Odd "science" pondering...

[arib]

Please bear in mind that I'm submitting this bit of thought as an Orthodox Jew, and it's merely a humorous thought exercise, not a philosophical belief or anything.

So, some folks lately have been making a big fuss insisting that intelligent design be tought in public schools.In a nutshell, ID posits that life on earth didn't evolve randomly, but was instead created with the assistance of "some sort of outside force," by which they most likely mean God, but can't actually come out and say it yet. Maybe they could get away with it sometime during W's fourth or fifth administration. (My own personal opinion? God created intelligent life using random evolution as the mechanism thereof. I honestly don't see why everyone's making a fuss. Anyway, I digress.)

So, what if, years down the line, humanity definitively discovers that intelligent life on earth was created by Intelligent Design, but the designer happens to be an alien. (By definitively, I mean an alien spacecraft lands on the White House lawn, an alien emerges and gives a press conference, basically saying, "hi folks, I created y'all. Now get in the kitchen and make me some pie. Also, bring me the heads of the Fox TV network executives. Those morons cancelled Firefly!"

Any ideas?

Comments

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I like your aliens, but first we have to wait for Firefly to get to them.

The way I see it, noodly appendages aside, there's actual, real, happening-now evidence of random evolution. (There's also evidence that the number of pirates decreases as global average temperature increases). There isn't evidence of 'outside forces', which makes them not-science. Public schools teaching sciency things should stick exclusively to what can be shown as true. Faith and belief shouldn't be taught as science.

That last paragraph is important. Aliens claiming to have done it aren't science, unless they can show what they did and demonstrate how their actions would cause life on Earth to be the way it is. If they didn't, it'd be another fluffy theory - nice for some, possibly true, but by no means scientific fact.

But that doesn't really answer the question. I think some people would baake pies, some would argue about pies like a Morporkian talking to the gods, and some would try to blow the aliens up.

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

"Any sufficiently technologically advanced society is indistinguishible from $DIETY."

I've thought that before.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

By definition, God (however you define God or Gods) is an alien.

Discuss. :-)

[greyman.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with this.... by any definition I've seen, a god is something other than human. A god which created the Earth had to exist before the earth did, and therefore isn't from Earth. Thus, an alien.

And, of course, gods aren't generally issued green cards or passports and so must be considered illegal aliens....

(devout agnostic)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Devout agnostic? Or "apatheist"? (A term I stole from a friend of mine, Pete.)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I think a few science fiction stories have dealt with this concept. Have you read Robert Sawyer's CALCULATING GOD, for example?

[sorek.livejournal.com]

Of course even if aliens do land on Earth and claim they they invented the universe, they could just be lame posers like the Goa'ould.

"Firefly! Kree!"

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Well, my first question will be 'who created y'all'? Most likely answer? 'It's aliens all the way down'.

[thevortex.livejournal.com]

Also, current research is showing that evolution does not quite work the way Darwin said it did. Rather, it appears that nature does jump. Now what do you suppose inspires such a jumpy mechanism?

*wink*

The Vortex