Episode Details

There is so much we don’t know about the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe. What all else is out there? Are there aliens we should be afraid of, or instead concerned for? All we can be sure of is that God has created it all, and he won’t violate his own nature. So drawing from scientific observations and Scripture, what are the Biblical possibilities about alien life?

• There’s a certain amount of levity that comes naturally with this topic.
• But it’s increasingly important to think soberly and biblically about it.
• We are being inundated with UFO news from mainstream press (not tabloids).
• NASA researchers (not just a few SETI believers) are actively searching for alien bio-signatures and techno-signatures.
• With a widespread decrease in organized religion comes an increase in “spirituality.”
• Much of this overlaps with alien beliefs, even alien cults, especially when they speak of other dimensions.
• We will look at three possible views about alien life from a Biblical perspective.

Concession stand

• Christians have different views about extraterrestrial life. Some of these conflict with the Bible.
• One such view is that God has not yet created life elsewhere, but he will in the future.
• Others wonder if life elsewhere does not yet exist yet, but speculate that it could evolve.
• Here we’ll not explore the UFO phenomenon, which we’ve already explored in episode 22 and episode 47.

1. God did not create life on any other planets.

• Christian fundamentalists and skeptical scientists both share this view.
• So far as we know, it’s the correct view, because there is no evidence to the contrary.
• It’s based on a very literal reading of Genesis 1:

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for seasons for days and years” … God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.

—Genesis 1:14 and 17, CSB

• Many Christians believe all the stars and galaxies have neither life nor the possibility of life.
• These only exist to provide starlight on the Earth, and to inspire our calendar system.
• Or God may have made worlds to support human life in the future, but reserves Earth for life today.
• Christians may quote Scriptures about the centrality of Earth and its lands in God’s plan:

For this is what the Lord says—
he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

—Isaiah 45:18, NIV

• Christians who believe this would be instantly disproven by the discovery of life on one planet.
• After such a discovery, Christians who don’t hold this belief loosely could have severely damaged faith.

2. God created other life, but nothing intelligent.

• God may have created life on other planets, during his six-day creation.
• That creative act wouldn’t be mentioned in Genesis (like angels are not mentioned)
• In this view, ho