Would the Discovery of Aliens Undermine Scripture?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

No — the Bible does not explicitly exclude life elsewhere

• The question posed (in the host's frame): we're recording this to air on a holiday (named in the frame), so hopefully everybody listening has a cookout planned ('hasSign a in cookout plan', as the frame's letters stand). But I wanted to ask you about a news item that popped up earlier this summer, back in july (as the frame dates it) — according to, not the supermarket tabloids, but the reputable news outlets named in the frame: a former military intelligence officer ('intelligence offer officer', as heard) with the air force (as named) testified before a house subcommittee (as named), that the united states government has been aware of what he referred to as non-human activity, since the 30s (as the frame dates it). And according to this retired military intelligence officer: the U.S. actually is in possession of unidentified flying objects — or what we usually call UFOs. According to this officer, the U.S. has even tried to reverse engineer some of this — we might call it alien technology — to figure out how it works. Now, I want to be clear that, not surprisingly, the pentagon (as named in the frame) has denied that this program exists. But I thought it was at least noteworthy, that house lawmakers did not laugh this guy out of the building. So my question for you today is: would it — if tomorrow the headlines broke, that we are not alone in the universe, and the US government pulled out e.t.'s body (as named in the frame), and pieces of his rocket ship — what ramifications, if any, would that have, for the authority of scripture, for believers? I guess maybe a better way to phrase this is: does the bible leave any room, for the possibility of alien life? Or would that discovery be a significant blow, to Christianity? The answer: well, first of all, I tend to be skeptical, of reports like this. However, to answer your question directly: no. I don't think the Bible explicitly excludes the possibility of alien life, or other intelligent, or non-intelligent, life in the physical universe. And you could argue, of course, that the Bible explicitly says there is intelligent life, beyond the human — that is, angels and demons. So let's break this down, a little bit. Now, according to evolutionary theory: life just evolved. And so, with the trillions of stars, and trillions of planets, evolutionists say: well, it's inevitable — there must be other life, somewhere, because it's just a natural process. Of course, I would challenge that. In my book anchor points (the title as it stands in the text), I talk about creation, evolution — and say that even if evolution is accurate, or a factor, it would have to be intelligent design. Because the probability, of all these random events just falling into place, to result in intelligent life, are incredibly small ('or incredibly small', as heard). So even if you had millions, and billions, and trillions, of planets: the likelihood that human life would evolve, by random chance, is non-existent. So I disagree with that fundamental premise, that an atheist, or an evolutionist — or maybe even a lot of scientists — would say: that, well, surely there must be life out there, somewhere, because — no. Unless God intentionally designed it, and created it: no, there's not going to be an intelligent life elsewhere, alien life elsewhere. So I disagree with that fundamental idea, that surely there must be some other life, out there, somewhere — we're not alone. Of course, if you just read the Bible, you might get the idea that we're alone. Certainly humans are unique, and God's apex creation. But you could say: that's with regard to planet Earth. That's with regard to our knowledge. The Bible is not a scientific textbook. It doesn't tell us everything we want to know. It tells us what we need to know. So could God have done something similar, on another planet, in another part of the universe? Or could there be a different universe? Or could he have done something, 10 billion years ago, with another race of created beings ('creative beings', as heard)? Well, the Bible doesn't explicitly deny that.

The interesting questions — a concept of God? Sin? A savior?

• What would be quite interesting is: if there actually was intelligent human life, that we could interact with, and communicate with, in some way. And there are a lot of big ifs, all along the way. I mean: if there is extraterrestrial life — would it be intelligent? Would we be capable of discerning it? Would we be capable of communicating? And if they have been coming since the 30s: why haven't they communicated with us? What are they doing? Why are they hiding, in the depths of the ocean, or in the atmosphere? You know, there's just a lot of questions, that come up. But let's just say: it would be interesting, to see if they have a concept of God. I would think they would — probably, somewhere, they would. But of course, the ones we meet might be like our atheists. Then another interesting question would be: did they sin? And would they need a savior? Or did they avoid sin? It's interesting: C.S Lewis (the name as it stands in the text) actually did — of course, he was a well-known theologian, theological writer. But he did write some science fiction, fantasy: The Chronicles of Narnia. But he wrote the space trilogy (as named), where he imagined there could be another race of beings, that didn't fall into sin. And therefore, they had a relationship with God, but they didn't need to be saved, from sin. So that would be intriguing, certainly.

What the reports more likely are — and the demonic possibility

• I will have to say that I've tended to think, the various reports over the years, of UFOs, aliens, etc., etc. — as I said, there's no concrete, objective, clear evidence. It just seems strange, that it would be in all these mysterious, spooky ways, over the years — and kind of like in conspiratorial ways. But they always seem to get in contact, with the U.S. government, somehow. (Other governments, yes — the host's interjection, in his own turn.) But I tend to think that these stories can usually be explained, by natural phenomena — unusual natural phenomena, like atmospheric conditions. There are some incredible — I mean, clouds, and the northern lights, and various unusual atmospheric conditions. Or psychological phenomenon: so it may have been a sincere experience, but it might have been dream, psychosis, you know, other internal phenomenon, and phenomena. And then third: there can be the possibility of secret technology — especially with the US government, and with military technology, that they might not want us to be aware of. But, so: some things can — and some things, just things like weather balloons, and other things that aren't necessarily secret, but the average person wouldn't know about it, wouldn't think about them. So I do believe the vast majority of reports can be explained, by some of those. But maybe there's some reports that aren't explained. And more likely than there's some extraterrestrial intelligent life, I would say: demonic activity could be very real. So: we do believe in spirit beings, created by God, who are angels. And we believe a certain percentage fell into sin — which, I believe, that's the origin of the demons. So there are angelic spirits, that can manifest themselves, in accord with the Bible ('in accord in the Bible', as heard), in human form — and presumably, other forms. Demons, likewise, presumably could manifest themselves, in a human form, or some other type of form. So could it be — I don't know that angels would — you know, the Bible talks about angels appearing, to God's people, at different occasions. But they would appear honestly, as angelic beings. We'd probably recognize them, as such. Could it be, that an unbeliever could somehow see angelic activity? Or, more likely: could demons be responsible, for creating chaos, confusion — maybe supporting narratives of atheism, and evolutionism? And Jesus did speak of the end time: there would be various signs. He said: signs in the heavens. So whether that's poetic, or whether it's referring to atmospheric events, or maybe even UFOs could be part of that — that part of the chaos of our day, and part of the fear and confusion of the end time, could be all kinds of strange, unidentified, mysterious signs — including signs in the sky, caused by demonic activity. To me, that would be plausible, in accordance with our view of scripture. So I'm not going to totally discount, that there could be these unexplained phenomena, that could have extraterrestrial causes. But I would be more likely to relegate that, to demonic activity.