I brought this question onto the activity feed yesterday and it was suggested we entered it to the forum for more in depth discussion.

If there is sentient life on other planets could we expect them to also wear clothes or would they maybe live a naturist life? After all is it not possible to assume that their journey would have been different to ours and the need to cover up may never have arisen. Has clothing developed primarily from our need to stay warm and other beings may not have found such a need. Does a cultured, civilised and advanced life form need clothing as part of that description? What would a naked alien race think of us wearing clothes? Would they see us as barbaric, unhygienic and emotionally troubled?  

I was assuming that they wouldn't look like us. It is just interesting to consider no matter what they looked like would they possibly be wearing clothes. The human race often assumes that a clothing and being civilised and cultured go together whereas we naturists know that simply doesn't have to be the case. Also a huge amount of barbaric and completely uncivilised behaviour has been carried out by people in uniforms.

What do you think? Answer for a bit of fun or get quite deep if you like.

  I promise I will get to the alien question. However, in order for my response to make sense, I have to address the theological issue that would support my theory.

  I believe the Bible to be true and profitable in every respect. There is symbolism in the Bible and when it is there, it is made clear that it is intended to be symbolism. The account of Adam and Eve as the first, created, people, is literal. It has to be, because if mankind did not begin in that way, and if they never disobeyed God’s one and only law at that time, sin and death would not have been introduced into the world and there would therefore have never been a need for a Redeemer.

  Stay with me now… The Bible says that man/woman was made “lower than the angels,” yet in another place assures those who have been given spiritual rebirth and are Christ’s, will in eternity, rule over and even judge angels.  I don’t know what that means exactly, we are not yet given all the answers; but for the purposes of this forum, just let it be noted that if man had never sinned and had remained innocent and never in need of a Redeemer, mankind’s relationship with his Creator would have remained untainted, but would always have remained in a state higher than the animals, yet lower than the angels.  Ok, this is a REALLY truncated explanation of my thesis.

  Now, to the alien question.  It is my theory, that if man’s mind had never been affected by the sin nature, which we all inherited from Adam, since all of mankind was in his loins when he sinned, therefore all are born with that nature, then long before now, I think we would have been in space and even farther out into the universe than we can now fathom. Because born with the intelligence and capabilities given the first man, there would have been nothing to hinder or slow progress; and since there would have been no sin, there would have been no evil influence to thwart any of our efforts.

  I believe that all that has happened has been a part of God’s plan from eternity past, to bring to Himself in the end a people redeemed from the fall and raised up finally to live with Him eternally, having inherited Christ and all that is His.  However, He created the universe for mankind, as though if man had obeyed and honored God and never fallen, we might now have progressed and multiplied (remember, no death, Adam would still be alive and everyone who came after) and filled (or begun to fill) and enjoy all of Creation, everywhere. Fortunately, God had a better and much higher plan for us than that.

  I therefore do not believe there is intelligent life other than Earth. Is that hubris?  No. It is recognition that we blew it from Genesis 3 and have continued to blow it ever since. So, the question of whether aliens wear clothing is in my mind, moot. Peter wrote the following:

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’” … “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. … But the day of the lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

  I just don’t see room for belief in aliens from other worlds there. And btw, if we ever were able to travel far enough into space to find other worlds, wouldn’t we be the aliens?  (insert smiley face here)

 I don’t mean to shut out other responses with my long and serious contribution and I hope that doesn’t happen; but I just feel it is an approach worthy of consideration so, I offer it here.

To act as devils advocate to Sam’s theory, and to provide for alternative debate, we will submit the following.

If we take Darwin’s theory as accurate, and then use that as a basis to apply cosmically, then we know that what we call man today is really just one of many different animals that evolved from the soup of life at the start of all things.

Taking into account the size of the cosmos, which we know is bigger than we can even imagine, then the odds are that somewhere there is a different planet on which evolution has played a similar role, and some form of intelligent life could exist. The odds are, the amount of time and energy required to reach this planet, if possible, would mean they would have to be a far more superior race to ours on an intelligence level.

Now with that in mind (Literally) We could assume that rather than build a space craft, they would use the power of such a superior mind to transport themselves more as an astral type projection across space. “See Avatar the movie, plug the guy into the machine, and boom, he appears as a blue living being in the forest.)

One would assume to be that far advanced on the evolutionary scale to travel in mind power across space, we could we feel safely imply they had developed intellectually past vanity and shame, and so for our aliens, nudity would not be an issue. Like many enlightened souls on this planet currently, we have been able to transcend beyond sex and shame and understand the principles of none sexual nudity and being our natural selves.

We think it stands to reason that it would not matter what they looked like, because they would have the power of the mind to understand that if they came in peace, they would assume our natural bodily form, in order to appear friendly and not hostile, they would be naked humans in appearance.

We feel this would possibly also be the case, as an advanced race would be interested in helping us develop further and become more enlightened, and so their teachings would be focused on obtaining or returning to a more natural path for mankind that advanced past wars, raping the planet, consumerism, and improving life for all as more sustainable and better educated beings.

We feel to discover another planetary race would have a seismic impact on the planet and all its inhabitants, and so therefore our whole focus as a race would shift, as we became less about countries and more about planetary, in a bid to further mankind.  

To a degree, seeing a more advanced race arrive on the planet who were unashamed to be naked, would do two things, firstly there would be mass scrutiny and excitement, and then there would be the media and societal drive to jump on the “Visitor” trend. As we see today in modern culture, we do tend to replicate idols, for example we dress up as Marvel and DC characters, or copy trends like was seen with Jennifer Aniston’s hair in friends. We feel it would not be long before people starting to see nudity as normal, and in a bid to be like them, the world view would change, and people would start to see less value in clothing, and follow the trends and go naked.

 

Obviously, we could all feel smug, point the finger and say “See I told you so.” (Giggles)

Wow! I did say you could be silly or deep, but at the end of the day I was not expecting this level of theologising - though I guess I should have known better! What a wonderful site ANW is!

I guess my original question was more about "If" intelligent life came to visit would they be wearing clothes, and it they weren't would they think we were weird to be wearing clothes? And that questions still stands for level of approach by anyone. I guess part of my initial thought was that in Avatar they cover up the breasts and genitals just as humans do, but would that be something they would have done or do they do in the fantasy world of Avatar simpy because humans expect it from a cultured life form. 

If other civilised races did exist I would say the need to be covered would be completely hit and miss depending on their own planet, climate, history and culture. Eeven if they did take to clothing -it could be purely protection - they only wear shoes because their ground is very sharp. Or it could be that for some reason the limb joints are seen as worthy of covering due to an emotional fear of corners maybe? But the genitals are left on display - maybe because it is the only way they can tell the difference between the sexes or simply because they do not mind having them. Maybe the breasts are on the back of the head due to the habit of piggy backing their children - and covering them would be awkward. Maybe they do not have breasts at all, being more reptilian in nature or something else entirely. 

I guess what I was pomndoring was not whether aliens exist or what they would be like but more about our own views of ourselves as human beings.

The majority believe we are cultured and civilised for having clothes. The majority believe that aspects of our clothing should cover up our "naughty bits." So we believe that nice, cultured, intelligent aliens would surely do the same. We have had so many people tell us over the years that we are animals and beasts to considered being naked among others, and their definition is that clothes seperate from the animals - they are waht make us civilised. Yet possibly a naked spaceman may see our own shame of our bodies and our lack of letting them breath and air as both backward and filthy. They may infact prefer to connect with dolphins. Of course it is all fantasy, but I think it is still fascinating. 

But the wonderful thoughts of Sam and Rob are also fascinating and probably more so. Do get involved and share your thoughts on any of the above. 
 

It is facinating Anna that others refer to you be naked as animal like and uncivilised, but it is not, the correct term would be "Westernised," because here on this very planet, we have many tribes that live naked to a greater extent, who are polite, cordial, structured in their community organisation, and very respectful to others. This is a wonderful thing about other customs of other races, and if that is applied across the board, the same can be said for any alien race that may visit. 

In truth, they may feel more at ease with a naked tribe in the jungle, than they would in a built up city with people wearing clothing. To a degree there is an arrogance in believing we are more inteligent than animals, and some form of superior race to them, that is only mankinds opinion. In truth, Animals treat their habitats far better than humans do, as they respect it, and do not rape and destroy it for power or financial gain. The same could be applied to a race of planetary visitors, who like you say, may see dolphons as a higher level of evolved creatures on this planet, and see us as preditory and destuctive.

To assume civilised equals clothed, we feel is a mistake, and would think a higher evloved life form would also see it the same way and may even try to convince us to stop wasting resources by clothing production. This is actually the wonderful aspect of this forum thread, there are so many different avenues that we could all explore and all of them completely different.

Let's see what others think.