Alien Fascination
When I was in grade four or five I snagged my first Ripley’s Believe It Or Not book through a scholastic book order program in my school.
I remember my blood first running cold, then hot, then cold as I read a particularly intriguing Ripley section on the nefarious “men in black” legend. Unmarked black sedans, black suits, green wires running up people’s calves into… what? Flying saucers, government cover ups, little green men, alien abductions… I think from that chapter onward, I’ve been fascinated with UFOs, aliens, and the possibility of intelligent life on other planets.
E.T. The Extraterrestrial sure helped me dial in to my alien fascination. So did Alien, Aliens, The X-Files, the Men in Black movie franchise, and C.S. Lewis’ seminal works Out of The Silent Planet, and Perelandra.
Over the years I’ve searched the night skies for something, anything moving. A few times, I’ve spotted anomalies—like what I took to be a swift high flying plane or satellite in orbit that abruptly started moving the opposite direction it had been travelling without using a turning radius of any kind.
Cue ominous music. Crescendo, and…. fade.
Life on other planets?
Are there aliens out there? I honestly don’t know. The Bible doesn’t really say.
Have they visited earth? I have no idea.
But let’s do some poking around this week. Let’s talk, and see where we end up. Because here’s my nervous confession: I’m with X-Files’ agent Mulder. I want to believe.
Most of the Christians I know don’t believe. In alien life, that is, or alien visitors, or E.T.s, or xenomorphs or anything like them. I’ve read some pretty wild-eyed conservative reactionism to alien-ology. Some Christians claim it’s all just one big green and googly-eyed demonic deception.
I have to apologize for “some Christians” because they tend to have black and white answers for everything in the universe, as though they themselves were God and know everything there is to know. As if to disagree with them is to renounce all that’s true and good and holy in the service of all that’s demonic, dark, and Democrat.
But that’s just silly.
What about you? Have you ever seen a “UFO?” What do you think about all this?
If you haven’t already, you must watch Contact. It explores this very question, with both the Christian and Athiest points of view represented quite nicely (in my humble opinion). I’m with you though. I want to believe. I am a solid follower of Christ and my faith in Him is my cornerstone, and when I ponder the sheer magnitude of the universe and all that science has proven about its vastness, I can’t help but think as one of the characters in Contact thinks when asked if there is life on other planets: “I don’t know. But I guess I’d say if it is just us…seems like an awful waste of space.”
Yes, I’ve seen it. Great film. And I love that quote.
I believe there is life on other planets. I don’t know what to make of UFO lore. Some of it is so inexplicable as to be very convincing, but a lot of it is either explainable or just an outright, obvious hoax. Still, though, the inexplicable UFO stories are very intriguing and merit further study and investigation.
As Christians, we are taught to have faith in God’s word and to “test the spirits” whenever some new knowledge comes to us. In other words, we look at new knowledge with the light of God, not just by our own intellect, to discover Truth. As yet, I have found nothing in scripture that limits God’s power such that he couldn’t create humans and creatures on other worlds in the universe(s?).
As a Mormon Christian myself, I take great comfort and find more knowledge of God and His creations in additional revealed scripture. Even though the Pearl of Great Price teaches us only about our Earth, it does mention that God created “worlds without number” and that they are populated with His children. Moses was taught about these in his vision on Mount Sinai:
31 And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me. 32 And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. 33 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. 34 And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/1.31-34?lang=eng#30
But he was told that his mission was only to know and teach about this earth:
35 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. 36 And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be content. 37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. 38 And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words. 39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. 40 And now, Moses, my son, I will speak unto thee concerning this earth upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak.
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/1.35-40?lang=eng#34
That leads me to believe that if there _are_ “aliens” (cherubim? seraphim?), their role in visiting here is limited to keep us following God by faith alone (not by sight) and from getting distracted from our purpose which is to love and serve God and our neighbor.
An alternative explanation (non-doctrinal, but interesting) is that they could be similar to the idea some apocryphal writings have described in that disobedient beings once came to earth.
http://www.gnosis.org/library/dss/dss_book_of_giants.htm
Therefore, if this aspect of apocryphal writing turns out to be true, they might be “aliens” who are disobedient to God in visiting us and we are limited in our knowledge of them for our own protection.