If aliens created us through genetic tinkering, are they our God?

[MysticPhD]

Originally Posted by Shirina

I don't know what your religous affiliation is or even if you have one. But let me just say that the guilt of original sin is one of the most cruel and blinding aspect of Christian doctrine.

There's this horrific of self-loathing as a collective species that I see running through the fabric of Western culture that I find absolutely horrifying. Doom and gloom has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Take climate change, for example. It's much easier to place it all in the hands of god - and if we plunge into a Mad Max planet with wars being fought over a single spring or creek with some fresh water in it, well, then we deserve it.

Everything is OUR fault.

No. We did not create who we are. Why are human beings so greedy? Why does every favor done for another come with the expectation of resiprocity. Why can we not work together for the betterment of the human condition - and instead we work individually and competitively for the betterment of a tiny fraction while the rest sink inexorably toward grinding poverty and starvation? We did not give ourselves those traits, right? Could even education ween us away from measuring "success" as merely how much money you have and how shiny your toys are?

Look at us biologically - the ridiculous mistakes made. Why does the optic nerve in our eye run right through middle of our vision? And why must there be this complicated set of rods and cones just to turn right-side-up the image we see which is upside-down? Ridiculous!

Or why is it that we eat with the same tube we breathe through? How many millions of children has that killed over the millennia given that children, especially, have this penchant for putting solid things in their mouths? Not a very nice thing to do, Mr. God is Good!

To say nothing of how inefficient our body is at using the things we eat. Most of it is ejected out our backsides in this disgusting brown lump of bacteria that has killed more people than warfare. And there's nothing in the Bible or Qu'ran or anywhere that tells humanity, "Okay, you need to build a sewage system for your cities - this is how you do it." Nope, instead the Bible concerns itself with things like how many sheckles a rapist pays the victim's father - or finding a loophole to get Hebrew slaves to stay a slave forever. You know, important and moral things every civilization needs to know.

Why should we blame ourselves for those things? You can't really blame a human for how we behave any more than you can blame a fish for swimming and a bird for flying. And no, this isn't some ridiculous argument for abolishing crime or some nonsense like that. But the fact that we even need laws is a testament to the failure of humanity. We did not give ourselves the proclivities that we have.

At least evolution has been proven to occur and thus is a far more likely an explanation than ... magic.

The so-called "missing link" hasn't been missing for at least a decade. I think said evolutionary line was discovered in the 2000s if I'm not mistaken.

Nope.
Fossils found in South Africa are the 'missing link' in human evolution, study finds

Yes, it is possible that we were helped along by a more advanced species that was interested in how the humaoid evolves.

It is true that we humans are pathetically ill-adapted to live in the wilds anywhere on earth. Even in a relatively warm climate, people die of exposure in 50F-degree weather all the time. We have no natural offenses - no teeth, claws, fangs, poison, webs, or anything of the sort that would help us hunt and defeat prey. We have no natural defenses, either. We have no armor, no camouflage, no way of scaring a predator away. Compared to animals, we can't run fast, we're physically weak, we can't jump, we can't climb, we can't swim, we can't fly. The only things that have allowed us to survive has been our intellect.

Sometimes it does seem as though humans are out of their element here on earth. And I have to admi that aliens are a more believable cause than a magic all-powerful entity that doesn't have to explain where its own origins originated from.

Well, looking back on the mutiny, your criticisms are hard to argue with. But from my perspective, the injection of our level of consciousness into an extant species without it presents unique problems and issues that I believe are the actual sources of "mucking things up." As Meerkat keeps trying to point out, we have to try to understand that there are different levels of spiritual evolution and maturation that need to be considered. In the beginning, at the species level, we had to evolve the capabilities for discrimination and the motivation for discipline over our animal instincts and survival needs.

Within each subsequent evolved generation each individual had to learn and mature basically from scratch. Within each evolved generation at the group or tribal level we had to learn and develop the societal communication and cooperation paradigms to provide continuity across generations. At the intergroup or nation level, we had to find common ground and communication to foster a larger societal dynamic (we are really lousy at that).

Considering we had to create our own instruction manuals in relative ignorance, we have not done that bad a job, IMO.

[Shirina]

Originally Posted by LearnMe

Though I tend to agree with most you explain, I'm not sure about all of it...

Surely we can recognize the difference between how some of us humans are different and act differently as compared to most if not other life forms on earth. Fish and birds all tend to do the same things based on their genetic coding. We humans are a different matter altogether. We've got people who are inclined to do very bad things while at the same time we've got people who are inclined toward doing only good things.

Very different from fish and birds, turtles, microbes, weeds, plants, trees and all the other life forms we share this planet with. No need for more evidence or testament when it comes to human failings that are altogether obvious. Some of us are simply more flawed than others, and for those who are most flawed, we need those laws that help protect the better people from the bad people.

The profound differences are also why fish and birds don't also have laws...

I suppose I should've been more clear when I wrote my post - I was kind of in a hurry.

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that humanity was blameless when ascertaining who is responsible for our woes. There are a lot of things we do to ourselves that, quite frankly, doesn't make sense. And yet we accept it without a fight.

The complexities of a culture that can influence a person to do certain things - and then intermix that with varying degrees and types of mental illness and then thowing in some peer pressure, ego, the need for belonging, emotion - on and on and on.

Sometimes it's nigh impossible to separate the things for which we are responsible from those things that we simply have no power or control over.