Much in line with my last post, I’d like to present a thought I’ve had (but may not be original to myself) on a different sort of topic. The belief in extraterrestrial beings goes back a long ways and has drawn many into its black hole of thought. Every year dozens of pictures and videos of supposed UFOs are produced and many find these reasons compelling to suppose that life on earth is not all there is. However, I am no longer one of those people, and in fact believe that earth is the only planet that is capable of supporting intelligent life. (I say intelligent because I think that there could worms and other junk that could have evolved somewhere.)
Now, one could use many arguments from science to support my position. For life on earth to exist, for example, we must have the right distance from the sun, be in the right orbit, tilted at the right degree, have enough carbon, and so on. Even the evolution of life was so hit and miss that to quote William Lane Craig again, “If evolution did happen, it was a miracle.” But I actually have theological arguments that I prefer.
My primary reason for rejecting even the thought that life exists out there somewhere is the doctrine of the incarnation. If we were not somewhat unique or special, I’m not sure why the second person of the trinity would choose to put on our limited broken flesh for Himself and die for our sins. Now if Jesus had just taken on the human nature while he was on earth then fine, I’d see it compatible with a pro-alien view. But He didn’t do that, He rose from the third day in the same flesh and bone body that He died in and took it to heaven with him. He has chosen to keep that human nature forever.
Once again, is this a valid thought? What feedback do you have?
Tags: aliens, extraterrestrial life, UFOs
The drastic improbability of abiogenesis is in itself supportive of this perspective and the addition of intelligent agents only work to further increase it below any “natural” occurrence. If anything at all, it’d be a naturalistic miracle of epic proportions. The teleological argument further demonstrates how absurd it is to even have such “intelligence” in the universe and in our galaxy. I mean I could possibly grant that this could happen ONCE but not a couple times.
Regarding the second argument, is there reason to suppose that Christ couldn’t take more than one nature? I’m inclined to think that he can’t but right now I am not able to think of a comeback. Or for some, they could postulate that these intelligent beings didn’t fall, thus they didn’t require a savior. Gil S
Yay, Isaac! You have finally seen the light!
And your reason is even better than my main reason was (I say “was” because I’ve changed my main reason now
). Jean
Gil: perhaps the fact that the material universe is in a fallen state not just the earth (or so I believe) would be an argument as to why unfallen species can’t exist in it but that’s a great point.
I’ve heard it also stated that Jesus death on the cross could have redeemed ALL creatures in the universe. Now that argument really has holes. It brings up the whole question of the angles and whether or not he died for the sins committed by Satan and his demons. I’m not really sure but I think that becuase his second nature was human only human nature is redeemed, but again I’m not sure why I think that.
Jean: I’ve never believed in the alien hypothesis but I have been an eyewitness to a UFO. Or what I thought was one. Isaac
Remember, UFO actually just means ‘unidentified flying object’. So it could have likely been something else.
I also agree that life on other planets could evolve, but I think we are the smartest things in our universe. You never know, it’s such a large place. Justin
Yeah Elgoog that’s why I feel free to say that I saw a UFO but it wasn’t an alien spaceship or something Isaac
There are billions of galaxies with billions of stars in the universe. If you accept that life can get started on another planet (worms and things), then the hard part is over and you can expect millions of intelligent species. Sine_Nomine
As stated Since I have other reasons for supposing there is no intelligent life on other planets mostly theological. But as I also said the evolution on the human species was highly improbable and I really don’t know anything about the statistics but I’m inclined to say that our evolution was a special case. Isaac F.
Hi Isaac,
Perhaps you might be interested in this paper I wrote awhile back on this exact topic. I survey some historical Christian thought on extraterrestrial life and close with a consideration of three possible views of the Incarnation in light of the possibility of ETI.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8766368/What-if-ET-Phones-Our-Home-Implications-for-Christian-Thought
Props to you guys for this blog!
~Ken Kendalf