What Happens If We Find ETI?

Question from ‘David’ via email:

Hi. I’ve been visiting for your site for about 9 months. I like the variety of topics that you cover. I also like that you’re a thinker. A lot of “Christians”.. well.. don’t.

As I’m sure you are already aware, a “super earth” was found a couple days ago. It is believed to be more than half water. Water is a crucial element for life.

The Christian bible (though it doesn’t *explicitly* say so), leads us to believe that we’re it. Earth is the only planet with life, and humans are the only creatures made by God that have a soul. We’re it, there’s nothin’ else.

With science getting ever closer to finding other planets with life, what does that mean to the Bible? To God? To Christianity? It becomes increasingly harder for me to believe in the exclusivity claims in the Christian Bible, as we begin to venture outside of our solar system.

This is a tough topic, with tough questions. People who ignore them, seem to want to spread ignorance. I must face and deal with reality (whether I fully understand it yet or not). I do not like when people try to claim that science just confuses people, isn’t always right, and goes against what’s portrayed in the Bible.

Well, if it goes against the Bible, and certain scientific claims are true, then we *must* confront them in search for the truth. Staying in a black box, and convincing yourself there’s nothing outside of it because that notion makes you feel safe… just means your living in a black box.

 Any thoughts on this matter? :)

 

Roger comments:

Thanks very much David for the interesting question. Extra-terrestrial intelligence (ETI) is something that has fascinated me since boyhood - like most other children of my era, I grew up on a steady diet of 80s sci fi - Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers (my personal favourite). I have always been interested in science and certainly in astronomy. The magnitude, size and mystery of the cosmos absolutely blows my mind. I often catch myself staring up at the night sky, looking at the moon, planets and stars with wonder and amazement, trying to grasp in my puny mind the vastness of the universe. I have frequently tried to think through how my Christian faith fits into my ‘informed laymans’ knowledge of cosmology.

First of all, astronomy and cosmology for me are a fascinating window into the mind and power of God.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. (Psalm 19:1,2)

Of all the natural theology arguments for the existence of God, I find the exquisite fine-tuning of the universe one of the most compelling. So I embrace all new discoveries in astronomy, astro-physics, cosmology and astrobiology as exciting and empowering, and not at all a threat to my Christian faith. What is potentially threatening, though, is flawed and biased interpretation of these discoveries by those peddling methodological naturalism and other flawed philosophies of science. But that is another subject!

Last year, my interest in the Search for Extra-terrestrial Life (SETI) was peaked again when I got into watching supposed NASA vision on You Tube of UFOs, taken during official NASA missions. I found it all very intriguing, particularly vision of serpentine objects floating around in earth’s orbit and fast moving orbs of light dancing in the upper atmosphere by astronauts orbiting the night side of the planet. I did a bit of reading around the subject. I found this article by Professor Emeritus of Physics at Wheaton College in Illinois, Dr. Joseph Spradley,  most informative:

Religion and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

One of the most interesting things I learned from Dr Spradley’s article was that my previous assumptions that extra-terrestrial life in this vast universe, with its billions of star systems in billions of galaxies, was likely to be overwhelmingly common was actually a popular fallacy. No doubt this popular fallacy had been fed by the abundance of ETI in the Star Wars and Star Trek fictional cosmos! In fact the chances of life within our galaxy and other galaxies as predicted by the Drake Equation are thought to be quite remote. Quoting from Dr Spradley’s article:

 

In 1961, at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, Frank Drake developed a simple equation to estimate the number N of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.18 The Drake equation, which came from the agenda for the first SETI meeting (ten participants at Green Bank), is a product of seven factors:

N = R*  x  fp x ne x  fl x fi x fc x L

where R* is the rate of star formation per year, fp is the fraction of stars that have planets, ne is the average number of planets per star with environments suitable for life to develop, fl is the fraction of planets with life, fi is the fraction of planets where intelligent life develops, fc is the fraction of planets with advanced civilizations, and L is the lifetime of advanced civilizations. At the Green Bank meeting, the product of the first six factors was optimistically assumed to be one, reducing the equation to N=L.19 Thus the lifetime of an advanced civilization became the critical factor, but also the most uncertain.

In 1966, Russian astronomer Iosef Shklovskii and American astronomer Carl Sagan assumed that the factors in the Drake equation are R* =10 stars/year (100 billion stars formed over the last 10 billion years), fp=ne=fl=1, fi=fc=0.1 and L=10 million years to estimate that the maximum possible number N is about a million advanced civilizations in our galaxy (0.001% of all stars).20 More recent discoveries have shown that the factors in this equation are much smaller than these values. Yet even with this optimistic estimate, which is often quoted in the SETI literature, the average distance between stars with such civilizations would be about five hundred light years.

 

So I have come to realise that the chances of ETI, despite the vastness of the universe and the adundance of star systems and galaxies, is not zero, but it is exceedingly less likely than popular belief. This fact is accepted within the academic community. It is also explained in depth by astrophysicists such as Hugh Ross (Reasons To Believe) and in the fascinating book by astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher of science Jaw W. Richards called The Privileged Planet.

That said, I think all Christians should be prepared for how future scientific discoveries may revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos and develop a flexible and malleable theology of these matters. All truth is God’s truth. It is certainly a complicated theological discussion, though, about how biblical Christianity is compatible with extra-terrestrial life. I haven’t seen anything in the Bible that clearly contradicts the possible existence of ETI and I feel comfortable that the Bible represents special revelation from God for the human race uniquely.

After spending time myself thinking through the same questions that you raised, I have realised that like a great many things in theology, the answers to questions like these can never be more than educated speculation, particularly as we have only limited information both from the scientific perspective and the theological perspective. What is important is for our Christian faith to be resilient enough to ask and be asked these questions, without feeling the need to ignore or suppress such natural inquisitiveness.

In the past, I have asked the same question of a number of pastors and theologians. Here are some various responses:

“I have thought about this, not least because in junior high UFOs was my favorite subject.  I think C.S. Lewis has some important things to say on this in his space trilogy, which I would encourage you to read.  If there are fallen creatures elsewhere in the universe, then I assume Christ has died for them as well. And if there are unfallen ones, we have a lot to learn from them.” (BW)

 

“From the theological perspective we need to see what God says in the Bible about extra-terrestrials.  He speaks about Himself, Satan, Michael the archangel, Gabriel the messenger angel, legions of angels and one third of them as demons, and humans as created beings in His image. I would have to conclude that there are no other intelligent redeemable intelligent beings. The created order see Hebrews 1 and 2. God, Angels, Mankind, Demons. The whole of Scripture speaks about the number of souls being complete and that redemption is for the human race. The earth and heavens will pass away and a new heaven and earth is created. It seems to just focus on our planet and the completion of what has been created for here. Nothing else is taken into consideration for other civilizations to be ready when the heavens and earth pass away. I do believe that the devil tries to confuse us by using his demonic forces to insinuate that there is extra-terrestrial life to confuse the simplicity of the Gospel. The Bible says… If someone should come as a angel or like an angel of light and preaching another gospel don’t listen to them. I wonder whether the schemes of the enemy is to confuse us and lead us astray.” (PW)

 

“Personally I think it is unlikely that there are other “persons” in the universe needing redemption and atonement, but we don’t really know and there could be lots. There certainly seem to be many many planets, but how many are suitable for life let alone intelligent “personal” life is unclear. What is completely clear is that if there are other persons then God loves them as well, and will have acted for the best for them. John says somewhere that if there are Little Green Men then it is reasonable to suppose that the Word would have been made Little Green Flesh.  But of course we don’t know, only God (and the persons concerned) do.

I don’t think that this causes any theological problems – the two Incarnations would be of the same Lord and whatever corresponds to the Crucifixion would in an important sense be the same event in a different planet/galaxy.  This seems less weird in the quantum world than in the “classical” world.” (NB)

 

“There are two main arguments: Jesus’ atonement covers all sin for it defeats evil. Jesus’ atonement covers our sin because he first incarnates himself into our situation.

Application question: does Jesus’ death cover the sins of those natives who have never heard the gospel. I think yes because the Spirit of God has reached them before the church reaches them.

In terms of ETs. Given the distance between here and there. Given the experience would be so different. I think God would incarnate himself into their world. It is Jesus of Nazareth who atones for our sins; not just some abstract “Logos.” (SP)

 

At the end of the day, for me this is a bridge to cross when, and if, it ever comes up. Christianity has always been about progressive revelation, and if ETI was ever proven beyond doubt it would provide a fantastic opportunity for thinking Christians and theologians around our world to get to work on the theological questions that such a discovery would inevitably raise.