I'm curious to hear what people think would happen if people made contact with aliens.
What happens to world politics and religion?  How is your daily life different?

I hate to say it, but it would either 1 of 2 things: Either Complete total all out war, or something like District 9. 

You ever see that movie Independence Day? There is your answer. Or it could end up like Aliens. We might have to do a lot of hiding lol.

warmaker :

What would make it any different from what happened when European countries came to North and South America?

Only lots

lots

worse.



+ Us being constant test subjects for their experiments, animals for whatever they want to do. Unless they had religious beliefs that granted us rights or something, I see it being no different. But hey, the Spanish were supposed to be Christians, yet look what they did to South Americans? Religious seems to have little input on the use of guns, people do as they please. Why would aliens be any different?

warmaker : Seriously, everyone seems to think that aliens could only be violent and menacing creatures that would terrorize the planet. What if they were just like us? What if we already have met them, but never even knew. There could be good and evil aliens, just like there are good and evil people. They could be like the transformers, the chozo, the metroids, or even birdlike creatures. How do we know what they could be like? We can't even seem to prove whether or not they exist. So how much less could we say what they are like? They could be peaceful. They could be warring. They could be stronger and more advanced or weaker and less advanced. Who's to say what an alien being would be like?

We might get infected, and turn into aliens? Is that possible? I think so.
But personally, I don't believe there are aliens. Maybe there are, but before I've seen evidence of aliens, I'm just gonna think of aliens as fiction.

No insults intended, though.

Sword legion : It may be different than European expansion and imperialism because of the aliens' culture.  Anyone who can bridge massive gaps of space travel are probably some of the smartest guys in the room.  They should have developed the ability to be diplomatic without violence.  Hopefully, they understand that peace and knowledge is the way to stopping people from killing each other and causing pain and violence in the world.

Maybe they have a message of religious intent to spread, like when Jesus walked around and told people how nice it would be if everyone were kind to each other.  We've had groups of people try to do that here.  The imperialists just happen to win during European expansion because naked aggression wins.

Imagine aliens putting down militants with no effort.  ISIS wouldn't last long if a group of aliens came down and wiped them all out.

warmaker : I agree with that statement. A race advanced enough for interstellar travel would likely be more diplomatic, or at least be capable. Not saying that it could be a case of just wanting to take resources with no regard for the life living on the planet.

But honestly, I think disease would be a huge concern. We see it all the time where if you have never had exposure to a pathogen, you are at high risk of sickness when in contact with it. Now regardless of the pathogen native to Earth, they are adapted to how organisms here are designed. Depending on how microorganisms have evolved on another planet, it is more than possible for foreign pathogens to infect us (possibly even be zoonotic) and life on Earth wouldn't be structured in a way to resist it. Or it could be possible that the pathogen wouldn't be able to use earth organisms as a host. But that would be a worry until it was known for certain.

Let's see, on what movies teach me about if humans made contacts with aliens, I think that it's for the best we enslave those aliens before they enslave us, and they mostly want world peace so they can do their dirty work, that is why war is a good thing.

Sure, they might be lifeforms on other planets, but it might take forever till they can reach Earth, and they might die due to old age before they even get halfway - quarterway to Earth from their home planet. And if Sci-Fi movies turns into reality like teleportation and what not, then this might be a possibly, but that's not going to be for 1,000 years so that can be out of the equation in the short term.

So the short answer, I don't think it's a good idea for humans to make contact with aliens.

They would find out that Justin Bieber exists, leave, and never come back again.

Religion would get a whole lot more awkward, that's for sure.

IgorBird122 : Not trying to sound insulting, but your comment pretty much says that you are all for slavery. Sure, an alien race isn't human, but slavery is slavery regardless. I would hope that your attitude towards those who are different are "they are bad, lets enslave them". I know you said "on what movies teach me about if humans made contacts with aliens", but that is the WORST source to use as your base of logic. Have Hollywood writers and directors ever made contact with aliens and had all out war? So why use that as your source? You wouldn't take cooking advice from someone who has never cooked a day in their life. Movies on alien invasions are for entertainment, not for teaching.

rcarter2 : Well, maybe I kinda needed to re-word that first sentence I made about enslaving the aliens (and maybe the rest of the post), I personally don't like any kind of slavery, not sure on why I made that sentence. I also think in a way that we all need to look more more into reality than fiction, and Sci-fi movies and TV shows are mostly for Entertainment Purposes rather than teaching us about reality.

So yeah, I have to agree, need to look more at the facts than fiction.

IgorBird122 : Well, one thing about this topic is that all we have is the fiction. We literally have no facts to base anything off of. All we can do is just take what we know about humanity and try to apply that to an unknown civilization. Our views might actually apply, might not. All we have is speculation. So everything really is unknown.

With intelligent aliens in general, I'd either expect them to be extremely primitive or extremely advanced (to our standards).

If the human race is any example, once agriculture started to pick up, society progressed at an incredibly fast pace (homo sapiens has come so far in 10-20,000 years, compared to all the years before that). I don't think agriculture specifically has to start the chain, but I do feel like once certain factors take hold, progress speeds up exponentially.

Logically, it would make sense that whoever establishes communication first will be the more advanced. I also think our first glimpse of alien life will be with traces of long-gone microbes or maybe some form of pre-life (like self-replicating RNA stands on an asteroid).

---

If this happened today, and not a few hundred years from now, we might be doomed because of the infections they may bring (as others have mentioned). We might even doom them depending on what they bring back to their home planet.

Politics won't change much. I expect political parties will either try to get the aliens to back them, or start some sort of pro-human discrimination against them. If a few decided to stay, there would be a lot of argument about human-alien partnerships and whatnot. I get a headache just thinking about all the social issues that will have to be debated over and over. =P

Religion won't change much either. I expect that more people will become less fundamentalist, but I honestly don't expect the institution to change much, if at all. Maybe people will find something that can be construed in scripture as foreign intelligence, and use that as proof that their religion is right. Otherwise, I think the vast majority of people's beliefs will stay the same. Virtually everyone will take the event as validation of their own beliefs.

If the aliens have their own form of religion, then I think things could go downhill pretty fast if they started to proselytize.

it should be a war
humans v.s aliens
because they like to fight each other.
but for me it will be friendship

Normal socialized people try to make a peaceful friendship, but politics and army start a war then, to hide their weakness and intolerance against other thinking people or life forms. 

honestly i think the world would feel threatened instantly and just shoot any alien they see. if this doesn't happen then the world would treat aliens like lesser beings and discriminate against them. i could see the "this is our world" and " you don't belong here" chants already.

They would destroy us and take our resources if they were stronger. However, if there weaker than they'll ask us for our resources

I can't say how the rest of the world would react, but as for myself, the answer's pretty easy, if we are talking about sentient alien life-forms.

Those poor aliens would have an autistic, shy human girl that suddenly turns into the Earth's Biggest Pest coming to bug them. I seriously would greet them with open arms and be asking if they would teach me anything; their language (if it was one humans were capable of mimicking), about themselves, their home planet, their flora and fauna, how their technology works, what their government is like, what their concept of art and music is like and could any of them teach a single human how to play one of their instruments...all of that.  I want to be friends, I want to learn, and I want to accept.

I don't think it would change my world-view, honestly.  I'm a Christian, but I'm not one of the crazies that thinks  it's impossible that there's other life out there. I mean, my beliefs say God created everything, but why would He create something so hugely infinite as the universe just for one sentient species? Who are we to say that He didn't plant the seeds of sentient life on some other planet, perhaps even in our own galaxy?  Obviously, to me, any aliens would simply be another group of His children, which means more potential friends and family, more things to learn and grow from, and more chances to show the love that everyone needs in their lives. 

I'd rather love than be afraid. I'd rather learn than instantly think things are a threat. I'd much rather make friends than enemies, and it's no different to me whether human or alien. 

...aaand I need to get off my soap box. This is one of those things I have had many intent conversations with people about, obviously.