This is the longest "non-scholastic" research paper I have ever written, and it could not have been done alone. It has been in the works since November of 1997 and has literally taken all of that time to complete. I had a draft prepared when I first posted my Star Force web page, but I decided to work on it some more. It has been written and re-written and edited and re-edited until it was exactly how I wanted it, and several people have helped me along the way:
First of all, this paper all started because of a discussion with my brother Kevin, and he has provided some helpful insight and feedback on this paper. This is just as much for him as it is for everyone else.
Also, my fiance'e Louise Stokes was also very helpful with the content and with proofreading. She has also been a great encouragement to me in this as well as other projects I have been working on.
Most of all, I would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father, who is powerful enough to do anything (even create life on other planets if He wanted to) and who inspired every word of the Bible and made it just as relevant today as it was when it was first written.
This paper is dedicated to these along with everyone who has an interest in this topic.
May God Bless You
Many scientists believe that life could exist elsewhere in the universe. Although there is no evidence for this yet, some say that one day there will be definitive proof that other life does exist. Some use mathematical statistics and probabilities to show their existence is very likely, while others use the same methods to deny their existence.[1] Some use "common sense" or other such things for both purposes as well. However, one thing that many people use to deny the existence of extraterrestrial life is their religion. Christians seem to be especially adamant about this.
Historically, Christians have believed that humans are the only inhabitants of the universe, and that the universe was made for man. Their theology doesn't seem to allow for extraterrestrial life. God created Adam and Eve, and "aliens" couldn't be descended from Adam and Eve, so they must not exist. However, if it could be shown that life does exist elsewhere, then would Christianity be able to handle it?[2] Or, as this paper will address, if you believe in the Bible can you believe in aliens, or would you have to say that evidence for extraterrestrial life can never be found because extraterrestrial life does not exist?
However, instead of addressing Christianity itself and individual beliefs within this diverse religion, the focus will be on the holy scriptures Christians hold dear -- the Bible[3]. What does the Bible have to say about life on other planets? Does it allow for this, or does the Bible say (as many claim) that life on other planets cannot exist?[4].
Before we begin discussing the details, let me put forth an idea that will have a significant impact on this discussion. I call it the Justified Omission Principle (or, as a friend of mine called it, the "Cliff's Notes Principle"). It states:
When God revealed the Bible to its original authors, He omitted some details for two reasons: 1) simply because the details were too complex for the audience at the time, and/or 2) it did not fit the intent of the Bible.
For example:
If you found a primitive tribe of people and wanted to educate them,
you would not discuss quantum mechanics or even something as "simple"
as an automobile. You would start with the very basics and
try to relate it to where they were at the time.
So for the Bible's original audience, some details may have been too complicated for them or probably would have made no sense to them becuase they were not "advanced" enough to understand it.
Also, the intent of the Bible was not to explain everything, but to bring people to God. The Bible is not a scientific textbook or strictly a historical document. It was not intended to be used as these. So specific scientific and historical details (such as exactly how the sun stood still in the sky for Joshua and the name of the Pharaoh in Exodus) are left out because they are extraneous information the people at the time (and even now) did not need.
The Bible even says it omits information that the people do not need to know or that God has some other reason for "hiding" for now. (see Daniel 8:26, Daniel 12:4, Daniel 12:9, Revelation 10:4). So the idea behind this rule is not foreign to the Bible.
It is also important to note that this book was not written only for the scientifically elite. It was designed for the common person. So it is written in a language the common man could understand and use, and it contains information the populace could identify with.
With these ideas in mind, we can now approach the problem.
To discuss whether or not the Bible allows for the presence of extraterrestrial life forms or not, we must first note what would or could be affected by such a belief. None of the history or laws would be affected. Likewise, neither would any of the facts of the Gospels. In fact, the only things that would be affected would be Creation, Sin and Salvation, and the "Tribulation". If it can be shown that these doctrines remain valid even if alien life forms exist, then there is no contradiction with the Bible or with a Christian believing in extraterrestrial life. However, if a contradiction arises in any of these areas, a Christian must believe that life could not exist on other worlds.
First, there is Creation. In the Bible, it talks only of the earth and things concerning it. There is only a brief mention of stars (Genesis 1:16) and no mention of other planets or any other celestial objects. However, you cannot use this fact to argue that there are no other planets. We know that there are at least eight other planets out there in our solar system alone. So even though they are not discussed in Genesis, we cannot conclude they do not exist.
The Justified Omission Principle explains why this was omitted. Early civilization had no means of telling the planets from the stars, except by their erratic paths through the sky. To them, planets and stars were all the same -- points of light in the dark night sky. So any information that these were actual worlds, some of them hundreds of times larger than the earth itself, would only confuse and probably scare the people. So God did not explain this to the people.
So if the Bible allows for the eight planets we know of, it could just as easily allow for any other planets we do not know about. So a belief in other worlds is not affected by this omission at all.
However, that only establishes that other worlds could exist. That says nothing about whether or not they could be inhabited. For that, we must focus on the inhabitants of earth and their creation in the Biblical account.
"So God created man in His own image" (Genesis 1:27). "[T]he Lord God ... breathed into [man's] nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). These verses, along with others, seem to indicate the uniqueness of man. The Hebrew word combination for "breath of life" (nashamah chay) appears only here within the Bible and is related to "living being" (chay nephesh) -- literally a creature that has a soul. (Not even the "living creatures" in Ezekiel were given this distinction -- they were given the same name as the animals in Genesis). This seems to make man, or humans, unique in the universe.
However, a certain passage in Genesis, when not overlooked or summarily dismissed, causes trouble for many Jewish and Christian scholars. It's Genesis 4:16. This is where Cain finds a wife from "the Land of Nod". The creation of this civilization is not mentioned in Genesis, and it cannot be any of Adam's offspring.[5] Therefore, the "Land of Nod" is another civilization we know exists and is not descended from Adam.
Again, the Justified Omission Principle explains the omission. The Bible was intended as a record of God's "chosen people". God chose Adam and Eve's descendants as "His People". This does not mean that other people did not exist. (in fact, it seems to say the opposite--that there were other people, and God picked Adam and Eve's descendants from among these. It wouldn't be much of a choice if Adam and Eve were the only ones!) This simply means that the Bible was concerned with the history of this particular group and was not concerned with where these other people came from.
So other civilizations existed alongside Adam and Eve on earth, and the Bible doesn't tell of their creation. So why could there not be other civilizations on other worlds that the Bible doesn't mention? The Bible already allows for the existence of other worlds (see above), so why would there be a problem?
The first problem arises with the doctrine of "Original Sin".
"Original Sin" is the idea that Adam and Eve committed the first sin, and we inherit that "sin nature" because we are the descendants of Adam and Eve. So if extraterrestrials existed, then they would not be sinful because they were not Adam and Eve's descendants. That cannot happen, so they must not exist!
However, even though the Bible says sin entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12), it never says that we inherit sin. In fact, the people from the Land of Nod were most of the "sinful people" God wiped out with the Flood!![6] So people that were NOT directly related to Adam and Eve were sinful!
Instead of this version of original sin, the Bible seems to paint another picture: that Adam and Eve's sin disrupted the perfection, and this disruption was manifest across all of creation. (See Genesis 3:17-18 for a hint of this.) So this other civilization was affected by their sin, and thus any other civilization (earthly or not) was affected as well. So extraterrestrial life would be affected just as much as the Land of Nod.
But Romans 5:12 says "...sin entered the world ..." through Adam. It says nothing about the rest of the universe! Or does it ... ?
To discuss this topic, we must look at the ancient Greek of the New Testament. In the verse in question, "...sin entered the world...", "world" is the Greek word kosmos, from where we get our word "cosmos" meaning "an orderly harmonious systematic universe".
However, simply because we use this word to refer to the universe does not mean the Bible or the original Greek used kosmos in the same way. However, we will first look at other words the Bible could have used for "world":
So if the authors wanted to speak of just "the world", they could have used one of these words just as well. But they used kosmos instead, most likely because it conveyed a meaning these other words did not. But what other meaning could kosmos have? How else is it translated in the Bible?
Kosmos is translated universe in two verses, I Corinthians 4:9 and Philippians 2:15. And kosmos could (and possibly should) be translated "universe" in quite a few other passages. Most notably, there are passages containing the phrase "... since the creation/foundation of the world (kosmos)...", (or some similar variant) which literally means the beginng of all creation, ie, the universe. These verses include Matthew 13:35, Matthew 24:21, Matthew 25:34, John 17:5, John 17:24, Romans 1:20, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 4:3, Hebrews 9:26, I Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8, and Revelation 17:8. And other verses where "world" (kosmos) could or should be translated "universe" include these: John 1:10 ("... the world [kosmos] was made through him ..."), Acts 17:24 ("The God who made the world [kosmos] and everything in it ..."), and possibly Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36, and Luke 9:25, which say "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world [kosmos] yet forfeit his soul?".
These verses make up more than 10% of all of the occurences of kosmos, so this is not a one-time occurence or a random happening. So translating kosmos as "universe" is valid in some cases.
Now what if kosmos was translated "universe" in other passages? With some passages, it makes a tremendous difference, and it allows for the existence of extraterrestrial life! As an example, we'll go back to Romans 5:12. With this new translation, it says "sin entered the universe through one man, and death through sin". So if extratererstrials existed, this verse would include them. So they would be corrupted by Adam and Eve's fall. In fact, I John 2:2 seems to imply that there are others "out there" that Jesus died for: "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole universe." And at least half a dozen other verses say (translating kosmos as "universe" and not "world") that Jesus died for everyone in the universe!! These verses include John 1:29, John 3:16-17, John 4:42, John 6:51, John 12:47, and I John 4:14. And Jesus is the light of the universe (John 8:12 and John 12:46). The whole universe is held accountable to God (Romans 3:19) and Jesus came to convict the universe of guilt (John 16:8) and to reconcile the whole universe to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19).
In fact, Christians are given an awesome responsibility. We are the light of the universe (Matthew 5:14) and we are commissioned to take the message to every creature in the universe! (Mark 16:15). So if these verses are correct, not only would aliens be sinners condemned like humans are, we would need to reach out to them and tell them that the Son of God had died for their sins here on earth![7]
However, if you finish the verse in Romans 5:12, it says, "in this way death came to all men, because all sinned". This says nothing of aliens! However, if we go to the Greek again, the word for "men" there is the plural of anthropos, which literally means "a man-faced creature"! (see the Greek Lexicon. It's formed from aner meaning "man" and ops meaning "countenance" or "face"--from optanomai) This could be similar to our word "humanoid" (a creature resembling a human). This would include all humans, but it could also include alien life forms as well. So through Adam "death came to all humaniods, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12) So this implies that aliens would fall under the curse of sin, and thus would need a Savior.
Even if we grant that Creation, the doctrine of Sin, and Salvation can stay consistent with aliens existing, there is one other thing that must be considered. During the "End Times" or the "Tribulation" described in Revelation, the destruction and the troubles seem to only affect the earth. However, if aliens did exist and were sinners, then they must also be affected by this "Tribulation". So are aliens mentioned in Revelation? Is a belief in aliens consistent with the Tribulation?
The "Tribulation" is a catastrophic event for both the earth and other stars and star systems. Some of the stars are "thrown down" from the heavens on three separate occasions. During the "Sixth Seal" ( Revelation 6:13 -- quoting Isaiah 34:4), during the "Seventh Seal" -- at the "Fourth Trumpet" (Revelation 8:12), and caused by the "Dragon" himself -- which could possibly mean the "Dragon" causes just as much trouble for these stars and planets as he does for earth and it's sun!! (Revelation 12:4). The sky is rolled up like a scroll (Revelation 6:14 -- quoting Isaiah 34:4 again), probably meaning even more damage to the stars and any planets that might be circling them. So if aliens existed, they would be affected by this.
John does not give any specifics of what happens to these stars or on other planets, but the Justified Omission Principle explains this again -- the Bible focuses on earth, because John was on earth. And any detailed explanation of what happened on other planets would be extraneous information he did not need. For the purpose of "earthlings", it would suffice to know that the stars (and planets around them) would not escape punishment.
And this isn't just recorded in Revelation. Other passages include Isaiah 13:10 (quoted in the New Testament twice as referring to the "End Times" -- Matthew 24:29 and Mark 13:24-25), Luke 21:25-26, and others. So The Tribulation will certainly be a universe-wide event, not just something localized to the earth.
So what does all of this mean? Does the Bible support the idea of aliens or not? As you have seen, it is not that simple. However, given a brief summary of the facts, I believe the Bible does allow for the idea of extraterrestrial life:
So the Bible does NOT contradict the idea of life on other planets, unlike many people believe. That does not, however, imply that aliens do in fact exist, or that if you don't believe in aliens you should. It simply means that if you thought you either had to give up your belief in aliens or your belief in the Bible, then you are in error. You can still correctly believe in both and there will not be any contradiction.
Maybe one day scientists will be able to solve the question of whether life exists outside of the sphere of earth. And if that happens, we can be assured that the Bible will still be just as relevant then as ever, and we can enter this new period in the history of our planet with full assurance of our salvation and of the accuracy of the Christian beliefs we hold dear.
Appendix: Responses to Questions and Objections
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which "gives a means for estimating how many communicating civilizations may be out there." It takes into account everything from how many stars are out there to if an intelligent civilization was out there, how long would it survive before it destroyed itself (like some say we might).
For a more in-depth look at this, please see this site, which is a page from the movie Contact's web site.
Though he later went on to claim (without proof) that the Bible says aliens could not exist, his statement still bothered me. I wondered, Is our faith really so fragile that one scientific discovery could totally destroy it? So I decided to search the Bible to see if there was incontrovertible proof or if the Bible does allow for this. And this paper is a result of that search.
The descendants of Israel were God's chosen people (see Deuteronomy 7:6, Deuteronomy 14:2, Isaiah 45:4, etc.). They were chosen out of everyone else! And God intended for His "religion" to start with His chosen people and then spread out. The only way for this to happen is for Jesus to visit His people -- on earth.
Another key point -- humans were the first ones to FAIL, (see Genesis 3). So sin "began" on earth, and so the cure for sin needed to be on earth. But the sin itself infected the entire universe, and the cure (Jesus' sacrifice) covered the entire universe.
Used for Greek and Hebrew translations of the New International Version text.
The Bible Gateway. Source of every verse quoted (unless otherwise noted, New International Version is used.)
Goshen Net's Greek Lexicon. Another source of Greek translations (uses the King James Version of the Bible)
Goshen Net's Hebrew Lexicon. Another source of Hebrew translations (uses the King James Version of the Bible)
WWWebster Dictionary from Merriam-Webster OnLine. Used for the definition and etymology of cosmos.