would our finding intelligent life on other planets affect your beliefs?

[QuestionAuthority]

just because i think it will happen eventually - there are billions of stars. the cosmos is infinite. when it happens, what would your reaction be? the end of the world? a sign that god wants us to share his word with the newcomers? a sign that the earth and the people on it are not unique, thus affecting our view that man, made in god's image, is special? something else entirely?

i think this is an interesting question so i would appreciate any thoughts.

[Richard H]

I wouldn’t be surprised at a future “announcement” of actual aliens.
They may even exist, but I believe they would be the apparent “gods” of old which started all the pagan religions.

It would cause many to question their beliefs, but it would only serve to strengthen mine.
“Aliens” are a deception.
Even the Pope seems to be “preparing” us to accept this deception.
<why am I not surprised?>

I know the God I serve, and I know the truth of His word.
We are told that a great delusion would come upon the world causing many to fall away from the faith.
This would only line up with the rest of the events making prophecy ready to be fulfilled.

Just the fact that these events are in line to happen, convinces me of the truth of Bible prophecy.

And then again, I have my own personal history of my relationship with Jesus, which would prevent me from abandoning my faith and running after some aliens.

Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
2Thesalonians 2:8-12

I have a friend who is convinced aliens will come and lead to the perfection of mankind - through some superior knowlege.
He's ready and eager to believe the lie and unwilling to rethink his position.
“It’s a cookbook!” – from an episode of The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man

[Bethany67]

I'd be interested primarily in what they know of Jesus and how they interact with Him. He created everything after all.

Alien lifeforms may exist; there may even be a planetoid populated entirely by politicians somewhere.

[markinro]

just because i think it will happen eventually - there are billions of stars. the cosmos is infinite. when it happens, what would your reaction be? the end of the world? a sign that god wants us to share his word with the newcomers? a sign that the earth and the people on it are not unique, thus affecting our view that man, made in god's image, is special? something else entirely?

i think this is an interesting question so i would appreciate any thoughts.

Tell you what. You show me...

1. A dead alien and his spaceship or
2. A live alien

...then we may have something to discuss.

The bible in no way supports the notiion of life on other planets. What is so difficult in thinking we are the only intelligent life ? Look at it this way - we have a HUGE backyard - enjoy Gods creation instead of looking for ways to debunk Him. I'm all for exploring this universe God created but don't waste time looking for something that doesn't exist. How about putting the energy to better use like - colonization, other forms of energy, exploration, etc.

[watchinginawe]

would our finding intelligent life on other planets affect your beliefs?
just because i think it will happen eventually - there are billions of stars. the cosmos is infinite. when it happens, what would your reaction be?

This is interesting. You think of the universe like we think of God. "The cosmos is infinite." You attribute creative powers to the natural universe. You even extrapolate it all the way to intelligent life on other planets.

Distilled down to what it is, it is faith. You have faith that there isn't a God and that life and ultimately intelligent life just sprouts up naturally all through the cosmos. You believe this strongly even without ever seeing any evidence of any life at all anywhere in the universe except on Earth. You are probably ready to believe this even to your death, never actually getting to see the day of the "finding".

I don't think I can fault you though. In the world of science, water is synonomous with life. It simply must be. The presence of one means the presence of the other. For example, to find water on Mars is basically synonomous with finding ancient signs of life. Even without finding the evidence of ancient signs of life. Go figure. Even some of the Mars Phoenix folks got so caught up in it that they termed the soil as "organic".

Anyway, we have discussed this here before. In essence, angels are created beings and they certainly could be termed intelligent. I don't think they can be classified as life as we define it though.

If intelligent life is present and is discovered, I guess I would want to see if they also believe in God, etc. It could prove to be interesting. However, at this point, I don't have any reason to check my beliefs against a blind faith of the existence of intelligent life elsewhere.

God Bless!

[WnC]

What I find interesting is the faith that folks find in believing in aliens, conspiracy theories, and anything that leaves out God. It's almost like we will go to extreme lengths to not believe in Him.

George Wald wrote in (1954) that "Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing. I think a scientist has no choice but to approach the origin of life through a hypothesis of spontaneous generation." Scientific American, 190, No. 2, 44-53

So even if the evidence suggests no other way for life to be created except by special creation, they will not believe it because it implies a creator, and that of course implies that I'm not the master of my soul.

Francis Crick developed the theory of Directed Panspermia: no kidding, this is what it is called. The theory states that the first living cell must have been transported to earth from another planet outside the solar system. - He won a Nobel Prize

The alien discussion just moves the creation discussion back to an area that the Bible does not go into specifically. The scientific argument has the luxury of claiming time and lack of resources to find evidence as the main thrust of this argument. In otherwords, I'm right cause you can't prove I'm wrong.

The question might as well be, would your belief system change if you found out that the Bible was really written in 1925 and Jesus was a cartoon character. The question is from a different world view and is not reconcilable with the christian world view.

But...They're great bad guys in cheap B flick sci-fi movies, and for that reason we should keep them around...

[thepenitent]

There are over 23 minute variants found on earth necessary for a planet to sustain life as we know it. It has been calculated that the probability of any other planet having even 10 of these variables present is 10 to the 106th power. In other words, imposible.

[Dani H]

Not at all. Are we really that arrogant to think God only created earth, and only for us, for that matter? If we believe in an infinite God who is all-powerful, why wouldn't there be life on other planets, in other universes, in other forms?

Read "Perelandra" by C.S. Lewis sometime. Interesting book.

[FindingFaith27]

God said he man man in his image. However, no where in the bible is it stated that man or this planet is his only creation.

[ƒσяєяυииєя]

Hello QuestionAuthority,

1. A dead alien and his spaceship or
2. A live alien

I don`t even know if it was real, but what I guess is that yes there are beings, created by God but who never fell as our human race.

In the Scriptures there is not much about it.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Psalm 8:1 ESV

In youtube, once I watch a part of a black & white video of the supposed Roswell event, it was an autopsy of a strange being, It looked real.

But right It also could be fallen angels trying to take of our time in which we are to get ready for Heaven, thus avoiding, hindering and turning away our mind/thoughts from the present truth to earthy matters.

Go well

[Lucariokid13]

I would rather like it if there were aliens, aslong as they dont steal my chocolate that is....

If ure beliefs are strong, it shouldnt really bother you.

[QuestionAuthority]

i appreciate all the different thoughts on this. i was afraid this was some sort of board where everyone had to 'tow the party line' so to speak.

i'm not some alien groupie who claims to have been examined or whatever. i've never seen anything that makes me think there MUST be aliens. but when you do the simple math it just begs the conclusion that out of the 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or so stars (I read that NASA once estimated the number of stars in the zillions - not even a real number).

what would it mean if these beings had no knoweldge of god? i mean, what is the chance they would belong to a religion based on the supposed death of god in the flesh on a distant world thousands of years ago?

[Sherrie]

I have heard from several preachers talking on the end of times; that will be one of the excuses.

[QuestionAuthority]

what will be one of the excuses? i don't understand your comment

[Bethany67]

i appreciate all the different thoughts on this. i was afraid this was some sort of board where everyone had to 'tow the party line' so to speak.

i'm not some alien groupie who claims to have been examined or whatever. i've never seen anything that makes me think there MUST be aliens. but when you do the simple math it just begs the conclusion that out of the 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 or so stars (I read that NASA once estimated the number of stars in the zillions - not even a real number).

what would it mean if these beings had no knoweldge of god? i mean, what is the chance they would belong to a religion based on the supposed death of god in the flesh on a distant world thousands of years ago?

Well, broadening it out, what about the multiverse hypotheses such as Hugh Everett's 'many worlds interpretation' and its relation to quantum mechanics? Not alien life somewhere else in this universe, but in a parallel universe? Jesus came to us as a human to die in our place; if other verses were somehow damaged/corrupted by non-humans, maybe He would relate to them in a different way? Just throwing out ideas here.

And to turn your argument round, what if these beings did have a knowledge of God? How would it affect your worldview personally?