Our sample size of intelligent species is pretty small. We don’t have any good reason to think that they would prefer “rational” entities or would even have a notion of “rational.” One could easily construct other hypotheticals, like an alien species that was intensely religious and considers signs of rationality to be bad (there are humans who do just fine in careers like engineering and claim to have such viewpoints, so the idea of a species reaching high tech levels and having such hang-ups isn’t implausible.)
True, but would you agree that it is more likely that rational entities attain spaceflight capabilities? Also, rationality is likely to share some universals, whereas religion seems far less likely to.
I think most religions require some belief without (and possibly in spite of) evidence, or using words which are almost meaningless.
It would be interesting though to see if aliens find different contortions on which to base religious beliefs. Like, a stable equilibrium of people pretending to see what their religion asserts and avoiding signalling otherwise Emperor’s New Clothes style or something.
It would be interesting though to see if aliens find different contortions on which to base religious beliefs. Like, a stable equilibrium of people pretending to see what their religion asserts and avoiding signalling
That occurs in some human religions also just less commonly with sight but rather other observational claims. For example, in some forms of Protestant evangelicalism it is uncommon for people to talk about all the terrible things they did before they accepted Jesus as their personal lord and savior. Very few of those people were the drug-fueled, alcoholic, decadent, Satan-worshippers that they claim to have been. But no one calls them out on it.
Our sample size of intelligent species is pretty small. We don’t have any good reason to think that they would prefer “rational” entities or would even have a notion of “rational.” One could easily construct other hypotheticals, like an alien species that was intensely religious and considers signs of rationality to be bad (there are humans who do just fine in careers like engineering and claim to have such viewpoints, so the idea of a species reaching high tech levels and having such hang-ups isn’t implausible.)
True, but would you agree that it is more likely that rational entities attain spaceflight capabilities? Also, rationality is likely to share some universals, whereas religion seems far less likely to.
I think most religions require some belief without (and possibly in spite of) evidence, or using words which are almost meaningless.
It would be interesting though to see if aliens find different contortions on which to base religious beliefs. Like, a stable equilibrium of people pretending to see what their religion asserts and avoiding signalling otherwise Emperor’s New Clothes style or something.
That occurs in some human religions also just less commonly with sight but rather other observational claims. For example, in some forms of Protestant evangelicalism it is uncommon for people to talk about all the terrible things they did before they accepted Jesus as their personal lord and savior. Very few of those people were the drug-fueled, alcoholic, decadent, Satan-worshippers that they claim to have been. But no one calls them out on it.