God and the Extraterrestrials

by Werner Gitt

We are alone or there is life in some other part of the Universe?

For decades, speculation about extraterrestrial life has been fueled by stories about flying saucers and encounters with aliens. It is now being fed from a more serious source. In August of 1996 NASA researchers say they have found evidence of simple life forms in a meteorite from Mars.

This "proof" of life in the Martian rock has since fallen out of favor in the scientific community. Despite this, the two kilos of rock found in Antarctica have given way to a new increase in "fever from Mars". For the next ones 20 years, the Americans, Europeans, Japanese and Russians plan approx 20 projects to explore the planets close to us, of which the closest is approx 78 millions of Km from us.

Meanwhile, the belief in other intelligent life forms continues to grow until almost consensus is obtained from the religious.

The UFO wave

A series of flying saucers caused a sensation in southern England before they turned out to be jokes, complete with audio effects built with batteries and speakers.

Professor John E. Mack of the psychiatry section of Harvard University recently attracted worldwide attention for his collection of cases of people claiming to have been abducted by aliens.

There was also the release of a video that showed an autopsy on the body of an alien, arrived from an accident in New Mexico near the Air Force base in Roswell. The film, which many have dismissed as a crude and obvious forgery, however, it was the major attraction at the World UFO Congress in Düsseldorf in Germany.

Then of course there was the alien invasion in the film Independence Day, which made more gross in its first week of screening in theaters than any other film produced before. There was also the release of a film that showed an autopsy on an alien body, arrived from an accident in New Mexico near the Air Force base in Roswell. The film, which many have dismissed as a crude and obvious forgery, however, it was the major attraction at the World UFO Congress in Düsseldorf in Germany.

Then of course there was the alien invasion in the film Independence Day, which made more gross in its first week of theatrical screening than any other feature produced before.

A recent poll in Germany revealed that the 17% of the population believe in alien visits to our planet, while the 31% believes in intelligent life forms in other galaxies.

What Christians should think about UFOs?

1. Science

(a) Never a single contact with an extraterrestrial.

In 1900, the French Academy of Science offered the figure of 100,000 Frank to the first person to establish contact with an alien civilization - provided that the alien did not come from Mars, because the French Academy was convinced that Martian civilization was an established fact!
Since then no trace of the "little green men", or any life, it has been found on every planet that the human race has been able to explore.
Because of this a large number of astronomers think that, as life evolves here on earth, it must have evolved near one of the many stars in the universe. In America, the SETI researchers (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligences) they scanned the sky in vain, waiting for signals from intelligent beings.

(b) The conditions must be 'absolutely exact'.

Life on any planet can only exist in the presence of a large number of requirements. Eg, there must be at the right distance from its sun, so that it is neither too hot nor too cold.

Although the possibility that planets will be discovered around other stars in the future cannot be ruled out, it is at least extremely unlikely that any of them would fulfill the requirements for the existence of life on them. Despite the excitement reigning when the possibility of life on the surface of the moon of Venus was discovered, Europe, having only liquid water is completely insufficient.

(c) Life cannot be created spontaneously everywhere.

Without intelligence, creative contribution, lifeless chemicals cannot turn into living things. Without this unfounded evolutionary speculation, ufology would not have its current hold on the public imagination.

(d) Immense distances

Even if life were supposed to exist somewhere else in the universe, an extraterrestrial visit to earth, as they claim in UFO news, it would seem completely impractical, if not impossible. The distance (and the time taken for the trip) it is unimaginably vast.
The closest star (apart from the sun) to the earth, Proxima Centauri, is at least a 40.7 millions of millions of kilometers from us. The Apollo spacecraft took three days to reach the moon. At the same speed it would take 870,000 years to get to this closest star. Naturally, it could speed up (unmanned) at a higher speed. At the incredible speed of one-tenth the speed of light, the trip would take 43 years. Anyway , it would take enormous amounts of energy to reach a similar speed - roughly equivalent to the electricity generation of the world's largest hydroelectric station for a total of four days.

Plus in every cubic kilometer of space, There are 100,000 dust particles (made of silicon and ice) which weigh only a tenth of a gram. At such speed by colliding with only one of these objects, the spaceship would be destroyed.

2. THE BIBLE

Secret bases?… Government secrets?…

Many UFO enthusiasts spread the urban myth of the US government's secret about alien experiments, etc. - an idea reinforced by the film Independence Day. However, under the inspiration of atheists such as the late Carl Sagan, the US government has spent millions of dollars listening to signals in space from intelligent life forms. Many evolutionists, come Sagan, they devoutly believe that intelligent life evolved "out there somewhere" as well as on earth, and they would hurl themselves against any evidence that goes against this idea. Consider the recent media turmoil over the "life on the Martian rock" fiasco. To think that a much more exciting discovery had been kept secret for decades seems hardly believable.

(a) Scripture does not mention extraterrestrials

the Bible, the written revealed word of God, it teaches that life is only possible through the process of creation. Even if there were other galaxies with very earth-like planets, life could exist if the Creator had created it. If God had done it, and if these beings were to visit us someday, He would have told us.
God has given us specific details about the future - for example, the return of Jesus, and some details about the end of the world. The universe will roll up like a book at some point in the future (Isaiah 34:4). If God had created other living beings somewhere else, this would automatically destroy the place where they live as well. Adam's sin caused all of creation to be cursed, so why a race of living beings, not from the seed of Adam (sinner) he should have a part in the curse-stricken creation, and then be part of the salvation brought by Christ, last Adam? All this would seem extremely strange.

(b) The purpose of the stars.

We are told why the stars were created in many places in the Bible, not only in the famous Salmo 19 but especially in Creation. In Genesis 1:14 we read: “Let there be lights in the expanse of the skies to separate the day from the night; are signs for the seasons, for the days and for the years ".

We understand from this that the stars are there for humanity on earth. Add to this the sequence of creation (the first day the earth, and only on the fourth day all the stars), and it is easy to see that the purpose of creation is uniquely centered on the earth.

3. Then the UFOs?

How should one understand the UFO phenomenon and all the associated advertising?

In the German monthly Focus, it was recently found that the 90% UFOs are deceptions, but there is a residue 10% which is not easy to give up. The "deceptions" refer to natural phenomena such as stellar bodies, noctilucent clouds, ball lightning, man-made objects such as shining airships.
Sociologist Gerald Eberlein says: “Research has shown that people who don't follow any church, but she claims to be religious, she is particularly inclined to the belief in the possibility of extraterrestrial life. For them, Ufology is a substitute religion.
The Bible goes deeper into this matter by identifying an additional cause and effect - 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11:

“Even the one, whose coming will take place in the power of satan, with all kinds of portents, of false signs and wonders, and with all sorts of wicked deceptions for those who go to ruin because they did not welcome the love of truth to be saved. And for this God sends them a power of deception so that they may believe the lie "

The Bible gives a description of the reality concerning all living forms. The living God reveals himself as the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are angels in heaven, who serve humanity on earth.

There is another reality, that of evil and demons. In the Ephesians 2:2 we speak of the "prince of the power of the air" whose kingdom is on earth.

The devil has his own repertoire of deception in the form of various occult practices and a multitude of religious rites. It could be that, behind those inexplicable facts there is the hand of the deceiver? The facts about UFOs, For definition, remain vague and unidentifiable. People who do not know Christ are easily fascinated by all sorts of difficult to explain phenomena. For Christians there is Jesus who warns us in Matteo 24:4: "See that no one seduces you".

The best antidote to deception? Paul exhorts us, in Timothy 2:15 to study Scripture, so we can rightly grasp the word of truth.