Controversy is Christian: Does finding intelligent life ‘out there’ threaten Christianity?

Ok so I want to start a weekend topic dealing with subject matters that are controversial.  Yep stuff you’re not gonna like.  Or at least will have a strong opinion about.  Actually, I want this to be a lively debate about what you think, and more importantly, why you think what you do.

So here’s my question for this week’s blog post on Christianity and things controversial.

If we found intelligent alien life on other planets; how would that impact our view of God and the Bible?  Does it threaten Christianity at all?

If the Bible is God’s word to man, then would it stand to reason that God might have a different book for another species?

Would Christ’s death on the Cross have efficacy for the Romulans.  (I’m serious)  Christ is called the last Adam.  (1 Corinthians 15:45)  Not the last Regallian.

“When Christianity spread throughout the West, the Ptolemaic system became very widely accepted, and although the Church never issued any formal pronouncement on the question of alien life,[111] at least tacitly, the idea was aberrant. In 1277, the Bishop of Paris, Étienne Tempier, did overturn Aristotle on one point: God could have created more than one world (given His omnipotence). Taking a further step, and arguing that aliens actually existed, remained rare. Notably, Cardinal Nicholas of Kues speculated about aliens on the Moon and Sun.[112]”  Wikepedia

Here’s something to mull over.

Peter Stoner, in his book, Science Speaks, states that coincidence can be completely ruled out by the science of probability. Of this science of probability, Stoner says of eight prophecies that “we find that the chance that any man might have lived and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000.” Now maybe that seems possible. Not completely unlikely. But for one man to fulfill 48 prophecies, Stoner says the chances are 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.”

So here we have the chances of Jesus fulfilling all these prophecies as well…a really big number.  And we will claim that he is the fulfillment of these astronomical possibilities.  So if the odds of this being true is something we can believe is it so hard to fathom the possibility of ET?

There is an equation, called the Drake equation that gives us some idea of the odds of finding intelligent life.

When you  look into research by Professor Andrew Watson and keep Drake in mind the chances of intelligent life emerging is low – less than 0.01 per cent over four billion years.

So when it’s all said and done we might not be alone after all.

Now assuming we find it; and some say God forbid that we do: because were up poops creek without a paddle. As in all likehood they will probably be more advanced than us.  (Remember Columbus and the Indians?)  Think Independence Day people.

Will the gospel apply to them?  Forget intelligent life.  What if we find ANY life on other worlds.  Again how does this alter our view of God, and Christianity?  Should it?

I would say it doesn’t   The Bible was written for man to man.  Not from God to the Romulans.  But again hey maybe the scripture that deals with those who have not heard the gospel applies to aliens?

Romans 2:12-15 it states, “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law; and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts ultimately accusing or defending them. In the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”)

The Bible teaches we all have inherited the sin of Adam. Romans 5:12 states that “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

But that means sin didn’t come from Regulus.  So this scripture wouldn’t apply to our alien friends.  Would our evangelism efforts be limited to humans?  Should we even evangelize Romulans?  On what grounds?  How should Christians then look at behavior where Aliens co-habitate?  What if they have more than one spouse?  What if they engage in same sex relationships?

Angels are extra-terrestrial life are they not?  So the Bible wouldn’t apply to them.  They have their own codes and laws don’t they?  After all they can leave their first estate.  There’s no indication from the scripture that angels have ceased from falling or don not have the ability of free will where they cannot fall.  Why not other species?

Yeah, yeah your thinking…not in my life time.  It will never happen.

Ya never know…the Rapture is not here yet.

 

D