Could there be life on other planets?
The consensus among most conservative Christians is that there are no aliens in outer space. This is an evolutionary idea that states that out of billions of stars there must be a few planets somewhere that could sustain the evolution of life. Much of what is currently driving NASA’s exploration of the solar system is a search for life. From a biblical creationist perspective, we will find no amoebas or bacteria on Jupiter’s moons. It is unlikely that we will even find water anywhere in our solar system other than on earth. God made the earth and he created a perfect biosphere that will indefinitely support the life he created.
But the question still remains. Is it possible that God could have created a planet that contains plants, animals and even sentient creatures similar to human beings? While the Bible is silent on this, I would negate the possibility of intelligent life on other planets.
Mark Twain wrote a science fiction story, “Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven,” about the idea of a heaven where thousands of aliens from every inhabited planet in the universe arrive at a heaven that was so populated that it is the size of many planets. In the story, Captain Stormfield is amazed to find out that Christ has appeared on every planet in the universe to life an exemplary life and die for that planet’s sins. He is told, “The worlds He has saved are like to the gates of heaven in number - none can count them." Twain was satirizing the Christian view of heaven in the face of the emerging evolutionary science. However, it is just as likely that a Christian view could be used to expose the impossibility of intelligent life besides ours in the univers.
This doesn’t negate, however, the possibility of worlds that have plant and animal life. It is possible that God could have created these planets on the fourth day of creation (Gen. 1:14-19). There may be worlds He created in the foreknowledge that a redeemed civilization would one day discover and colonize. Just as a millennial impulse drove the Age of Exploration in the 15th century, so a Golden Age of Christian knowledge may drive the exploration of new worlds and the settlement of new civilizations.
If the postmillennial view is correct, we can expect to one day colonize the solar system. It is likely that we will create self-sustaining biospheres – perhaps giant bubbles on the surface of the planet Mars – that will sustain life in a similar manner as on earth. It is even possible that one day we will discover a planet capable of sustaining an atmosphere and all the various species of life found on earth. Another idea is that scientists may someday be able to create a "biosphere" on another planet that would imitate the conditions on earth. Maybe a “Noah’s Ark” of future space colonists will bring the seeds of a new earth to a far distant star?
Of course this is speculation. But Christian Reconstructionists and other postmillennialists should be considering the possibilities.
But the question still remains. Is it possible that God could have created a planet that contains plants, animals and even sentient creatures similar to human beings? While the Bible is silent on this, I would negate the possibility of intelligent life on other planets.
Mark Twain wrote a science fiction story, “Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven,” about the idea of a heaven where thousands of aliens from every inhabited planet in the universe arrive at a heaven that was so populated that it is the size of many planets. In the story, Captain Stormfield is amazed to find out that Christ has appeared on every planet in the universe to life an exemplary life and die for that planet’s sins. He is told, “The worlds He has saved are like to the gates of heaven in number - none can count them." Twain was satirizing the Christian view of heaven in the face of the emerging evolutionary science. However, it is just as likely that a Christian view could be used to expose the impossibility of intelligent life besides ours in the univers.
This doesn’t negate, however, the possibility of worlds that have plant and animal life. It is possible that God could have created these planets on the fourth day of creation (Gen. 1:14-19). There may be worlds He created in the foreknowledge that a redeemed civilization would one day discover and colonize. Just as a millennial impulse drove the Age of Exploration in the 15th century, so a Golden Age of Christian knowledge may drive the exploration of new worlds and the settlement of new civilizations.
If the postmillennial view is correct, we can expect to one day colonize the solar system. It is likely that we will create self-sustaining biospheres – perhaps giant bubbles on the surface of the planet Mars – that will sustain life in a similar manner as on earth. It is even possible that one day we will discover a planet capable of sustaining an atmosphere and all the various species of life found on earth. Another idea is that scientists may someday be able to create a "biosphere" on another planet that would imitate the conditions on earth. Maybe a “Noah’s Ark” of future space colonists will bring the seeds of a new earth to a far distant star?
Of course this is speculation. But Christian Reconstructionists and other postmillennialists should be considering the possibilities.
Labels: Eschatology, Science
posted by Jay Rogers | 5/22/2006 10:03:00 AM
2 Comments:
RE: Life on Other Planets.
Obviously there is life on other planets. There is other life on planet earth as well. There are fallen angels and demons as well as various forms of what the Bible calls cherubim, seraphim, (Ezekiel 10:13-15, Isaiah 6:2 & Jude 1:9) and arch angels. They have demonstrated the ability to occupy the three dimensional world at will with which our five senses are familiar plus they apparently move in dimensions we cannot detect with those same five senses.
Heaven is the "Capital" of the Universe, so perhaps the beings that we see there in the Bible are representatives from their own worlds. We don't know, but we do know that they are ministering Spirits (Hebrews 1:14) and they are sometimes viewed as warriors (2 Kings 6:17). The often repeated phrase "Lord of hosts" reads the "Lord of Heaven’s Armies" in the New Living Translation. Jesus said(Matthew 26:52-54)He could pray and the Father would send him more than 12 legions of angels for Him to command. Now a Roman legion at the time was about 6400 men. Applying that to Jesus' statement, 12 Legions would be over 72,000. On one occaision one angel destroyed 185,000 men. More than the atomic bomb killed in WW-2 at Hiroshima, Japan. Imagine what 72,000 of them could do!
The UN is kind of the world's capital right now and if you were to go there you would see representatives from nearly every nation, some clothed in their native dress. Heaven is the capitol of the universe and so possibly the beings there merely represent worlds of other beings.
The Bible teaches that just as there is an earthly tabernacle, so there is a heavenly one. The earthly one is but a shadow of the heavenly one (Heb. 8:4-6; 9:11, 12).
We can't see it but have no doubt it is quite real, both in terms that we can and cannot understand.
Let's say, for example, you could see and hear angels and demons in their natural state with your own eyes and ears. How would that effect your driving? Would you be "freaked out" when one of these powerful beings suddenly walked through the wall of your home or office unnanounced? What would you think if you could hear their conversations? What if there were a 'spiritual' skyscraper sitting on your front lawn or a bottomless pit?? Anyway the concept is endless.
The short answer is, YES-there are intelligent alien beings that are not from earth.
Here, here... the Bible does not preclude the existence of life on other planets, but remember that an audience in Moses' day or even in Jesus' day would not have had the foundational knowledge available today for them to even begin to think about such things. Indeed, as the comment preceding states, the existence of life in other realms is even beyond our understanding... didn't Jesus say, "If I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not understand, how can I speak to you of heavenly things?" Context is a key to understanding scripture, which is not a fossilized text for eternity but a glimpse of God's dealings with humanity over millenia... God did not change in that time but we certainly have... can you tell your two-year old child about genetic mutations? No! But when they have reached a stage of maturity and have had training in basic science, then you may introduce them to higher concepts. I wonder what we still have left to learn to learn what we must...
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