I have had occasion to ask people a question whose premise is similar to the scenario in sam512's writeup here.
A criticism of the religions claiming a divine source is that they are all location specific. Islam (in Chapter 5:3) & Christianity (John 14.6) are special cases that claim universal application. If any of the 2 religions have a divine origin, there should be traces of that divinity in other places. Islam is doubly special because it claims to be the original religion of all creation. It claims that Adam was a Muslim, that angels pray in the manner Muhammad instructed humans to, and so on. It says that other religions are deviations from the original monotheism of Adam and Abraham. Now, to my knowledge, there has never been a case of 2 cultures which have never had contact practicing either Islam or Christianity. And since every culture has its own unique religion, with similarities being easily explained by our shared humanity, then any claims of universal applicability by any religion are just specific quirks, which others also have.
The question I ask, after the above is this: if aliens were to come to earth and they happen to practice a religion exactly like one here on earth, that would be proof that that religion at least has a non-human and possibly divine origin. This then means that every other religion here is probably fake. If such a situation arose, would you change your religion?
Of all the people that I asked this question, only 1, who happened to be Hindu, said she would change her religion. I was shocked at how vehemently Christians and Muslims twisted and turned while trying to avoid a straightforward answer. Some bluntly said they would not change as they are convinced of the truth of their faith. While admiring their honesty, I was scared (for lack of a better word) at their attitude. What do they rely on that gives them the confidence to refuse evidence (even if weak or circumstantial), logic or a superior argument? While conceding that it is possible that the aliens are not absolute proof of the truth of the truth of a religion, I'd think that a religion that is on more than 1 world has more chances to be true than one that is on just ours. One person who said he would not change had a reason grounded in his faith. He said God is the creator of the universe and thus the other worlds. And so it is possible Satan went to that world and introduced a fake religion there so that the aliens can come to earth and deceive us. I had to give him marks for that.
The first question asked in the first writeup in this node by jafuser was about the reaction of religion to evidence of alien intelligence. Subsequent writeups have all focused on that. Reoccurence of radical ideas notwithstanding, I was asking the question to make people uncomfortable. But at the end of the exercise, I was the one who was quite unsettled. I suppose that serves me right, there was nothing to be gained for me or for them.
Iron Noder 2020, 20/30