Ann, According to most theologians, the original sin is considered to be the disobedience of Yahweh's command in the Garden of Eden, which was not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. IMO, by disobedience, Adam and Eve became egocentric and thought of themselves as gods. As such, they passed this trait to their children who were prone to evil and violence. It got so bad that, according to the Book of Exodus, Yahweh had to destroy humankind, except for Noah and his family, by flood.
To this day, we still see much evil and violence from human beings, particularly those people who are supposedly descendants of Abraham, the Hebrew patriarch, in the Middle East. Why? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Yes, and expanding on that, if, when, life is discovered in another world, that will undoubtedly upset the religious apple cart in a million ways. I am guessing PR firms have been already been retained to come up with game plan, albeit a classified one. But, it does beg the question, if you believe in God, or a higher power, how do you integrate that in. Most people, are used to thinking about God as it pertains to our world, and then, the universe as an after thought. Cognitive dissonance to the extreme. Perhaps that will be the game changer in terms of how people mature in their outlook of God and a creator and such. First, one would have to question the whole thing about human beings assuming a certain physical form that is, well, what we recognize as human and thus somehow 'in the image of God'. So, if you define human beings as looking like humans then you'd have to say that anything that doesn't look human isn't human and if you aren't human then you fall into another category of simply 'God's creation'. If I recall, and trust me, I am no religious scholar, there was this thing called 'original sin' and supposedly only human women and men managed to perform that little number and when they did all of their 'get' were tainted with this sin. So, while we are capable of redemption we are also the only things that have original sin imprinted on our very souls. I personally think all sorts of unoriginal sins followed on that first doozy so it appears humankind just sort of gravitates towards sin like bees to honey (re: Vedic honey commercial) and thus are in desperate need of a savior of some sort and - voila, Jesus! So, unless aliens look like humans i.e. God, then they are not tainted with original sin and thus don't need saving. I would very much doubt that any other species in the universe look exactly like Earth humans - there are just too many environmental and genetic factors to believe this possible. So where does this leave us? LOL ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : This is actually an interesting topic and one to which I have, hitherto, not given much thought. Humans can tend to be very egocentric and often figure themselves to be the only humans in the Universe and thus the only ones "made in the image of God". I am pretty sure humans consider themselves pretty special in having been granted the assurance of Jesus that they, and they alone, are saved. Not only this, but many would assert that only those who believe in Jesus as their Saviour will be saved so this limits further the presence of "God" in the lives of others. Of course the logical conclusion from all of this is that human beings are the only ones NEEDING saving and thus perhaps the only ones capable of "sinning". For that matter, are animals capable of sin? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <jr_esq@...> wrote : S3, Those questions are excellent to ponder. Many years ago I read an essay written by Teilhard Chardin that attempted to address these questions. He stated that the entire universe only needs to be saved once. Therefore, Jesus Christ does not have to manifest at the various worlds that may have intelligent beings or humanoids. As such, his appearance on earth was enough to save the entire universe. But this assertion raises more questions than answers. For example, 1. If the Christ only appeared here on earth, how would the other worlds know that they have been saved or redeemed? 2. Does it mean that the mere fact of attaining sentience by any beings in the universe inherently means they would disobey the rules set in the Garden of Eden? 3. If they did not disobey, then would they be living in paradise in their own worlds? These are a few of the questions that I can think of. I'm sure you and the rest of the members would have more questions as well. To comment on your last paragraph, IMO the appearance of Jesus in the other worlds would have to be spiritual within the consciousness of the sentient beings throughout the universe. For the present, there is no worldly technology that can transport human beings here on earth to all corners of the universe. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : Perhaps alien "people" haven't fallen - in the theological sense - so don't need a saviour? Are aliens sinless quite naturally? But if they have "fallen" then it seems unfair that only humans get the Son of God on a short visit and aliens are left to stew in their own juices. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <jr_esq@...> wrote : The Vatican says no. But it believes there could be intelligent beings in other worlds in the universe. This is a new development for the Church which burned Giordano Bruno to the stakes for believing the same thing during the Middle Ages. Why the Vatican doesn’t think we’ll ever meet an alien Jesus http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/08/01/why-the-vatican-doesnt-think-well-ever-meet-an-alien-jesus/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/08/01/why-the-vatican-doesnt-think-well-ever-meet-an-alien-jesus/ Why the Vatican doesn’t think we’ll ever meet an alien J... http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/08/01/why-the-vatican-doesnt-think-well-ever-meet-an-alien-jesus/ "I don't think we'll ever meet a Mr. Spock," the vatican's observatory director said. View on www.washingtonpost... http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/08/01/why-the-vatican-doesnt-think-well-ever-meet-an-alien-jesus/ Preview by Yahoo
