Would finding alien life mean the END of Christianity?

I wouldn’t say I agree with everything in this essay, but when he says that the existence of life elsewhere would in no way disprove God, I am in full agreement. The fact that God hasn’t revealed anything about this to us certainly doesn’t mean he couldn’t have done it. If God is infinite, and his ways past finding out, and has always existed, there must be zillions of times more things he hasn’t told us than things he has.

Dave Barnhart

dcbii is more robust than I; I went to Schweitzer’s essay and got a good belly laugh when he claimed that the Bible is unequivocally geocentric. Nice try, Jeff, but that’s Aristotle and Plato, not Scripture. Schweitzer’s bio on Wikipedia reveals him to be something of a cross between Richard Dawkins and Al Gore—secularist who loves his straw men and flies around the world while theoretically “worried” about carbon emissions.

In other words, if he ever found himself in a fair debate with a smart guy like Ken Ham, Schweitzer would soon start feeling like a pinata, because his bio is a target rich environment.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

It would be interesting to sit down with some atheists and Christians and ask some “What if…” questions. The reality is that whatever is discovered, each side will find a way to make it compatible with their belief system. But beforehand, we can say what our belief system causes us to expect.

So…

What if a race of intelligent and radically different being was found on another planet?

Christian, would that surprise/shock you? Would it challenge or support your belief system?

Atheist, would that surprise/shock you? Would it challenge or support your belief system?

What if an intelligent race is discovered and they turn out to be genetically very similar to us - basically human?

Christian, would that surprise/shock you? Would it challenge or support your belief system?

Atheist, would that surprise/shock you? Would it challenge or support your belief system?

What if a planet EXACTLY like earth was discovered, except that it harbored NO life?

Christian, …

Atheist, ..

I think Dan is spot on with the coffee/life issue. However, if Perelandra and Malacandra were real, I’d personally be okay with that!

…. but they’re not going to find alien life on another planet … so why should Christians bother thinking about it?

[Craig]

…. but they’re not going to find alien life on another planet … so why should Christians bother thinking about it?

Craig’s got a great point; the nearest star is four light years away, I’m not quite sure how far away the nearest planet is, let alone the nearest habitable planet. Absent “warp drive”, what we’d need is a powerful signal that is clearly one of the “standard” modulation types (AM, FM, etc..)—but at a range this far, you’re going to have trouble sorting that out from the noise. Then, even if you did find that signal, how do you make contact? So again, unless Star Trek becomes a reality, it’s pretty much a nonissue.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

I am highly doubtful there is any form of intelligent life on another planet. From a theological perspective it could offer issues, such as “Did Christ die for that particular life form, or just for mankind?”, or “would that alien life form be condemned as it was not of Adam’s see or born of a woman?”……, and if there was other intelligent life, we would never interact with it.

With that said, all of these hypothetical’s are just crazy anyway. We could spin this around and say “What if science proved that the scientific underpinnings for radiocarbon dating were wrong, and that under these new scientific principles all life is less than 10,000 years old.”, or “what if our understanding of the cosmos is now significantly changed with a new unified theory that clearly proves that space time does not really point to a billion years old universe?”…. There is more proof that our scientific theories will be upended (since they are always being upended), than to claim the Bible is going to be upended.

[dgszweda]…

With that said, all of these hypothetical’s are just crazy anyway. We could spin this around and say “What if science proved that the scientific underpinnings for radiocarbon dating were wrong, and that under these new scientific principles all life is less than 10,000 years old.”, or “what if our understanding of the cosmos is now significantly changed with a new unified theory that clearly proves that space time does not really point to a billion years old universe?”…. There is more proof that our scientific theories will be upended (since they are always being upended), than to claim the Bible is going to be upended.

I don’t think they’re entirely worthless, though maybe nearly so. When we talk to a philosophical naturalist, and we suggest they believe the Gospel, we’re asking them to doubt their beliefs. I think these types of things can give reason to open the door of doubt.

I love NOVA type shows. You’ll often hear them say that, given the sort of conditions found on earth, life was the inevitable result. If they really think that, then finding a planet with earth-like conditions and NO life should make them doubt. Of course, it would be REALLY tough to say that a planet that far away really had earth-like conditions; measurements would be hard to do.

[Dan Miller]

So at Warp Factor 7, it would take about 3 years to get there.

Yeah, nm.

…..it strikes me as somewhat humorous that in an imaginary world with bazillions of planets to inhabit, Star Trek still portrays the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and so on as waging war when they could not hope to occupy all those perfectly good planets. It is as if Gene Roddenberry did not entirely abandon his Southern Baptist upbringing and the notion of sin.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

[Jim]

Kepler-452b:

The planet is about 1,400 light-years away from the Solar System; at the speed of the New Horizons spacecraft, about 59,000 km/h (37,000 mph), it would take approximately 26 million years to get there.

Observation: It’s far more likely that Christ will return much sooner than knowing whether there is Peet’s coffee on Kepler

Jim, this is somewhat irrelevant, since the ability to travel to a planet is not contingent upon discovering life. For example, it could be possible that alien life is beaming signals and videos into space allowing us to see their culture, without having to interact with the alien life.