accessible, I would like to limit it to ATS members.