Since the federal government released its long-awaited UFO report in January, there have been plenty of headlines related to UFOs. (Technically, the government refers to them as UAPs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena; I have no doubt a good number of taxpayer dollars were used to pay someone to come up with that acronym.) Two months ago, the Pentagon said it is in the process of reviewing more than 650 UFO (oops, UAP) incidents. So far, it says none of them can be attributed to alien (extraterrestrial) origin.
This report has prompted me to revisit something I hadn’t thought much about for 40+ years: how does the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life relate to Christian beliefs? Let’s go back to 1976. This is when the two Viking landers on Mars performed several experiments to determine whether Mars had any microbial life. Although initially there was plenty of excitement about the results, ultimately, they were inconclusive because they could be explained by unusual chemistry rather than biology (life); in other words, there was something in the soil mimicking life, but it wasn’t life itself. And of course, even if the Viking experiments had shown evidence of such life, it wouldn’t have been evidence of intelligent life. A few years later, I read a book by German astrophysicist Reinhard Breuer called Contact with the Stars. Breuer came to the conclusion that, at least within our galaxy, we are the only technological civilization. (Among other things, the Drake Equation is fascinating, although it relies almost purely on various kinds of speculation; you can research it if you’re interested.) Breuer left open the possibility that there was intelligent life out there, but perhaps we just didn’t know it yet because their technology had not yet developed enough for them to send out messages, for example.
The idea of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is a very intriguing idea, to say the least. For naturalistic scientists who believe in evolution, it seems illogical that our planet is the only one in the universe where intelligent life exists. However, it is not so easy, to put it mildly, for life of any kind to develop by chance; click here if you want to read more: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2023/02/09/the-intelligent-designer/ In addition, however, it seems that some people have an understandable desire to find life elsewhere because they think, among other things, that intelligent beings from another world would help us Earthlings solve some of the problems we have here. This presupposes that these beings from another planet would not be hostile, but is that realistic?
I have enjoyed good science-fiction novels, short stories, movies, and TV shows since I was a boy. Many of these have to do with encounters with intelligent extraterrestrial life, very occasionally friendly (the blockbuster 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind), but almost always hostile. Admittedly, this is all fiction, but it seems to me that the hostile portrayals of extraterrestrials are more likely than the friendly ones.
If you’re a Christian, then you know that sin entered our world through Satan, who tempted Adam and Eve into sinning; this is commonly referred to as the Fall. I believe that if there are planets with intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, then the Lord created it, just as He created Adam and Eve, the parents of the human race, here. I also believe that Satan would visit such planets and try to do what he successfully did here. Would intelligent life elsewhere be able to resist the temptations of Satan? C.S. Lewis wrote a space trilogy, the second book of which is Perelandra. On Perelandra (which is the planet Venus), there exist two beings, a king and a queen. A visitor to the planet who is possessed by Satan tries to tempt the queen into doing the one thing she had been commanded not to do. However, there is also another visitor (a Christ-like figure) who ultimately battles, and defeats, the demon-possessed man. Thus, sin does not enter Venus, so the Fall never happens.
I enjoyed Perelandra, and it is truly wonderful to imagine a world where Satan does not succeed in his temptations of the first people there. However, if Satan succeeded in tempting intelligent beings on another planet (which I think is likely), then sin would enter that world as well. Taking it a step further: would the Lord enact His plan of salvation on that world? I believe the answer is yes. However, wouldn’t that mean that Jesus, God’s Son, would have to die for that race of intelligent beings as well? Based on everything I read in the Bible, I believe the answer is yes. Hebrews 9:22 says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
I can’t imagine the Lord Jesus, Who is my Lord, having to die again and again for sinful intelligent beings on other worlds. This has become the most fundamental reason why I don’t believe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Perhaps I will be proven wrong someday, but so far, the scientific evidence doesn’t suggest that there is life of any kind elsewhere in the universe, let alone intelligent life.
I should add that I’m aware of Christians who have said that angels (and demons, for that matter) are examples of extraterrestrial intelligence. However, even though angels can take corporeal (bodily) form, they are spirit beings. In addition, demons cannot be saved from sin; they will spend eternity in hell.
Are we alone in the universe, as some like to say? I believe that in a sense, we are. However, it is a universe created by the Lord God, and He chose to create this life-sustaining planet for all life, including intelligent human beings, to live on. And then, after the parents of the human race sinned, He enacted His plan of salvation for all who believe and trust in Jesus. How amazing is that?!
To the Remnant 
I know that most evangelical Christians do not believe that there is life in the universe outside of Earth. this would create problems theologically. I can only envision life forms on distant planets if they were not created in the image of God such as all creatures on Earth outside of human beings.
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Anthony, I just came across an interesting article about four possibilities regarding intelligent aliens and redemption. As it turns out, I mentioned three of them in my post: they never sin (as in Perelandra); Jesus lives and dies for them as He did for us; and there is no redemption plan for them (like the demons).
The fourth possibility mentioned in the article is that intelligent aliens have experienced the Fall, but that they are included in Christ’s redemptive work on Earth, which was chosen as the place for redemption for all intelligent life in the cosmos. How could they learn about the Gospel? The article mentions two ways: God could reveal Himself via some other kind of special revelation, or we humans are to communicate the Gospel to them across the cosmos. That second way would actually make sense if we encountered intelligent life elsewhere.
Each of the four possibilities has its own problems, which further emphasizes to me the unlikelihood of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Regarding other forms of life elsewhere: the Lord can do whatever He wants, of course, but I doubt that He created life of any kind elsewhere in the universe; so far, we have no evidence that He did.
Thanks as always for your thoughtful comment, Anthony!
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We are alone in the universe. Evolution cannot happen. Thus, the Krell could never have existed, an alien race of super-intelligent beings, from one of my all-time favorite movies, “Forbidden Planet,” a 1956 American science fiction film. The evolutionist’s universe is a make-believe, imaginary place of extraterrestrial beings, aliens, and ancient astronauts from far-flung planetary civilizations. A Christians world-view and belief is centered in reality.
Here is a bit from my book “Reindeer Don’t Fly” dealing with this idea of extraterrestrials.
“Michael Rowan Robinson in his book Cosmology emphasized the Copernican principle as the starting point for modern thought: “It is evident that in the post-Copernican era of human history, no well-informed and rational person can imagine that the Earth occupies a unique position in the universe.”3
Throughout the years this principle has expanded and been adopted into all areas of research, including physics, astronomy, and biology. The argument for extraterrestrial intelligence is also based on the principle of mediocrity. This principle suggests, because the evolution of the solar system and the creation of earth are not unusual in any important way, the same processes that govern the rise of humanity are probably universal, and thus planets capable of spawning life must be common; therefore, in due course lifeforms arose on other Earth-like planets throughout the vast expanse of the cosmos.
Of course, they don’t know how those processes might work or operate on other planets, or how a difference in gravity might impact life elsewhere. They might debate whether their respiratory functions would be recognizable to us (they might breathe a different gas, they might breathe through different mechanisms, etc.). Some emphasize how rare it might be to find a planet that even has atmospheric conditions that could support life the same way Earth does. But this whole idea assumes that life can just start (they believe it’s a universal fact), and then the process of evolution can take place.
Bouw, in his book Geocentricity, relates some very interesting information arising from the effects of this principle:
One of the interesting side effects of heliocentrism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the notion that the moon, planets and stars (yes, and even the sun) were inhabited. This idea is reflected in the names of the lunar mare (“seas”) and oceans. In fact, the “fact” that the moon was inhabited was at the time considered to be absolute proof against the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture. The reasoning was that with the moon and stars all inhabited, there was nothing special about the earth that God should pay particular attention to events here as opposed to say, the events on the moon or the giant planet Jupiter. Today we know that no place in the solar system has life on it but the earth; but then the belief in the “plurality of worlds” was considered absolute.4
It is true that most people no longer believe the moon, sun, and other planets in our solar system are inhabited. However, this idea from centuries past, that life exists elsewhere, someplace in space is still very much alive and beats strongly within the breast of all evolutionists (and Hollywood movie producers). SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the enormous amount of time and money spent on the search for life on Mars, and countless other endeavors testifies that the Copernican principle, its attitude and mindset is still very much alive and has never died.
Contrary to Sagan’s statements, the Earth is a special, exceptional, and unique place. It is an oasis in the midst of lifeless planets, moons, and far-flung galaxies. It is the exclusive abode, domicile, and residence of all bacterial, animal, and human life. Other than God and His created spiritual beings such as angels, we are alone in the universe. It was only on this earth that the drama of the ages took place. “God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). It is only to us, the sinful beings that live on this Earth, that the Gospel is given: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3–4).”
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Michael, I agree with everything you wrote, with the belief of so many in naturalistic evolution as the focal point. So many seem to be almost flippant in their belief about how supposedly easy it is for life to originate and evolution to take place; supposedly, that’s what happened on Earth, so of course it could happen on other planets in the Goldilocks Zone. I especially like what you wrote here: “Earth is a special, exceptional, and unique place. It is an oasis in the midst of lifeless planets, moons, and far-flung galaxies. It is the exclusive abode, domicile, and residence of all bacterial, animal, and human life.” Amen to that!
By the way, I like Forbidden Planet, too; another sci-fi movie I like from that decade is The Day the Earth Stood Still. As far as TV shows go, nothing can beat Earth 2 or the original Star Trek series.
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Thank you.
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Keith, when I hear about UFO sightings, my first thought is always that it’s demonic activity. In the 70’s there was a lot of talk about the End Times, and I was hearing about the Rapture for the first time. It was suggested then that these sightings were the work of Satan, so that when the Church is raptured, it will be easy for him to convince those remaining that the Christians were abducted by extraterrestrials. That makes as much sense to me as any other theories.
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Very interesting, Ann. It reminds me of something very similar that I heard not too long ago; the speaker (I forgot who) said that he thinks the antichrist will use UFOs during the Tribulation. I only got the tail end of it, probably while I was driving, and then I forgot to look it up when I got home. What you wrote is probably the gist of what he said; thanks for clearing that up for me! I don’t know if UFOs are related to demonic activity or not, but I’m very sure they’re not evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
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Most discussions of extraterrestrial life overlook the fact that we have encountered two form of such life: angels and demons. If we think about our encounters with these two lifeforms perhaps we can extrapolate the possible consequence of encountering other lifeforms.
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As I mentioned near the end of my post, even though angels can take corporeal form, they are spirit beings. While I didn’t overlook them, I didn’t give them (or demons) more attention because of that. I’m not surprised that “most discussions of extraterrestrial life overlook” them.
Thanks for your comment!
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