God and Aliens

I've been a Christian since 1998 - going to Church in spurts, reading the NIV, doing Bible Study, engaging in fellowship and ministry. I've hung out with some immensely dedicated Christians and I'm mentored by the world's most popular pastor: Rick Warren. But, boy do I have some questions about God! Big questions. You could say universe-sized questions. And there may not be any earth-bound Christians around to help me sort things out. . .

Big God, Little Earth

So God did create the universe, but is our little planet the only place He hangs his crown? Why is the bible just about us Jews and Gentiles? Is there a bible for the planet AR415? How about TZ672? If there is a civilization on Mars, would there be a Martian bible too? And what would that bible contain? It would have to be about Jesus, wouldn't it? Or would it? And it would most likely be written in Martian or whatever the dialect is called. What kind of relationship would the Martians have with God? Would they call him God or some weird alien pronunciation of God?

I don't know how the God that created the universe and everything in it would simply select one orb out of trillions to adopt and reign on. And the mystery does not end here. Within this tiny fleck of a planet, God had selected The Jews as His Chosen People. Whoa! Are The Jews the universe's only chosen people? Or, does each inhabited planet in every galaxy have their own Chosen People?

(It's probably important for the reader to know that I was born a Jew and converted to Christianity after my first wife passed away. Although I am now a disciple  of Jesus, I will always feel a strong bond with the Jewish People.)

Alien Redaction
As a narrator of The Book that bears his name, Mormon presents himself as a redactor. He quotes and paraphrases other writers, collects and includes whole texts by other authors, contributes running commentary, and also writes his own narrative. He writes about the process of making the book, both in terms of compiling the works of other prophets and also in terms of engraving the words on metal plates. He alludes to content that is left out of the book, and refers to a larger collection of records at his disposal.

Couldn't we posit that extra-terrestrials would be supernaturally endowed with a similar work ethic? 

According to the Book of Mormon, a Nephite was a member of one of the four main groups of settlers of the ancient Americas. The other three groups are the Lamanites, Jaredites and Mulekites. In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were a group of people descended from or associated with Nephi, the son of a prophet who left Jerusalem at the urging of God circa 600 BC and traveled with his family to the Western Hemisphere, arriving in the present-day Americas circa 589 BC.  If God could orchestrate the movement of prophets from The Middle East to The Americas, surely he could migrate other disciples through the space / time continuum onto rotating spheres anywhere in the void.

And then, of course, there's the beliefs of Scientology. Eternal controversy has focused on Scientology's belief that souls ("thetans") reincarnate and have lived on other planets before living on Earth. So, perhaps these thetans were also A Chosen People of God - but on some glimmer of fused chemicals a billion light years from Earth. Since God knows all the shortcuts, it would be child's play for Him to whisk a convoy of thetan space shuttles to the Bonneville Salt Flats, The Amazon, or Siberia.

Among the advanced teachings of Scientology is the story of Xenu (sometimes Xemu), introduced as the tyrant ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy." According to this story, 75 million years ago Xenu brought billions of people to Earth in spacecrafts resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and detonated hydrogen bombs in the volcanoes. The thetans then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to do this today. Scientologists at advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating body thetans and neutralizing their ill effects. 

I don't need to toss criticism at Scientology and Mormonism here. I mention these religions only to illustrate their globe-trotting and extra-terrestrial inferences. Would we accept a bible that contains the Book of Mars? The Book of Ursula Centaurus? No, I expect not. But why not? Are we just comfortable with Jesus' earth-bound miracles, his fisherman disciples? 

The Net Result

From gotquestions.org we get this: "As to whether there is life on other planets, we simply do not know. So far, no evidence of life on the other planets of our solar system has been found. Considering the nearness of the end times, it is unlikely that man will progress far enough to visit other galaxies before the Lord’s return. Wherever life exists or doesn’t exist, God is still the Creator and controller of all things and all things were made for His glory."

The statement reads like it was written by a politico. And how does anyone know when the end times will be upon us anyway?

Christiananswers.net contributes this: "The Bible does not teach that intelligent life exists elsewhere in our universe. Although our all-powerful God could have created such life had He desired, it seems rather obvious from Scripture that He did not. The timetable for this present universe is measured by God's dealings with us. It appears that God has created the human race, on the planet called Earth, as the sole beneficiary of His fellowship. This fellowship is of such a unique design that we are told that God's only true extra-terrestrial creations—angels—are eager to observe it in action. It is our privilege to be the center of attention in our vast and wonder-filled universe."

And from the secular answers.com: "If there were life on other planets, this would have been mentioned in the Bible. But since the Bible makes no mention of life on other planets, Christians should not believe in these science fiction stories. 

God created human beings as the pinnacle of His creation. God makes no mention of life on other planets and it is therefore not necessary for our salvation. Everything necessary for our salvation has been given to us by God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.

But then, as if the writer has just let out a lungful of stale air, he continues. . ."Yes if there was life on other planets, Jesus would be their God, too."

In or Out of The Bible

I could easily fill up one hundred iPads with quotes like those above. The bottom line perhaps is this: if The Bible does not mention God or Jesus on other planets, stars, asteroids, orbs, spheres, comets, black holes, or nebulas - then God and Jesus does not exist out there anywhere. OR. . . God and Jesus do enjoy hanging out with their chosen people on trillions of planets all throughout the universe - but this news just got left out of The Bible.

What do you think? Is God on Mars any more of a miracle then the parting of the Red Sea? Does it make sense to you that this tiny, puny, insignificant speck called Earth is the only thing in the universe that contains life forms created by God?

I don't buy it. Not for a minute. Not in The Bible does not mean not in The Universe.