Alientology

[Coal]

You have attributed entitative status to the emerging figure at the point you perceive it as a definite object of reference (even if fuzzily delineated or amorphous). You're definitely treating it as entitative at the point it's reliably distinguishable as a discrete referent (the 2nd step in the progression outlined above).

I appreciate the explanation!

 

[Jape89]

I've never come across a suitable term but this sort of thinking is literal "humanism" (homo sapien-ism?) despite the alien trappings. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and ultimately my objection with the OP is philosophical, certainly not saying he is wrong because it can't be proven.

I find the idea humanity "Has A Purpose" that we are destined to ascend beyond "this rock" as the OP put it ridiculous and shares plenty of similarities with other modes of thought as far afield as Ancient Judaism and Marxism. Creationism of any form is the most naked expression of this and has no scientific grounding. No more than that Fundy on YouTube proving bananas have a 'tab' on them for easy access. It is based on an idea of being above animals, even the physical world and arrogant assumption based on our sense of self and fear of death.

Humans are animals with as much in common with other Earthlings as we have apart. Our technological advances have been down to organisational skills our Stone Age anscestors possessed, ultimately it is our greatest threat, we are biologically cave men with access to nuclear weapons and due to the speed of biological evolution we're unlikely to "catch up" to our own technology before we go extinct. Not to say we'll blow ourselves up but we will die out, which is a concept that even avowed atheist rationalists struggle with (I'm a blast at parties).

And on the "sky god" thing - the limitations of our understanding of the physical realm and the human need to entitatise (thanks EG!) means its a very natural idea which is why all cultures have done it and even in fairly secular societies new forms spring up whether nakedly religious/spiritual or otherwise. I wholly believe that when the Last Man dies they'll be a church/mosque/temple within easy reach. The idea of alien creators is no more logical because it simply jumps forward a stage and leaves the original question unanswered. The famous Tertullian argument holds more truth to me than adding extra layers to avoid the question.

Also, why intentional panspermia? Natural evolutionary imperative would just be to colonise a lush world as Humanity would do. You never see Humans in sci-fi fire off DNA to other worlds but the benevolent aliens/angels did it for us.

I remember seeing the trailer for Interstellar and Michael Caine says gruffly "mankind was born here, it wasn't meant to die here" to which I snarked "where are we supposed to die then?".

A quarter of a billion people died in the 20th Century from unnatural death (war, genocide, enabled famine) - we are beasts and have shown no higher purpose beyond ruining normal folks lives in the name of Big Ideas and building tall things. And to confirm I'm not a Luddite but I think its important to remember we're only important to ourselves and the nameless masses often suffer because of such pompous notions of destiny and mission whether by a specific tyrant or a general philosophy.

This sort of grand design thinking strikes me as innately animalistic and tribalist just taken up a level, yet certain people hail it as proof of our unique greatness.

EDIT: Jesus I can waffle. Apologies guys.

 

[Cochise]

On the other hand there is a point. Science cannot currently tell us what started the universe we know or what will ultimately happen to it. So to some extent 'magic' (in the Heinlein sense) is what we are currently stuck with.

Yes, I'm aware of the Big Bang. That simply begs the question of what made it go bang - not to mention what was outside it. If nothing was outside it it wouldn't be able to go bang.