Based on problems we have seen arise in the past, I believe that we Christians need to think about the possible ramifications of future scientific discoveries. One of these possible future discoveries is that I think we should be thinking about (and discussing) is that of the discovery of life on other planets. I cannot say that I am certain that life will be found on other planets, but with the number of new planets being discovered, it definitely doesn't seem impossible. It does seem unlikely that we will not at least find some earth-like planets soon and it does not seem out of the question that life will be found on one of them.
The current NASA mission of the spacecraft called Kepler (named after the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler) has already found 1,235 planet candidates as of February 2nd, 2011. To put this into some perspective, Kepler has only been actively searching for planets since May of 2009 and it is planned to keep looking for new planets for at least 3.5 years total (expandable to 6 years). Given the rate of discover of new planets now taking place, it is my (humble) opinion that an earth-like planet will be discovered within the next few years (we'll just say 3 years). For reference, I am defining earth-like in basically the way NASA talks about it - as a planet that is half to twice the size of Earth and in a habitable zone where liquid water could possibly exist.
Not too long ago most Christians believed that there was no way God would ever let any of his created organisms go extinct. All creation is precious in God's sight and that means that there is no way he could let any of it simply disappear of the face of the earth. However, when the bones of things like Mastadons and Giant Ground Sloths were discovered, people finally had to come to grips with the fact that there were organisms that had once existed on the earth and were now completely extinct. God had, in fact, let many of his created species disappear of the face of the earth and today we know that somewhere upwards of 90% of all species that ever existed have subsequently gone extinct. To many people, this was proof that the God of the Bible could not possibly exist or at least not be who we thought he was.
Like I have already said, I'm certainly not going to guarantee that NASA will find life on other planets or anything, but I think we should be ready for the possibility. From our current perspective, we can see that the issue of extinction did not need to pose the threat to faith that Christians of the time thought it did, but then we commit ourselves to beliefs that could create exactly the same problems for us. Where in the Bible does it tell us that this planet holds the only life God created? Why should it threaten our beliefs to think that maybe there is life somewhere else in the universe that we have never even considered (especially when we think of all the things right here on our own planet that we haven't considered yet)?
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| Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” - Matthew 14:31 |
If there is a contradiction between science and the Bible, I believe that the Bible wins simply by nature of the fact that it is the inspired Word of God. We, as Christians, should not simply surrender to everything that science proclaims as true. After all, we are commanded to have faith and not to love the world, but to love the Father. However, if the Bible doesn't talk about something, that doesn't mean it can't exist. The Bible doesn't tell us about the millions of microorganisms that live inside each of us and which we would be unable to live without, but does their presence contradict the Bible? If it does, I'm definitely not seeing it.
What I'm really trying to get across here is this; would the discovery of life outside Earth cause you to question your faith? I'm not saying necessarily that it shouldn't, but I do want to suggest that if you think it would, think about why. What about a discovery like that would cause you to question what the Bible tells you? What about the discover of other life in the universe would make you think that God isn't who you thought he was (or that he doesn't exist)?
Interesting, Peter. Would you distinguish life, generally conceived, from intelligent, human-like life? Would that distinction make a difference to the overall discussion?
ReplyDeleteWell, I think that a discovery of "human-like" life could complicate the issue a bit, but I think that idea is a difficult thing to deal with anyway. What exactly would constitute intelligent or human-like life from other types of life. If we found ape-type creatures, would they be considered intelligent? I'm not sure where the line is there.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of causing issues with faith, I don't think any of it would cause me to lose any sleep. I don't know of anything within the Bible or within our beliefs about God that would cause me to have problems with a discovery of extraterrestrial life.
Would intelligent life make a difference in your thinking about this?