Hi, Anquetas.
Anquetas writes:
Imagine that they gave us their own belief system, which is based on evidence and logic - that they are children of the universe.
I'm having a hard time imagining what kind of "evidence and logic" could possibly demonstrate that any particular entity is a "child of the universe." In fact, I don't even know what you mean by"children of the universe," nor whether that is a particularly profound or important thing to recognize, and I would be sure to ask for very specific definitions and explanations for them about this particular point.
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Anquetas writes:
Will you accept their belief system (and why) or will you try to convert them to your religion - Christianity or whatever, and how?
Have you ever read
Ender's Game and its sequels? I think it's the third book in the series when some primitive aliens become converted to Catholicism and then ridicule another alien of a different species who dares question them about this rather peculiar course of action by saying, "Maybe
you evolved, but
we were created."
Even though I was only 15 when I read it, it struck me as one of the most odd exchanges I had ever read in a science-fiction book.
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But, to answer your question, if they could demonstrate to me that faith in their particular belief system is required before immortality is achievable, then I would join their belief system (immortality sounds like a good thing to me, though it would depend on the conditions---if I could spend it with my wife; if I had to be an inert brain in a jar; etc.).
If, however, their methodologies were capable of making a skeptic immortal, I would doubt that their belief system had anything to do with obtaining immortality, and would neither attempt to convert them to my belief system nor feel the need to take on theirs.
Logically, why would I change my current belief system for something else if the new system is not inherently superior to the current system? Until I find something that's demonstrably more effective than my current system, I think I'll just stick with Mormonism.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the purpose of this thought exercise. Is your question simply, "If you found that another religion was superior to yours, would you switch?" Frankly, that's boring.
Or, maybe you were trying to see whether we would change our beliefs if someone else offered us a practical version of the same benefits, to determine whether our motivation to believe is purely selfish and practical?
Or, maybe you were trying to see whether any amount of evidence could lead us to believe in a religion in which we were not the special, "chosen race" of God?
Those would be more interesting questions, but I don't think your scenario actually gets at any of that: you need to be more specific and more direct. Furthermore, nobody religious is going to just come out and say, "Yep, I'm a hypocrit!"
Let me make a prediction: no religious person is going to directly engage your scenario, and will instead pick bones about how your scenario is set up.
Case in point: Slevesque (easily among the more logic-minded quantile of our religious contingent here at EvC) has started this off with a comment about how the scenario would trigger a logical tangent that would mean that your question is meaningless under the given conditions, thereby dodging the commitment to actually answer the question posed.
That will most likely be the closest you will get to a response to your actual question. We religious folks are notoriously immune to hypothetical scenarios that require us to deny our religion.
Edited by Bluejay, : Several typos.
-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)
Darwin loves you.
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