What happens to Christianity if there is life beyond Earth?
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
When I was a kid, our solar system seemed like an endless frontier. My childhood fascination with things beyond Earth found a home in science fiction. The first book report I remember writing was on Ray Bradberry’s The Martian Chronicles. I still have C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy from high school on my bookcase. It remains one of my favorite series.
The past few years have been like living parts of my childhood curiosity all over again. We have another rover on Mars, this time with an adorable little helicopter companion. The US government has confirmed that there are things flying around in our restricted air space that we can’t explain. It hasn’t helped that my brother started a space podcast.
I should probably say here that I don’t know what I believe with regards to life beyond Earth. Reality as we know it means that 99.9% of people on our planet don’t even have to think about this. I definitely fall into that category.
Still, we humans are meant to be explorers (Genesis 1:28). When we accomplish something as big as landing a robot on another planet, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of wonder and catch a glimpse of just how small we really are.
Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash
Having been a Christian my entire life, I’ve always found it a bit strange that there wasn’t more interest inside Christianity in what lies beyond Earth, eternity aside. The Bible speaks of a powerful Creator who made…well…everything. I’ve never understood why He would create such a vast universe only to not breathe life into existence elsewhere.
But the Bible is also full of strange stories. Some are just freaking weird.
For example, in Genesis 6 we get a brief glimpse of the Nephilim, giant beings or super-humans who are shrouded in mystery. In the same section, we see “sons of God” hooking up with human women. They may be otherworldly or merely different descendants within the human race. We don’t know because the language is so ambiguous.
It’s also entirely possible that by the time Genesis was being written down, the oral traditions that preceded the writing had taken on a more fairy tale-like flavor. These could simply be exaggerations of what really happened, sort of like how a story evolves as it moves from person to person down a gossipy school lunch table. It could also be that the ancients were just more mystical than we are today and misinterpreted what they saw. Another possibility is that whole parts of Genesis are allegories, useful in helping Israel formulate and solidify as a nation-state, especially as the monarchy emerged. It could also be a cocktail of some or all of these possibilities.
Regardless, Genesis 6 is too ambiguous to really understand. Thankfully, when one looks at the Bible as a whole, stories start to get more specific a lot faster after Babel in Genesis 11. But the Bible never really stops being strange. In fact, it sometimes gets even weirder.
Meet Ezekiel, a prophet who lived in the 6th-century BCE. This is just part of one of the several “visions” he had during his life (Ezekiel 1:4–21):
As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually, and in the middle of the fire, something like gleaming amber. In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form. Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another; each of them moved straight ahead, without turning as they moved. As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle; such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. Each moved straight ahead; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. In the middle of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; the fire was bright, and lightning issued from the fire. The living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.
As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl; and the four had the same form, their construction being something like a wheel within a wheel. When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved. Their rims were tall and awesome, for the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When they moved, the others moved; when they stopped, the others stopped; and when they rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
Uhhh…what? That’s either the most powerful drug-induced fever dream in human history, or the author of Ezekiel really had some sort of encounter not of this Earth. The author seems to be especially interested in some sort of technology or vehicle (i.e. “the wheels”) that is with these creatures, moving in such a way that defies our standards of vehicular movement even today.
I’m not going to pretend that I know what is going on here. I’m just sharing that the Bible itself shows us that there is often more happening in Creation and our own subconsciousnesses that we do not see nor understand. There’s also a lot the Bible just doesn’t tell us. After all, human DNA — which isn’t mentioned in the Bible despite quite literally making us who we are — wasn't discovered until 1869. We still don’t fully understand how our brains work. And there are huge pieces of information missing from our own history.
Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash
The Bible speaks to the human experience with God
Keeping in mind that the Bible did not just fall from Heaven one day — it has been written, tweaked, translated, and interpreted in many different ways over the millennia by many people — intelligent life beyond Earth is one of those things that we weren’t given the answer to on the front end, so to speak.
The question being asked here essentially has less to do with God and Creation and more to do with ourselves anyways. If life — especially intelligent life — was discovered elsewhere in the universe, would that mean we are actually less important than we thought?
This is the same question we see in stories throughout Scripture over and over again, just at a dramatically smaller scale. Cain kills Abel seemingly out of jealousy stemming from feeling less appreciated than his brother (Genesis 4). The Apostles argue about who the greatest of them is (Mark 9). Scripture reveals that quite a few people want Jesus to be killed and the spread of Christianity to be stopped, largely because Jesus and the Church threatened the socio-political powers of the day (New Testament).
Humans are obsessed with questions and ideas of importance, hierarchy, and authority. At best, we use such questions and ideas to make the world a little more fair. At worst, we literally kill each other at such a large scale that we had to create a new word for it: genocide. Throughout history, Christians have participated in the full spectrum of this obsession.
Simply put, this question of our importance in God’s grand designs if intelligent life beyond Earth were discovered is steeped in selfishness.
Go figure.
The Bible affirms we are special, but not exclusive
Setting aside our inability to understand parts of the Bible and the human condition, Scripture actually gives us a framework that allows for the existence of life beyond Earth in such a way that doesn't change our relationship with God.
For starters, the Bible makes it clear we aren’t the only beings God created. There are other heavenly creatures who are shrouded in mystery that are alluded to throughout Scripture. Second, we’re still discovering new forms of life and things about our own history here on Earth. Humans have been around for who knows how long and we’ve still only scratched the surface of life on our planet.
Personally, I think this is one of the many things that actually does make humans unique. A few other verses worth meditating on:
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8–10)
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. (1 John 3:1)
The Bible consistently tells us that our relationship with God is special, but not exclusive. We actually don’t know a whole lot about God’s relationship to other beings. It’s not a big jump to consider that there are other forms of life beyond Earth that we don’t even know exist. Heck, there’s forms of life here on Earth that we don’t know exist.
But even if intelligent life were discovered beyond Earth, that would not change our status in God’s eyes. We’re still His children. Discovery would only broaden our understanding of what our status has been all along and how it fits into Creation beyond Earth. Or, more likely, it would just leave us with more unanswered questions.
Photo by Wil Stewart on Unsplash
And what would those questions be?
So glad you asked. Here are three I imagine would come up if we discovered intelligent life beyond Earth:
What does “God’s image” actually mean? If humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), then does that mean intelligent life elsewhere would look similar to us? What if they also claim to be made in His image? And what if they are made in His image, but look completely different? Does that mean God’s image changes? Do they even know God, even if it’s in a very different way than we do that we may not recognize nor understand?
Is the incarnation bigger than we thought? At the center of Christianity is the belief that Jesus is both fully God and fully human. Does that mean He’s also shown up everywhere else there is life in the universe in a similar way? Does Jesus just show up in some places? Did He only need to show up here?
Did Jesus die and conquer the tomb for the whole universe? This to me is the most fascinating question because it opens up a world of other questions.
Without redemption, Christianity is reduced to a moral code. So, did our Fall here on Earth extend to the rest of the universe? Or is it contained here and would only, possibly spread with us if we moved beyond Earth? Is intelligent life elsewhere also fallen, in a way that is separate from our experiences? If so, did Jesus have to die in their corner of the universe as well? If not, would they risk becoming corrupted by coming into contact with us?
I mentioned that I loved C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy growing up. The books largely focus on these very questions. In the first two volumes, the main character Dr. Ransom travels to Malacandra (Mars) and Perelandra (Venus). He discovers the inhabitants are both untouched by evil and deeply resistant or oblivious to it, even when human brokenness arrives with colonizing, genocidal intentions.
There would be so many questions like these if intelligent life beyond Earth were discovered. These are just the spiritual ones. Discovery would also have huge implications for our politics, international cooperation, and more.
Photo by Nina Strehl on Unsplash
Closing Thoughts
As a Christian, this is one of those things I’ll think more seriously about if the time comes to do so. These questions are simply fun intellectual exercises, not me falling down the rabbit hole into believing the US government is hiding extraterrestrial corpses at Area 51.
But maybe a lesson we Christians can take away from these flashes of existential questions we experience throughout life is simple: God designed us to explore, enjoy, and be stewards of life here on Earth. His desire has always been for us to thrive. It’s not hard to imagine that as NASA’s scientists landed some of the most advanced technology we’ve ever made on another planet, He was smiling down at them.
And while some Christians see science as an enemy, we would do better to recognize that many scientists often represent who God designed humans to be better than we Christians often do. Scientists are curious. They ask questions. They explore.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for many American Christians today, especially of the white evangelical variety. This dominant strain of evangelicalism in the American context is deeply anti-intellectual, full of rampant hypocrisy and judgmental attitudes, and severely curtails a willingness to go beyond a cultural bubble to meet others where they are, as Christ calls us to do.
The Bible suggests many, many ways to relearn the arts of wonder and curiosity in respectful and loving ways. If for some reason that’s not enough, C.S. Lewis left us a wonderful set of books that further explores the goodness of living as God designed us to, as well as warning us of the doom that comes with being close-minded and domineering.
I explore faith and American church culture from Memphis, TN. Never miss an article by signing up for my free newsletter or becoming a member. You can also subscribe to my podcast.
