QUESTION :: WOULD ALIENS DISPROVE CHRISTIANITY?
Is the idea or existance of life on other planets inconsistant with the Bible and our beliefs as Christians?
Back in college, I had a professor that held some unusual theories on aliens. The course I had this instructor for was, I believe, Philosophy of Science 305, or some such number. Anyway, I had been warned ahead of time about this professor’s bizarre teaching style and firmly held beliefs. And, for the first part of the semester I began to doubt the validity of the warnings, because, I found no reason to question his intellectual sanity. But, out of nowhere he started one day to ramble on about some government conspiracy to hide the fact they had indeed contacted aliens, and much of the technology we had acquired since the 1950’s could be attributed to this ‘hush hush’ relationship we had with otherworldly creatures. As a result, although I have no problem with a belief in aliens (which I will elaborate on later in this article), the basis upon which he made such claims was I felt in conflict with his other logical conclusions (such as his arguments for the existence of God, his Platonic commitment and so forth). The reason I bring all of this up is simple. There is a debate in Christianity today as to whether belief in aliens and life on other planets is somehow inconsistent with the Bible. So, let us explore this subject and see if we cannot come to some agreement as to how we should deal with all of this.
In the secular world, I will not deny that it is quite popular to ‘use’ the issue of aliens as either a substitute for religion or as a way of ‘disproving’ it. The late Carl Sagan, made famous by his ‘billions upon billions’ of stars, was a staunch atheist. But, he was still human. He had a longing, a deeply seated desire, as we all have, to look for something outside of this world for fulfillment, purpose, and most likely salvation. The search for alien life offered him a perfect opportunity to seek these things out without the aid of religion. Assuming that the physical universe is ‘all there is’, Sagan found that if there was intelligent life in the universe, maybe they have the answers to the questions that haunt us as a species. Ultimately, his belief in alien life was supported, not necessarily by any strong evidence, but a hope that one day the dreams of humanity that birthed, he felt, the mythology of religion would find its fulfillment in a real answer; a more highly advanced civilization.
Another irreligious motivation for believing in aliens is found in the explanation of the supernatural. I frequent a message forum on the web where individuals who are fans of a particular famous author (I will not say who the author is) come together and discuss various topics, whether associated with this person or not. One fan in particular has stated on many occasions her theory that the miraculous events of Jesus’ life that are beyond explanation are evidence that Jesus was indeed an alien. Now, this may seem absurd to us here, but for those who do not believe in the supernatural, it is necessary to appeal to these types of arguments. How else explain His ‘ascension’, as into a spacecraft? Or, healing the sick, with advanced technology? So, there are reasons for believing that aliens exist that run counter to our faith.
Now, we all know that the supernatural must exist. For example, if advancements in technology were increasing our ability to disregard religion all together, then we would have been able to reason out how it is our minds effect our bodies, how it is love changes a life, or how life begins in the first place. But, we have not even come close. We can split an atom, but we cannot mend a heart. We can perform vivisection on the brain, but we cannot even ‘see’ the mind. We can create the conditions for life in a test tube, but we haven’t even begun to understand what life is. The search for aliens if it is for reasons of disproving or substituting Christianity will never prevail. Jesus will always be the capstone, not the captain of a space ship.
However, I believe that a healthy interest in other planets is not necessarily contrary to the Word of God. Whether life exists on other planets is an interesting subject, but it needn’t be one that must be solved. I think that Robert Frost put it best when he said, “We may as well go patiently on with our lives and look elsewhere than to sun and moon and stars for the shocks and changes we need to keep us sane.
April 6th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Commenting on the E.T. artical. CS Lewis wrote a science trilegy “Out of the Silent Planet” It is a great set of books that deals with the whole question of Christianity and the existance of life on other planets. A very good read.
Erick Kern
Spring City, PA, USA
April 11th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
For more information on aliens or ohter questions you should go to http://www.answersingenesis.org It is a great site, they are affiliated with icr.org (institute for creation research).
April 13th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
WOW….. THIS WEB SITE EMPLOYS ROCKET SCIENTISTS!!!
AH… EXCUSE ME, BUT WHY ARE YOU WASTING CHRISTIAN MENS TIME BABBLING ABOUT WORLDLY FASCINATIONS THAT ARE NON FACTORS FOR GOD FEARING CHRISTIANS?
ALIENS????
WHAT’S THE SUBJECT MATTER NEXT WEEK…… ASTROLOGY??? dah? DON’T YOU PEOPLE KNOW ANYMORE THAN THIS PRE-PUBESCENT STAR TREK BABBLE?
PUT THE BABY BOTTLE DOWN AND TRY GETTING INTO THE MEAT OF THE WORD!!!! TALKING ABOUT ALIENS IS GETTING YOU NO WHERE—OH WAIT MAYBE IT IS… WELL IT’LL BE TOASTY.
April 16th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
How can one believe in Aliens when the Bible clearly states what was created and finished on the 6th day?
Are we not made in the image of God? What could be more significant that what God has put here on this earth.
The earth was created for man for God’s glory.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:52 am
God can make aliens. The world can be infinitely huge. God’s love is for us all. Other species of creature, as aliens would not be humans, would be made differently and have different relationships with God. Maybe they are not fallen. Maybe some are.
October 15th, 2006 at 9:41 am
God’s word says for us to go into the world to spread the gospel to those who are lost. He does not tell us to go out of this world to spread the gospel. If there are creations somewhere in this universe other than this world, God certainly knows it, and since He does not tell us about it then I believe it is not of our concern.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Travis, your comments are in concurrence with a disinterest in studying God’s entire creation. Others, with whom you do not empathize, are engaged in an active search for increased insight. I realize that you are active in your own study of the Word, but please do not predispose others to an association of immorality in searching for truth, in light of the Lord. By suggesting that an inquiry of the extent of God’s creation should be suppressed, this is what you do.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Jesus Christ was God’s only begotten son, and he was placed on earth. If there are unearthly beings out there, we certainly do not have communication with them. They would be unable to acquire the Gospel. God would need to still be communicating with them directly. The Bible is not still being written and information is not being added to it (or shouldn’t, at least!). I’m don’t imagine God would leave any of his creations in naivity about the Truth.
We are approaching the end times (this is evident through all current world events in the news), so saying there are extraterrestrial beings out there who are unknowledgeable about Jesus and the Gospel is illogical. God is a fair, just God and it wouldn’t be fair for us to have the opportunity to be saved by grace and his other creations to be living without God’s Word, grace, and blessings.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:39 am
But define world? Does he mean this physical planet or does he mean the world we’re aware of (which has been expanding, once it was one land, then several lands, then a landmass…)? I think that maybe he means the latter.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I find your style of presenting the various hypothesis interesting as they are indeed humourous.
I was trying to see if there can be any explanation to the existence or the lack of of aliens regarding Christianity and this website helped a load.
In referring to the anoynomous’ comment that we, man, are made after the very image of God Himself, so there couldn’t possibly be anymore brilliant and intelligent life than us, I think this is extremely logical.
Despite some of the hypothesis that God’s power is extremely great so He could have created other lifeforms in other galaxies and they could have been in a better relationship with God as compared to us sinful humans, I still find it very difficult to think that God Himself could have done that.
We take the words in the Bible as God’s words Himself and according to His word, He loved us a lot, more than we could have ever imagined. He modelled our making after Himself. He came to our world to die for us. All these things we accept as true. And if we view the Bible that highly since it’s true through and through, then why couldn’t we respect the fact that there is no mention of any other form of intelligent life which God created?
I don’t think God is someone to hide things from us and some can even agree that He is a living whose spirit always live around us. He gives us revelations whenever we need His guidance. I just can’t bring myself to believe that there could be something which He hasn’t already told us about. Unlike some of the authorities in our world, God is a tranparent God who doesn’t hold back things from us, including His love.
I’ve glady come to the conclusion that aliens simply do not exist, in spite of the numerous attempts by over-zealous scientists and atheists to provide evidences for their existence.
But the topic of extra-terrestrial life makes for a good fictional fantasy read though.
March 14th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I’ll avoid the concept of intelligent life outside this planet, but what of non-sentient beings? Bacteria, invertebrates, plant life, and even fish as we know them on Earth?
I honestly find it very disturbing how closed minded some people are in some respects. In my opinion, things that we assume about God isn’t a matter of Faith. The Bible says God sent Jesus to save us of our sins. This is a matter of fact. The Bible says that God tested Job of his faith. This too is fact. However to use this same faith to blindly follow something we assume about God is damaging to your faith.
Let’s just say that alien life is found in one shape or another. Are you going to deny this new truth? If so then you’re a discredit to the Gospel we’re trying to spread. To deny fact to prove our faith to others would be damaging to say the least. Contrastly, accepting this new fact would discredit the same faith you have for God and what he has actually promised us.
In short what I’m trying to say is, unless God specifically states something, don’t make assumptions about Him.
And for the matter, I have no idea where I stand on the subject. But I honestly don’t have a strong opinion on the matter.
March 16th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Few people are aware of this, but the Church has already gone through a simlar controversy in it’s history:
The issue was people living on the other sides of the globe, known then as antipodes. The very same issues that are raised about aliens today in regards to christianity and it’s validity was raised about the antipodes.
Saint Augustine, and many other theologians saw the church posed with a dilemma between two equally unacceptable possibilities that either Christ had appeared a second time in the antipodes, or that the inhabitants of the antipodes were irredeemably damned.
To quote Augustine:
“As to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets on us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, there is no reason for believing it. Those who affirm it do not claim to possess any actual information; they merely conjecture that, since the earth is suspended within the concavity of the heavens, and there is as much room on the one side of it as on the other, therefore the part which is beneath cannot be void of human inhabitants. They fail to notice that, even should it be believed or demonstrated that the world is round or spherical in form, it does not follow that the part of the earth opposite to us is not completely covered with water, or that any conjectured dry land there should be inhabited by men. For Scripture, which confirms the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, teaches not falsehood; and it is too absurd to say that some men might have set sail from this side and, traversing the immense expanse of ocean, have propagated there a race of human beings descended from that one first man.”
So, anyone see the resemblance between the issues? The arguement that aliens can’t exist because either god would have mentioned them, or that it would be required that god make a separate revelation to them squares in with the kind of argumentation used by early theologians to deny the existance of native americans, australians, etc…
It’s not a wise move, just sayin’.
April 26th, 2010 at 11:14 am
I don’t see that aliens and life on other planets contradicts Christianity,
God obviously left out stuff we weren’t ready to handle at the time.
And, most the Christian mythology comes from the Sumerian Stories, they spoke a lot about the Annunaki, who had giant children called the Nephelim.
Fallen Angel, Mean Alien, whats the difference, only a different way of talking about the same thing.
August 7th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Nice article.. Personaly, I do not belive in “god”.. I respect peoples personal beliefs but I think that from the very moment we are born we are made to belive in what are parents were taught by their parents and what our grandparents parents taught them to believe etc.. With that said, do any of you relize that if you were born in a different part of the world that you would most likely not belive what you believe in now, do you see what point I am trying to make.. I just don’t understand how anyone can truly belive in “god” when there are hundreds and hundreds of different religions, what makes one so sure that their religion is the right one.. if anyone has an educated resonse i would love a response… I am not athiest, Im nothing, just myself.
September 18th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Daily collisions between the world and our faith. That’s what we have here people. Faith is tested constantly. We adjust. The Bible is a story. So’s Star Trek. Is either true, sacrosanct, unable to be controverted? No, particularly not Star Trek. Humans are wonderful in their ability to tell stories. They’ve gotten us through. I have a God I believe in but it might not be your God. My God is a different God from that God proposed in the Bible. My God didn’t do anything in 6 days because evolution took a lot longer than that. I believe in the Big Bang or some other cosmic event, when large celestial bodies collided. From that event, life began and evolved, resulting finally in the human form, which then begat those who told the story of their God and wrote the Bible. At the time, it was the quintessential guide for life. But now, it’s a historical series of allegories, which provide a map for living. It’s unlikely, at the very minimum, to think that if we’re here, there’s nothing else like us in this galaxy or beyond. It’s arrogant, as well. Microorganisms found on Mars have been found on Antarctica. We have the same stuff. If Mars had habitable (to humans) conditions, there might be humanoid forms on Mars. Perhaps during the creation of this galaxy, “life bits” were blown throughout it, so that on some other Earth-like planet, beyond our knowing, there is life like ours. We can’t know about it, nor them about us because neither of these ETI life forms can technologically communicate. Stephen Hawking says if they could reach us, they’d do us ill. Perhaps. If it’s like the British arriving at Plymouth Rock, he’s right. We did a pretty nice job decimating most of the Native American population. But don’t kid yourself, if we could save our planet from ourselves at the expense of an “alien” planet, we’d do it in a heartbeat. Much like the “liberation” of Iraq. We’d find (read: our governments would find) a palatable spin on what amounts to raping and pillaging, a deplorable tendency we humans-in-God-form, like to engage in quite frequently). There’s so much of what I call “convenient belief,” whereby individuals have selectively chosen to have “faith” in and all-powerful God, while denying such a God has the power to create life on other planets. What happened to your faith people? He can only create life here on Earth? Guess he’s not all-powerful then. How’s your faith now? When the Bible stories were written, certain things were not envisioned by the humans writing them down. To deny those things exist now, is to fail to see the tumor growing on your face.
December 23rd, 2010 at 4:19 am
Seriously, there is no reason to be hateful or judgmental. If you want to be to the point, God is an alien. He is not of this world, and he is not a human being. We are not the same thing as God, and no matter what happens we never will be. Poof, aliens exist. Jesus is an alien human hybrid, he was all man and all God. Angels and demons are all aliens, niether from this world, and certainly not human. They live someplace, but it is not like we see heaven in the sense of a planet, but heaven does not exist on Earth, this the beings from there are extra terrestrials, and aliens.
As for the one person thinking that talking about aliens and whether life formed on other planets was going to land someone in hell, Judging lands people in hell, being hateful and not speaking from love will cause someone to burn. Pure religion is exemplified in the statement of all truth, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and secondly love your neighbor as you would love yourself. Even the most devout of Christian’s is imperfect, and shall be that way. God is all that is perfect.
March 26th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Come on, people, even the Vatican KNOWS that there are other worlds and other species in the universe…..http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/believing_in_aliens_not_opposed_to_christianity_vaticans_top_astronomer_says/
April 5th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Firstly, and this is my (probably somewhat bias) opinion, those of you who think we are the only ones in the universe because God created us in His image and the Bible only mentions Earth, are a little bit big-headed. I consider myself to be Christian and I have strong faith in God, but I also have other logic. We are the ones that named Earth, and humans are the ones who wrote the Bible, some through God and some not. So when we say that the Bible doesn’t mention any other life other than on Earth, that is PURELY human productions because we named Earth. We gave name to religion, wherever religion came from. There is amazing, almost undeniable logic in the fact that aliens exist AND that they brought religion to Earth during our early, mind-developing stages (before we were smart enough to invent something as complicated as religion), but hardcore, confined “Bible thumpers” won’t even hear it out.
June 11th, 2011 at 1:53 am
okay seriously im agnostic and i look at all things in a open way. but to say that there aren’t aliens is complety stupid. does any of you realize how big space acttually is? for all we know there can be aliens all over space and we wouldn’t know. we have not yet developed the technology to contact them or find them. who knows maybe in the future we will, but for the time being its an interesting subject. as for the god part, i honestly don’t care. maybe he is there maybe he is not and who’s to say that only we are alive in space. haha actually since satan is the great deceiver, what if satan is that god that we worship. ohhhh shiiittt
January 31st, 2012 at 10:44 pm
I saw one of dem aliens medlin around my cattle
January 31st, 2012 at 10:45 pm
that was me bubba
January 31st, 2012 at 10:48 pm
was that you earl???? I know I saw somthin. what you up yo boy?? hows carla??
January 31st, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Oh you know. Shes one hella of gal I tell you what. Gets a little mouthy once in awhile is all, nothin a little old fashoined american rawhide cant fix. hows the boys??
January 31st, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Rawhide?? HA!ha! is that what your callin it these days?? well, now that you mention it my susie anne has been actin up, she could use a couple licks if you know what I mean. or some “rawhide” haha. But I gotta wait a bit. Shes been under the weather, but it will be waiting for her.
The boys are ok I guess, mark is still unemployed and tommys back in jail.