Ridley Scott Does not think god created us

This a direct link to Peter Weyland and Davids chad on AC first scene asking for the same question, just because from this point how we were made this movie begins.

I agree with Ridley to a an extent. 

I knew that James Cameron is an atheist, but didn't know that Ridley Scott is also an atheist. I just read about it yesterday.

I think he´s an agnostic. He's seeking the answers and evolution is part of it.

Well for me it's as simple as it is mind blowing:  Life will arise when the conditions are right.

Our problem (as humanity) is that we have only one reference point for how life came to be (Earth) and can't be sure if this was a one off or, indeed, how or what life may have arisen elsewhere.

Life, as we know it, is matter working together.  Think, all life on Earth is essentially water and other inorganic particles thriving in an admittedly complex relationship, that results in said matter appearing to be 'independent'.  In reality though no life on Earth is truly independent from any other life or the Earth itself.  We're all part of the same thing, just different variations.

I offer the notion that the water we consume today may well have once been TRex piss! :)  All matter is recycled.  It's not created or destroyed, ever!

Anyway, I'm rambling; but to my mind we don't know enough about life here, or we certainly view life from a very species/egocentric and narrow perspective to even begin to think about origins in any meaningful way.

Think about what is needed for you to exist.  Take one element away, or even any tiny element in the chain since the big bang, and hey presto, you don't exist . . .

Now ask yourself, what am I and what is life?  Where was 'I' before I was born,  where do 'I' go when I die?

Sorry if that sounds like pretentious gibberish but I believe life to be more, much more, than we assume.

I doubt there is a 'creator' more that things 'just are' and when conditions are 'right' life comes into being.  I would imagine the variety and type of life across the universe to be infinite and mind blowingly different to what we may assume or imagine.

A bit philosophical for a Monday morning but this is why I love these films - get the brain juices and imagination flowing :)

Deep Space As you  say "life will arise when the conditions are right" and the exact combination of those conditions and accidents might be so difficult to concur and coalesce into "us" that there is also the chance that we are actually alone in the universe. It can also be, like the film "Interstellar" suggests to me, that the other more evolved beings we might find is none other than ourselves in a future stage of evolution.

In response to my post I will add that it could well be possible for a life form(s) to have understood certain principles or 'laws' that govern the origination and continuation of life.

If that were the case then beings like the Engineers and what we see in Prometheus may not be too far from the truth . . . 

So in that sense I'd go with what Ridley is trying (imo) to get at with these films.

@Joylitt - Yes that could well be the case and I really liked that idea in IS.

My feeling though, based on nothing more than intuition and the shear size of the known universe (which is essentially infinite), is that there are is an infinite variety of life out there.

When we factor time into the process as well it makes me wonder how many Earth/human like civilizations have been and gone already over the course of history and how many more will come to be . . .

Deep Space really fascinating stuff. I also hope we are not alone and if we ever make contact that we won't be annihilated :-)

Joylitt - Indeed! :)  

I don't buy Stephen Hawking's rather bleak assessment that any ETs would be a threat to us.  It's possible but not probable imo.  NdG Tyson shares this view as well.

Again, it's that human/ego-centric view that only allows us to see the universe through human perception and human desires; ergo, life is there to be conquered, mastered and understood.  But, granted, we are kind of stuck with it ;) lol

To be fair, this is why philosophy and esoteric or other contemplative practices are so important to mankind, but sadly seem to be a dying art . . . 

Two things I have never been able to accept and never will:

'God'

We're alone in the universe.

Statistically, even when seriously handicapping the odds, you still end up with Life arising elsewhere.
Life is simple, get the right chems together, you get amino acids, they start assembling, and eventually you get DNA, and it's a pretty 'smart' molecule, and competes on a chemo-mechanical manner to build itself up, etc, etc..
Creating the amino acids is very likely to occur in a wide range of primordial environments as the chemistry is quite flexible as to temperature and other variables.

NOW...Intelligent Life? Sure, a Cat is pretty intelligent, really.
But Tool-Making Life is gonna be Rare.

The whole 'God' question, I consider wholly irrelevant. There is NO evidence or proof of the paranormal and supernatural goings-on in assorted religious texts despite assorted claims which are all easily exposed as false.
Like it or not folks, there's only one's actions and having to take responsibility for them. There's no 'devil' to make anyone do anything.

The Afterlife: ODDLY enough there's early stage scientific evidence that a Consciousness (NOT just Humans) does indeed go somewhere upon death of the brain. DEATH of the brain, not merely 'shut-down'.
The signature on an Electromagnetic level corresponds to any one of the Mathematically-Predicted Alternate Realities that science has started looking into.

Deep Space Yes, exactly. We humans think we are the center of it all. As Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris used to say: "We are only seeking Man. We have no need for other worlds. We need mirrors". That is why I find it funny that nobody points out that in the "Alien: Covenant" trailer someone says "no animals. no birds, nothing". What makes them assume that they are supposed to find those types of life forms on another planet?. It could be a planet where animal life never evolved. Or the forest as a whole could be one single creature much like the ocean in "Solaris". I also find it boring when scientists can only talk about "earth like planets". I know this would be useful for the purpose of future survival, but wouldn't be even more fascinating to find life that is very different from us?

Blackwinter-witch you reminded me a lot of Ellie, the protagonist of Carl Sagan's "Contact". And I bet you could have a good debate with a man of faith like her with Palmer :-)

@ Joylitt - yes, you know I wouldn't mind betting there is 'life' right here on Earth that exists but doesn't meet the accepted 'organic' principles of life like us, therefore it is dismissed or ridiculed.  

@ BW-Witch - Interesting post and I agree in the main with lots of your points.

You mention alternate realities but dismiss the paranormal etc.  Perhaps these things are one and the same?  

I've read a lot of books on esoteric practices from different cultures and even took part in some, spent years meditating and was a Buddhist monk for a time; and I can say from experience that when our perceptions change/grow, or whatever, and we get into a different 'space' we can see the world very differently.

Now does the world change or do we?  And what does that imply about life, perception and the world around us?

I would argue that there is life or forces or whatever you may or wish to call it/them that exist right here and now and most people on planet Earth are oblivious.

I'm not talking about ghosts though or the spirits of dead people, which imo, is pure fantasy and wishful thinking on our part.  But, perhaps those kind of ideas are a very basic way of attempting to understand some of these stranger or seemingly unexplainable phenomena?

Blackwinter-witch: I prefere to be more openminded. Popper has an interesting view on theories/hypotheses (and free will) which gives us an other perspective.

joylitt

Heh, I have had debates with people of faith.
One got so upset because I invalidated and nullified every point they brought up they tried to knock my teeth out, religious discussion via fists, and I'm really lucky hubby was there.
Nothing makes them more aggravatedly angry then insisting they show proof and evidence beyond their texts, and reminding them that 'faith' is not evidence.

My view on 'God' is because it makes absolutely no sense. Also, the various texts and people of faith continually contradict themselves.

THEN we get into how modern texts have very heavily plagiarized from assorted myths, legends, stories and such before their respective religions were around.

If 'God' wants my attention, then I expect him run this universe better instead of being a brobdingnagian-scale deadbeat-dad.
Folks of faith LOVE to point to coincidences as 'proof' of 'god'. Which is, at best, grasping as straws and sound ridiculous when they make such claims.

Then there's how religion always insists that IT comes first in people's lives, and how it plays at being so 'nice'.
Well, look up religion-instigated Genocides, nuff said.
NO statute of Limitations on Genocide, BTW.

As a Native American, I find all the foreign and invasive religions to our lands to be absolutely and tragically false, they're just sheep's skins cloaking wendigo.
'God loves all his children', BUT, not the pagan red men.
ANYTHING on the purported scale of 'god' that claims to be so universally Loving isn't gonna play 'favourites', and any 'god' who DOES play favourites, is one to immediately turn away from and burn every text of.

So, bring on Brother Palmer. Unlike Ellie, I am no stranger to this theatre of discussion. :D

Deep Space

TY! :)

Alternate Realities are part of provable, mathematics-backed studies. They are by definition not Paranormal, nor Supernatural.

Sorry to be such a hard case, but one's Perception is Malleable. Reality is not. You might be noticing aspects of reality and life you didn't previously, but that's not Reality being altered.
If such DID happen, you can believe it would raise supreme hell with every local electromagnetic field system and structure, which would be VERY noticeable. You change reality even slightly, things on the Quantum level react first and would lead to some potentially lethal consequences.

IS it possible there are, for sake of argument disembodied Consciousnesses around us? Yes, nothing in physics denies that, and the new studies show support for such. When people, animals, even plants die, the Consciousness goes somewhere, undergoes a Phase-Shift, in which it's Quantum signature aligns to one of the Mathematically-Predicted Alt Realities...but not always, thus perhaps some stay around, until I suppose a compatible new body comes along, or however it works. The theory I speak of does support Reincarnation.

chli

Who's 'Popper'??

Blackwinter-witch I perfectly understand you because I am agnostic. What makes me suspicious about religion is the promise of an afterlife. Imagine how popular a religion would be if it did not promise you that. But I keep my mind open. I acknowledge there is a fundamental mystery. I don't know if you read "Contact" or if you watched the movie, but the very poignant twist of it is that the protagonist, being an atheist, has to appeal to the "faith" of anybody who want to hear her story about traveling to the center of the galaxy, because she cannot prove it even though it happened.

Deep Space Talking about little understood creatures from planet Earth, you should look out for "The Creeping Garden", a fascinating documentary about "slime mold" and the people obsessed with it.

Well, this explains some of his choices, like having the Engineers or their gods, thus alien beings, as creators of human.

I personnaly believe that there is a supreme being which created the universe/multiverse but which is so advanced, powerful and so above of whatever we could understand that the God of religions is almost nothing compared to this supreme being.

If this supreme being create specifically the humans and see us as his children, then we are both completely unaware of our true potential/capabilities and certainly being in a sort extremly limited simulation through our journey on Earth. A sort of school to learn humility or some other lessons that we can't learn otherwises.