This brings to my mind an interesting thought, as regards to contemporary scientific thought. It's not certain how big the universe is (or how many universes there are, for that matter), but many planets have been discovered in the last 20 years. Surely, there has to be another planet out there somewhere that has life in some form or another. I would even go so far as to say that there surely has to be intelligent life somewhere else in the entirety of it all, just based simply on the numbers of other stars and potential solar systems there are out there.

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I don't believe, however that what ever other intelligent life there is out there has necessarily visited us, just based on the sheer volume of other stars and potential solar systems in existence. I don't completely rule it out, either. I think it's entirely possible, but not relatively likely.

Good to see you on this subforum Jack. Too bad this didn't happen 2 weeks ago so we could have chatted more when we played your new course 10 says ago. Well.....actually I was on a time crunch, but I do prefer talking about this stuff since typing is so slow and too much work for my slow fingers. I enjoyed meeting up with you and love your course!

Next time, Dave. I'm still waiting on your review. Speaking of playing, I'm off to go play Reedy.

2. That is where I fall on god for the same reasons. I think it is a waste of space to have other lifeforms in the universe, but for now, I'm not seeing any either. Although, I must point out that these people and their testimonials sound fairly iron clad at times. It reminds me of the testimonials of Jesus followers. Both are convinced it is real and it happened, but neither can really show any reason believe or disbelieve. So I say neither are real, but an open mind, I must have. You of course knew I was going to say that.

3. I won't rough you up on this one, because it is a tough issue for Christians to deal with. All I will say is homosexuality and bi-sexuality has been around long since before and after Christ and it is certainly not a choice.

bikinjack, I like what you just said and I totally agree with you. I just wish I had read it before posting the previous comments. Another way to look at it is, using our progression of life as an example, it seems audio or video contact would happen before actual visits. Unless of course, they are just listening and fear other life, as we should. Sending out signals to other systems is a really dumb idea I think. We can't travel off this planet full of resources, but we are calling other to come look at it. Call me negative, but it sounds like an accident waiting to happen if it ever does reach anything.

I understand your sentiment, but respectfully disagree, mainly out of a sense of curiosity. I think it's somewhat human nature to be curious, and wonder about the things we could learn by contacting other forms of life. In general, I think that there is benevolence in all things, even the most evil, and what we may see as disillusioned. Whatever is out there can't be all bad.

Oh I agree, they may not be all bad and I would hope if they have mastered long distance space flight, that they have gotten past violence. However, I'm not seeing humans getting past it thus far in our lifecycle. If they are a race of survival, we could seem like nothing but bugs who strip the world bare. Who knows? I just happen to think we are not ready for this kind of invitation no matter what their intent truly would be. (I know, too much Asimov, Sagen, Foster, and Sci Fic movies. LOL) (OMG, have I been brainwashed?!?!)

Yes, I had several of those moments/glimpses reading some stuff here and a bunch during my conversation with Heathen.

I do not doubt that SR’s dismissal of all gods and God (and possibly any possibility of a spiritual realm) is based on what he says it is. However, I just cannot take that next step of dismissing God (or the spiritual realm) for a few reasons:

The vast majority of civilizations (if not all) have ascribed some sort of worship to a god or multiple gods. There is something innately human about wanting to ascribe worship to something larger than ourselves. I believe that we all have the ability to sense God in creation, in each other and also in our search for meaning…..and all the gods created are in response to this.

Science itself is a god to much of the current world in exactly the same way many of the gods in other cultures are/were. Think of the energy and devotion of so many trying hard to understand and find meaning in it even though their careers/vocations do not benefit hardly one smidge from their efforts.

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Religion can be rife with “God of the gaps” thinking where any scientific gaps of understanding are ascribed to God, but even with science we are not given the answers to “why?” nor are we given answers to where matter and energy originally came from and what/who caused their existence.

This conversation has been going on for a long time as you can read about here with Greek Stoics & Epicureans in Athens: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...34&version=NIV