What is Christianity's problem with extraterrestrial life?

It seems I can't speek for my brothers on this at all! I am a christian, minus 1 common trait - blind faith and fundmentalism. I don't know why but it seems wrong to be a christian and believe in the existance of off-world life. Everyone seems to cut me off and say "It's demonic activity." Well the evidence seems to say otherwise. I became convinced there was life out there after reading Isaac Asumov's book: 'Extraterrestrial Civilizations' which laid out all the factors required for humans come about as they are; cosmic geological etc. and at the end he states adding up all the odds that the milkyway, based on the figures, would have around 250,000 earth-like planets with human-like beings on them. I don't know how people can be so derranged as to think we are alone.

I guy once said to me upon voicing my opinions
"We are alone, man. Deal with it."
And all I could say was "Oh really. So I take it that you have scoured not only our entire galaxy but the entire universe and found it to be empty of life?"
"No."
"Well, untill you do, you can not reasonably say there is no life out there. So go on, get scouring."


[edit on 4/5/2008 by Good Wolf]

Maybe some far-right Christians would share these sentiments, but at least Catholics do not seem to:

www.catholicnews.com...

I agree with whitecastle. I've never heard any "official" problem that "all" Christians have with the idea of extraterrestial life. In fact, as whitecastle showed in his post, many Christians (including catholics) are open-minded about the possibility of finding life elsewhere in the universe.

Obviously, there are probably some fundamentalist Christian groups that have issues with the idea of life elsewhere, but I'm sure there are sub-groups of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and even atheists who feel that there is no other life in the universe other than on earth -- it's not only a "Fundamentalist Christian Thing".

[edit on 4/5/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Well for the Christians that do not believe in life outside our own planet, it could be because they believe God only created life on Earth and that we are special - remember a few hundred years ago the church burned people who supposed the sun and universe didn't revolve around Earth? They feared such a revelation could mean their church and belief was "wrong". Fear could also be a factor today, subconsciously perhaps, Christians fear proof of Alien life may mean that their beliefs aren't correct... but who's to say Jesus didn't visit other planets! He could have ascended to an Alien planet and died for their sins all over again!

[edit on 5-4-2008 by newworldorder]

It says in the gospel"in my fathers house are many mansions,if it were not true i would have told you so"
It stands to reason that "my fathers house"is the entire universe.It also stands to reason that the "many mansons" would mean planets.


Of course that's just mho.

I'd like to weigh in on this one.

As a Christian, I see nothing in the Bible that supports a claim that there is no life elsewhere in the universe. As a follower of science, I can agree with the thinking that says with so many planets out there, there is almost a statistical certainty of life elsewhere.

I do have a problem with aliens visiting earth, and it's not because of Christianity or lack of evidence. It has more to do with logic.

Suppose that we, as humans, developed the power to navigate the stars. Suppose also that we had conquered our fierce propensity to kill each other wholesale (something I would assume to be a precursor to developing universal navigation). Now suppose we were to find a planet with beings such as we are now: inherently self-righteous, self-serving, and totally unable to leave the earth or do more than shoot a simple probe to the other planets in our own solar system. Would we help such a people out? Would we give them technology before they were ready for it? Or would we shake our heads in disgust and move on to find intelligent life?

Now suppose we developed universal navigation, but without conquering the many plagues of humanity. Would we quietly watch another world, ripe with resources but infested by beings like us, develop? Or would we rape and pillage the planet for what we could get out of it? What does our history show us doing in that situation?

In both examples, I foresee the latter. No benevolent race would possibly think us worthy of anything but exile, and no malevolent race would allow us to exist. Therefore, no race would be visiting the planet quietly.

As for demons, couldn't it be military experiments instead? Last time I checked, demons were spiritual beings, not physical.

TheRedneck

the most common argument is that they are not mentioned in the bible, there fore, they do not exist.

that is it in a nutshell!

have a good day!

Im a Christian and I believe that there is life on other worlds...

Actually God told this to Moses when he was on a mountain and he was speaking with God face to face. Moses saw many worlds with life on them and he asked God who made them... so Im going to quote some scriptures if thats Ok...

"And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them which is mine Only Begotten.....
But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them." - Moses 1:33 and 35

In my faith we believe that God made other worlds and life... but he does not give us an account of these other worlds that he has made and life he has created... for what purpose and why I guess only he can answer.... But yes there are other christian faiths and other denominations that believe that there is no other life in the universe but us here on earth... and others that believe there is life elsewhere in the universe.

I think if we truely come to understand the true nature of God then we would come to a realisation that we are not the only ones that he has created. He is a Creator after all. What makes the human race different from the rest of the inhabitants of the universe? Well God tells us we are made in his image and that we are his children.

Perhaps that is why we are so isolated from the rest of the inhabitants of the Universe because he planned it that way.... It is just me speculating really... but I guess we will find out sooner or later... either when we die, or if we are fortunate (or unfortunate (which ever way you see it)) enough to be here when Jesus returns, until then who knows?

I'd like to think that I keep an open mind about life elsewhere...

reply to post by Good Wolf


They aren't around to kiss the Pope's ring.

Thats the main reason for Christianity's problem with extraterrestrial life

We follow the Popes lead, they kiss his ring and we can talk it out.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


Did you even read my thread? My link clearly showed that that Catholic scholars completely acknowledge the possibility.

Originally posted by blackthorne
the most common argument is that they are not mentioned in the bible, there fore, they do not exist.

i can reel of a list of things ` not mentioned in the bible ` and i am not talking about modern inventions

try these :

the boomerang - in use in biblical times by aborigional australians

maize and potato - staple crops in the americas for thousands of years

the egyptian pyramids

not being mentioned in the bible would seem to rule out quite a lot - if one used that " argument "

reply to post by ignorant_ape


hey, i am NOT espousing that line of thinking. i was just saying that is what you hear something like 8 out of ten times from christians. "god made adam and eve, not spock and yoda. they are not in genesis or any where else, there fore, do not exist or from the devil."

i COMPLETELY disagree with that line of thinking.

have a good day!

reply to post by TeslaandLyne
I'm a christian and I do believe there is life in our world other than here on earth.

The Pope means nothing to me. His authority is not relevant to my faith.

No one can with certainty say there is no other life except on earth and sound reasonably intelligent.

my opinion - the Bible talks about extraterrestrial life ! The Bible is calling the malefic ones "demons" and the benevolent ones "angels" . The Bible is full of first hand encounters with this kind of extraterrestrials . Of course the one that could get here would possess advanced technology that would allow them the inter-stellar (maybe inter-galactic and inter-dimensional too ) flight , so as a consequence it got stuck in the popular view that that would have "wings" . In fact this is just a symbol to express that they could fly. The Bible does not specify the number of the civilizations out there, however it talks about a certain race (reptilian - like race , having the snake as a symbol - as real as the wings to show the capacity of flight ) .This race apparently were assigned to "kindergarten" the human race, however they broke the rules and actually used human DNA to create a hybrid race.
Genesis 6 calls the demons by the name of "nephilim" - translated "those that from the heaven came ". Their offspring were aggressive warriors , giants with 6 fingers at a hand - giants called "Raffa" , the children of Raffa . Ra was the Sun-God of the Egyptians.
Now, this is all in the Bible - or what survived in the Bible. Outside this we have the books of Enoch , that would explain even more all this business with the fallen angels - or call them malevolent aliens. The book of Judah from the New Testament sends references to the book of Enoch , however the book is missing in our modern Bible. Just because the pre-dark-age Christians would not understand it.
So my final opinion - actually the Bible sustains the aliens , sustains the malevolent intervention of some kind of reptilian race but also the protection imposed by benevolent aliens - this protection being necessary in order to ensure we will make our own choices without external forced intervention.
This is a long story , made short and just my personal opinion. Have a good day!
STY

reply to post by sty


About Enoch, I agree with you sty.
The problem I have with most books in the OT is the portrayal of a vengeful and jealous deity, I can see Enoch's "watchers" as aliens or our sapient forbearer's.

reply to post by andolin


I guess our ancestors were quite messed up about who God is , I agree that the idea of God is not consistent in the Old testament. Maybe this is why the NT was necessary , in order to adjust the opinion of man about God.

I suspect it was the priest class who re-wrote the original knowledge scrolls to suit their own needs for power and control. Oh well.....

It can all be summed up in two logical statements.

IF God exist AND there are aliens THEN God must approve of aliens or they wouldnt exist so no problem.

IF God exist AND there are no aliens THEN there is no problem.

The first part of the statements must be true, or we wouldnt be talking about Christians (whether its REALLY true is another matter). Either way, there is no problem!

[edit on 6-4-2008 by merka]

Many Christians believe that the bible was divined by man as the word of God but it's my belief that it was simply a document written by man, nothing more. That's why there is no mention of many things that existed both on and off Earth (such as other lifeforms etc) at that time. Surely someone as perfect as God would not miss so many things? Or could it be that man simply didn't write about what he could not fathom?

In an interesting article that was recently published it mentioned that in nearly every religion there is someone who went to a mountain top to receive the word of god. What was found in many of the intrepid adventurers that reach the summit (the death zone) of large mountains such as Everest is that a lack of oxygen to the brain gives them hallucinations... and even the near death experience of being in a dark tunnel with a bright light at the end.

Kind of makes you think....

reply to post by Good Wolf


Ok, I just wiped out 30 mins of posting and can't find the 'undo' button. S/F for ya brother of mine!

Send me a U2U and I'll chat with ya on this subject. Trust me, I'm in the same boat you are on this!!