What would it mean for Christianity to discover intelligent alien beings? This question, asked in a recently published article, caused quite a stir. Perhaps the question can be asked in a different way: what significance would the discovery of intelligent aliens have for evolutionary science?
Clara Moskowitz wrote an unexpected headline for Space.com: “Are aliens part of God's plan? The discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence could change religion forever. " The article was also posted on the pages of the Internet portal "Live Science". MSNBC News copied the article with a large headline over it, “If intelligent aliens exist, then what about God? According to experts, the discovery of extraterrestrial beings poses a dilemma for religions, especially for Christianity. " The so-called "experts" are the names of the participants in the recent symposium held by the Agency for Advanced Defense Research Projects (USA) under the motto "In 100 Years - Starship." The aim of the symposium was "to discuss issues related to travel to other stars."
Christianity was especially emphasized because the death of Christ was to save all creation at one time. “Did Jesus die for the Klinogons too?” Moskowitz asks mockingly. Is Christ now incarnating on many planets? Christian Weidmann, a German Protestant professor of philosophy, believes that Christ needed to be incarnated in 250 places at the same time, “based on scientists' estimates of the estimated number of civilizations in the universe and how long planets and civilizations are supposed to exist,” writes Moskowitz.
For Moskowitz, Christians could offer two explanations. Weidmann suggested that aliens may not be sinners, although this idea seems to challenge the "ordinariness principle" that rules out the uniqueness of Earth. The second explanation is that Christianity, as history shows, easily tolerates scientific discoveries. “The religion is very conservative,” says Pastor Robert Hoffman of Tulsa, Oklahoma. “You can show her anything you want: she will shake a little, and then she will start to pounce again. We have seen this happen many times."
Finally, the video clip inserted in the article shows that evolutionists also have their own paradoxes, such as the Fermi paradox. The main question of this paradox: if the Earth is not unique, then where are the alien beings? Jill Tarter, without any evidence, suggested that aliens or their artifacts may actually be present in the solar system and even on Earth, but just so far they have escaped the attention of scientists.
This article is from the genre "religion has problems, but science does not." MSNBC and other secular reporters are particularly picky about Christianity. The authors of the politically correct article have tried their best to show that Muslims and Hindus have no problems with extraterrestrial life. (The rules of political correctness will allow attacks on Christianity, but not on any other religion.)
Soteriological (i.e., salvation) issues are important and worthy of discussion, but let's look at the context. First, no aliens have been found (at least for today). Based on empirical scientific evidence, we can say that the Earth is the only known place where life dwells. Therefore, any questions like "what if?" are purely hypothetical. Secondly, this is not news at all. Christians and non-Christians for centuries (at least since the Middle Ages) have talked about the philosophical and theological consequences of extraterrestrial life. Many opinions have been proposed, and these opinions were and remain purely academic, since no evidence of extraterrestrial life was presented. Scripture also tells us nothing about this.
Third and most important, this issue is causing difficulties for everyone, not just Christians. The Fermi paradox justly falls on evolutionists. Well, well, if evolution is so simple and omnipresent, then where are they? If extraterrestrials evolved over millions of years not like we, insignificant people, but in just a few stages, they should have overcome outer space long ago and be here. If evolutionists want to complain about theologians, let's see how they themselves respond: “Maybe traveling in outer space is too difficult. Maybe civilizations developed and then got to the point where they destroyed themselves. They may be here, but we just don't see them."
Promotional video:
Since Moskowitz is unable to define uniform rules for the game, she is one-sided judge of the questions and dilemmas in this speculative game. As a correction, we need to take revenge and rewrite the article. This is how it might look:
Aliens - part of the evolutionary plan? Non-discovery of extraterrestrial intelligent beings could forever change the theory of evolution
The inability to detect extraterrestrial life is a scientific dilemma, especially for Darwinists, experts say.
The absence of intelligent aliens would be shocking in many ways, but it could pose a particular dilemma for secular scientists and philosophers contemplating concepts of interplanetary travel.
For neo-Darwinists in particular, this news would be a special blow, because the evolutionary belief system certainly does not allow the inhabitants of the Earth to be unique creatures. Scientists and theologians spoke about this at a meeting dedicated to travel to other stars.
In other words, "Did evolution also take place on other worlds?" It was with these words that Professor of Philosophy Christian Weissman entitled his speech at a meeting of philosophical and religious reflections on the topic of visiting other worlds.
According to neo-Darwinists, the origin of life on Earth about 3 billion years ago was a purely naturalistic process. “Do you understand what the conflict is?” Weissman asks.
The essence of the debate is as follows: If the entire universe includes 125 billion galaxies, each of which consists of billions of stars, as astronomers believe, then what if there are no such advanced civilizations on one of them as on Earth? Why did evolution take place only here and not somewhere else?
Aliens and evolution can still get along
Weissman, a Christian student of science and evolutionary theory, proposed possible solutions to an evolutionary dilemma called the Fermi paradox. Perhaps extraterrestrial beings are unable to travel through outer space. Perhaps they just don't want to do it. Perhaps they destroy themselves before they can evolve into travelers between the stars. However, the principle of natural selection (i.e. environmental conditions drive innovation) contradicts the idea that intelligent beings stop looking for solutions to problems such as dying stars. On the contrary, such problems should stimulate aliens to look for ways to relocate to new worlds.
“If extraterrestrial intelligent beings exist, then they, according to evolutionists, will also evolve,” says Weissman. “And if so, would they limit themselves to the biosphere of their planet? I think no. If evolution has boundaries, that would be a very unusual point of view among neo-Darwinists."
Another possible explanation is that the evolution of intelligent beings took place only on Earth. However, given the sheer number of planets being discovered and the rate at which human life emerged on Earth, evolutionists should expect intelligent life to occur throughout the universe.
Scientific food for thought
If the emergence of life requires only time and chemical processes, then the only conclusion that evolutionists can come to is that in space, of course, there must be alien life.
Astrobiologist Dr. Dave Police thinks Weissman is raising very pertinent questions.
“If extraterrestrial life continues to be closed to us, we, unfortunately, need to think more about it,” said Polais. "I think it's time to get it straight."
While the failure to detect extraterrestrial intelligence would likely force scientists of different faiths to delve deeply into themselves, many world religions take this news much more easily than atheism,”said philosopher Michael Aftermat. "It seems that this problem only affected atheists."
In Christianity and other monotheistic religions, theologians do not restrict God in what He can and cannot do, but their scriptures say nothing about alien beings (although they do speak in detail about angels and demons). However, Hindus may ask why millions of their gods exist only to receive offerings from earthlings.
“Finally, it's worth noting that for evolutionary atheists, the lack of evidence for intelligent alien beings is also not a major problem,” says Polais. After all, evolutionary science has experienced less scientific revelations.
"Evolutionism is essentially dogma," Police told Spaced-Out.com. “You can show her anything you want: she will shake a little, and then she will begin to pounce again. We have seen this happen many times."