Sounds from Mars
It was only a few days ago that NASA shared the first audio recording from Mars. In the 18 second clip, you hear a lot of the noise the rover makes itself, and then a gust of wind. It might seem like an overreaction to get excited about a little bit of wind, but it’s the first time we have heard what it sounds like on another planet. Anytime there’s a bit of news from outer space, the discussion inevitably goes to alien life. When that happens, Christians often find themselves in a theological dilemma. If self-conscious extraterrestrials exist, how do we make sense of that theologically? Do they know God? Did Jesus die to save their sins too? In a way, it’s the extreme “man on an island” scenario.
As much as I wish I had some definite answers for you, I think anyone offering definitives in this case are full of it. However, I think more important than the actual answer is the process of how we think about these issues when they arise. It’s very similar to the way education is designed to work. It’s not necessarily about knowing all the right answers by memory, but being able to critically think about the answer and to be able to work it out.
So let’s start with the science part to see what we have to deal with. There’s a famous equation created by Frank Drake that is used to estimate the number of potential alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. It takes into account the rate that stars are created, how many stars have planets, the number of planets that might be able to support life, the number of those that might actually develop intelligent life, and so on. Of course, several of the factors are big unknowns because even though there are billions of stars and planets, so far the actual known number of planets outside of Earth with any life is zero.
Furthermore, even intelligent life on Earth is extremely rare. No, this isn’t a commentary on the state of certain people, but rather a realization that out of the 8 million or so species on earth, only one (humans) is classified as intelligent. This leads us into just a philosophical dilemma. No one wants to say that we are indeed the first or the smartest. When there’s a possibility of 15 million other alien civilizations, statistically it’s a 1 in 15 million chance that we are the smartest.
By now you might be wondering where theology comes in. Let’s start with some a simple assertion. God is creator of all that is, seen and unseen (taken from the Nicene Creed). So if there is indeed life beyond Earth, it falls perfectly within Christian theology that God created it. In other words, the existence of alien life doesn’t change anything about who God is. Actually, the only thing that would ever change with new knowledge is just our understanding of who God is.
The trickier question is did Jesus die for their sins too. My gut reaction is to explore if they have sin to begin with. But since we are using our imaginations here, there’s no real answer to this question. If they don’t have sin (meaning that sin is truly just a human issue) than that speaks into our understanding of our own need for a savior and how messed up we truly are. If they do have sin, what does that mean for Jesus’ death and resurrection? To be honest, we have enough problems trying to figure our what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean without throwing aliens into the mix. What we’re talking about is atonement theory, and there are several compelling ideas about what Jesus’ death and resurrection actually did, but there isn’t total agreement in the Christian community. However, I think that studying these atonement theories through the lens of other life is vitally important for the church.
After nearly 400 years the church still hasn’t lived down it’s handling of Galileo. The battle between science and theology is an unfortunate one. One that I fully believe shouldn’t be a battle at all. The Bible was written by, and primarily for, people living thousands of years ago. Their understanding of the universe was vastly different from ours. The authors, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, didn’t write the Bible as a science book or as a way to explain the workings of the universe. They wrote it as an account of their experience with God. So while it doesn’t ever specifically address things like extraterrestrials, there is a full enough understanding of who God is for us to be able to say that if they do exist, God is still Lord over all.
Side note: There is so much to this topic that can’t be crammed into a snack-size blog. If you want to continue the conversation, I’d be happy to grab a cup of coffee with you while we dive deep into the great unknown.