"Not believing aliens could exist would be 'putting limits on the creative freedom of God.'"
- Big fan of space exploration
- Believe they could find some life or evidence of life out there somewhere
- Don’t believe that would be especially important
- Believe the obsession with finding evidence of life on other planets, etc., is a bit …weird
If it hasn’t been possible to prove that life spontaneously generated on the earth, using the evidence here in our own back yard, it’s hard to see how finding bits of protein or even microbes or plants in extraterrestrial locations could help much with that.
The focus should be on learning more about what’s out there, not trying to prove a theory of origins.
(I do think, as the article suggests, AiG and others have overstated—or stated with excessive confidence—the necessary uniqueness of life on earth. The Scriptures don’t say we are alone. They certainly do imply that if we’re not, we needn’t concern ourselves a whole lot about that.)
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Weird collection of thoughts of the day:
When Jesus comes back it’s going to look an awful lot like an alien invasion. I used to wonder why people wouldn’t just believe in Jesus when he appears in power. The reason is He’s going to come to clean house and take control, not exactly what most of the world wants to happen.
A fellow employee asked me a few weeks ago if I believed that aliens have come to earth. I asked “you mean powerful non-human beings coming to earth and influencing the course of human history? Sure. They’re called angels and demons and the world doesn’t make sense without them.”
I’m pretty much with Aaron on this one. I would add that if sentient life was discovered out there somewhere, it only proves that God didn’t tell us everything (as if we didn’t already know that), and in no way would that knowledge change anything about what we are told in scripture. The Bible does seem to indicate that the curse applies to the state of all things, not just the state of things on earth (Rom. 8:22), but that still doesn’t shut out the possibility that God put life elsewhere. It would be interesting if something like that is discovered, but I suspect that those who think Christianity would just disappear after such a discovery will be quite disappointed to find that our faith would survive that just fine.
Dave Barnhart
God sent his Son to die for the World (John 3:16-17). Here God is referencing the posterity of Adam on earth. Jesus became a human, not a Martian. He is the substitutionary sacrifice for humans. Whatever is found in the universe does not change this truth. Right now, NASA isn’t doing so well. It was Obama and his leftist friends who shut down space exploration, not evangelicals. Neil Armstrong would have something to say about Christians and space exploration.
Pastor Mike Harding
As I read Scripture, Adam’s sin brought a curse not only to the earth but all the heavens and earth. And Jesus’ work came to remove the curse from all the universe. Romans 8:22; Rev. 21:1.
C. Matthew Recker
Matt,
I noted that in my last post above (though that was pre-site-shutdown). That’s why I personally think it likely that either 1. life elsewhere if it exists might not be sentient, or 2. the curse might not work the same elsewhere as it does on earth. Either way, the [non] existence of life elsewhere doesn’t change how we view the Christian life and our responsibilities according to scripture, and none of that either confirms or denies that God could have created much that we just don’t know about.
Dave Barnhart
Discussion