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It would be fair to say that, even for Christians, whether to fit “alien life” into the Bible has been a tricky issue. But the confusion results from two main sources. Firstly, no one is immune to media saturation. Alien themes are so commonplace that it has become almost a given that aliens exist. “Harmless” product advertising on TV commercials, and even children’s cereal boxes, promotes these alien space themes. I believe that popular culture has subconsciously caused most people to think that aliens are out there somewhere.
Secondly, our discoveries about the enormous and incomprehensible size of the universe have caused many to think that we cannot be the only “race” in space. Otherwise, the universe would be an awful waste. Similarly, if God created, then why did He create such a vast universe with our little speck of dust (the earth) as the only inhabited place [. . .]?
The major influence here is the belief that evolution occurred on the earth, and by erroneous extrapolation, elsewhere in the universe. Even Christians who don’t believe in evolution end up thinking they have to accept that God created aliens elsewhere. I repeat, though, that this is a case of allowing outside ideas to influence our view of Scripture.
Quite simply, the straightforward reading of the Bible is as follows. Genesis 1:1 says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Although this opening passage of the Bible describes the creation of the entire universe, it specifically mentions the earth, and only later the sun and moon in our solar system. Stars are mentioned later on in the text, almost as an aside, and the context makes it clear that they were made specifically to benefit mankind, thus placing man as the focus of God’s creation. There is never a single case where a verse refers or alludes to any other reason for the creation of stars, such as for the purpose of harboring extraterrestrial life.
The whole of God’s creation was “very good,” as God pronounced it on day 6. God could hardly have called the process of evolution, with its death and struggle and survival of the fittest, “good,” so the texts imply that there was no death before Adam and Eve. When mankind sinned or rebelled against God, the “curse” was brought upon all of God’s creation, not just mankind. God cursed the earth (Gen. 3:17), the plants (vs. 18), and the animals (vs. 14); and in fact, Romans 8:21-22 says that the entire creation suffers from the Curse:
. . . the creation itself will be [has not yet been] set free from its bondage to decay. . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now (Revised Standard Version).
The whole of creation (the universe) was subject to decay as a result of the Curse. This would mean that any inhabitants on other planets, initially created good by God, would now be subject to the curse of death as a result of Adam’s sin on Earth. That would hardly seem fair to innocent aliens.
When God, in the form of Jesus Christ (the second person of the Trinity), stepped out of heaven, He came to the earth (this planet only) as a human being, not a Pleiadian or a Vulcan, and He came not only to redeem mankind (who are descendants of Adam) back to himself, but His creation also. God says He will ultimately destroy this cursed creation and restore (or return) it back to the way it was in the beginning. He is going to create a new heaven and a new Earth. If there is intelligent alien life, not only have they been subjected to the curse of death through no fault of their own, but also they have no chance of redemption because that event took place on Earth for the human race only (Heb. 9:26-28). And ultimately they would be destroyed at the end, through no fault of their own. The Scriptures are very clear that Christ did not, and will not, be visiting other plants to undergo crucifixion for alien races. 1 Peter 3:18 says:
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
He died once. That’s it. Moreover, in the new creation, ruled by Christ, redeemed humanity is going to live as Christ’s “bride” throughout eternity (Eph. 5:22-33; Rev. 19:7-9). Not only is it clear that even the new creation will be designed for mankind, but the idea of Christ separately visiting the planet Vulcan to redeem aliens living there falls down here, too. Because marriage is defined as monogamous—one man for one woman, and the marriage of Christ and His church, born from the spear wound in His side, is a clear parallel to the first man and his bride, born from a wound in the side of Adam. In other words, Christ will not be a bigamist or polygamist. He will have one bride in eternity, not two (an earthly and a Vulcanian one). The Bible makes no provision for God to redeem any other species, any more than to redeem fallen angels (Heb. 2:16). Mankind and the earth are clearly the spiritual center of God’s universe. When we consider the uniqueness of what God has done for us, it makes His redemptive work all the more wonderful.
If astronomers were wrong about star duos instead of singles, using present-day testable science, why should others be so dogmatic in proclaiming astronomers' contended non- observable, non-testable, Big Bang theory? Space.com has the story:
For more than 200 years, astronomers thought that most of the stars in our galaxy had stellar companions. But a new study suggests the bulk of them are born alone and never have stellar company.
Since planets are believed to be easier to form around single stars, the discovery could mean planets are more common as well.
Conventional wisdom on double star systems, called binaries, goes as far back as the late 1700s. More sophisticated observations made in the 20th century seemed to confirm the numerical dominance of pairs.
Stellar surveys found that more than half of all Sun-like stars were part of multiple systems. For more massive stars, like O- and B-type stars, the number was estimated to be as high as 80 percent.
[. . .]
Although some studies suggest that planet formation around binary star systems is more common than previously thought, most astronomers believe that making planets is still easier around single stars. It’s thought that when there are two or more stars, the gravitational forces between them hinder matter from clumping into cores dense enough to form planets.
If single stars are the rule and not the exception, as the new finding suggests, then extrasolar planets may be more common as well.
Unspoken assumption: we're still searching for extraterrestrial life. Or, for the more-intense hunters, extraterrestrial civilizations.
Biblically, the former are possible, but not the latter. More on this topic from the Jan. 19 post on Alien Intrusion.
Alien civilizations, and possible salvations, disproved in a few simple syllogisms:
1. Adam’s sin affected the whole universe (Romans 8:22).
2. Alien civilizations are part of the whole universe.
3. Therefore the alien civs are sinful.
1. Christ died for the sins of Adam’s descendants.
2. Posited alternate life-forms are not Adam’s descendants.
3. Therefore aliens are not covered by Christ’s sacrifice.
One can continue the above logic and realize that other created-races would bring an interesting contradiction to God’s nature (and God actually cannot do “everything,” such as contradict Himself or His word):
1. God does not punish innocence.
2. Aside from Adam’s guilt, posited aliens would have been innocent.
3. Therefore, since God would be quite unjust to condemn (an) alternate civilization(s) for a rebellion they did not precipitate, intelligent life-forms cannot exist in this world.
Of course, this doesn’t include or preclude created-life on Mars or some such barely-hospitable environment, for God never said He didn’t create living organisms elsewhere. As dramatized most effectively in Randall Ingermanson’s and John Olson’s novel The Fifth Man, finding a living subsurface organism on Mars, for example, would not cause faith-shaking problems for informed Christ-followers.
More: While I don’t believe intelligent space alien civilizations are Out There, that doesn’t at all rule out intelligent life beyond the Earthen sphere. Whoa.
(Cue theme from The Twilight Zone.)
More is embedded in Gary Bates’ excellent book Alien Intrusion. ...
One superb article, “God and the Extra-Terrestrials,” is at Answers in Genesis. And more questions and answers are available on their answers page.
A further logical rationale against aliens involves their hypothetical placement in the chronology of creation — e.g., God’s creative act culminated in the creation of Earth and its residents on the sixth day, meaning the aliens and their planets would have been merely peripheral on Day Four, with the sun, moon and stars (which are only mentioned in Genesis 1 as relating to the timing of seasons and daylight on Earth). But that’s for another time.
