I hear the shallow minded with their myopic thought processes yak and yak on the boob-tube about "E.T." and "Chariots of the Gods." It's the same old, same old about how the universe is so vast that it is, in their small minds, ridiculous to think that there is no life on other planets. They say that evolution demands that there must be life elsewhere. They say that we couldn't be alone in the universe. Some even go so far as to claim that we have been visited or are even now populated by extra-terrestrials and, of course, the "government" is conspiring to keep the truth from us. Ya-da, ya-da, ya-da! I suppose, the "truth" is hidden somewhere in Area 53. (Yes, Area 51 is meant as a distraction. Mwah-ha-ha!)
Now, for those who choose to take the flight of fancy required to accept the scant, flimsy, weak and, in actuality, non-existent evidence of evolution, the "big bang", aliens from outer space, etc., there is nothing can be said to change their minds. (See 2 Peter 3:5a) They have chosen their road because, in reality, it frees them from any pangs of having to consider an intelligent, Holy Creator who would one day require of their immortal souls an answer for the lives they have wasted. Amazingly, many Christians also assume that there is life on other planets, but not necessarily for the reasons aforementioned.
To me, it is painfully obvious that we are the lone planet in God's great cosmos that contains any life whatsoever. The reasons I shall now list are not designed, necessarily, to present scientific evidence, but more to present my rationale. I think that when I am through, you may not agree with my arguments, but I believe you might like my thesis.
Having begun thusly, please consider the following:
1. Einstein demonstrated that it’s all about perspective. What some might see as age, is nothing more than functionality. Without the juxtaposition of our galaxies, planets, etc., we could have no existence. Our own solar system protects us with a massive magnetic field from killer cosmic waves that would otherwise wipe out or simply prevent life altogether. Only the most stubborn anti-God atheist would be unable to see the purpose in our beautiful universe. Our entire cosmos would almost seem to be designed to protect our little planet. It appears, almost, that someone designed it this way.
2. I’m no astronomer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once. (Ha, ha!) I took a year of Astronomy in junior college and, granted, it was not much more than theory and history, but I was struck by a statement once made my professor. He explained that for life to develop on any given orb, the chances would be somewhere in the neighborhood of one in one with a million zeroes to its right. That’s for each prospective planet. Yes, there is a plethora of planets out there in one stage or another of livability, but that’s some small chance! And remember, that’s for each individual planet. (He added, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that Creationists love statistics like that.)
It reminds me of the age-old question: if you flip a quarter a hundred times and it lands heads up for the one hundred times, what are the odds of it landing heads up on the next flip? Fifty-fifty! The odds for each individual flip are not increased by additional flips. The odds are the same on every flip as the odds are the same on every planet. Believing any one of those globs of chemicals and dirt floating through space could just spontaneously, with no intelligent design, develop life is a stretch of imagination beyond my capability. In other words, that’s more faith than I have. I suppose it would take a miracle!
Furthermore, scientists “discovered” not long ago that the universe is half the age they had claimed for years. What’s ten billion years among friends? After all, they are mostly government employees and you can’t expect them to keep up with billions of years or billions of dollars. Anyway, that means that every step in evolution actually, from their point of view, had only half the time to develop that they had previously claimed. Wow! Evolution needs to speed up! Maybe one day, they’ll finally shorten the life of the universe to less than ten thousand years. Works for me!
3. Still, let’s say, yes, life is out there somewhere. If that were so, they would be, bare minimum, thousands of light years from us. Now, contrary to your average Star Trek episode, Einsteinian science seems to forgo the possibility of traveling past the speed of light and retaining our physical integrity. Therefore, that means that a visitor from outer space would have to travel thousands of light years within his lifetime to arrive at our planet. Are they even now here among us and we somehow don't know about it? Are they able to travel between our mutual planets, perhaps even inter-galactically?
4. Now, let's, for the sake of argument, assume that they somehow created a “warp field” and these travelers have visited us from a galaxy far, far away. Obviously, their science is far advanced to ours and we, as developed as we arrogantly believe ourselves to be, would seem less than the most backward tribes on our planet today. The divergence would far exceed that of the conquistadors, et al., with their horses and advanced weaponry, and the poor Stone Age aborigines they overran in the European conquest of the New World.
Considering this, we could assume that, as is always with intelligence, there is personality. With personality, we find ourselves surrounded by the Mother Teresa's and the Adolph Hitler's of this world. It would be the height of absurdity to think of these aliens as monolithic in their life-view. (See Star Trek reruns and you'll understand what I mean: All Klingons are the same?)
So, what we have here is a super advanced race, able to travel to our planet millennia before the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, with science vastly beyond our capabilities. All it would require is one deranged visitor to decide to take out our defenses and take over our planet. Even if these visitors-from-another-world placed safeguards to protect us, as some of the true believers would claim, every jail can be broken out of and every bank can be broken into. Someone would attempt a takeover. Who could stop him? (Think, waffling, impotent, apathetic United Nations.)
5. If there is intelligent life on other planets, is it not safe to assume that intelligent life means the presence of an immortal soul? If it has a soul, and can travel the galaxy, then it must certainly understand morality. (These beings obviously do not live naked in a Garden of Eden.) If they can comprehend moral choices, they know right from wrong and they must certainly know sin. If they know sin, they need a Savior. Isn't there only one Savior? (See Acts 4:12) Are we supposed to assume that they know no sin? If they didn't know sin before, when they get here, they'll learn it from the experts. Are we supposed to believe that God revealed Himself to them without some human to witness to them? (The Mormons might think so.) Is the Savior revealed to them by epiphany? By Divine revelation? How are they to know unless there is a preacher and how is there a preacher unless one is sent? (See Romans 10:14)
6. There was a time when the predominant thinking in the "known world” was that the earth is flat and that we are at the center of God's creation. Over the centuries, we moved to a heliocentric cosmology saying that the sun is the center of the universe, but that our planet is still a very significant part of that universe. As time passed, scientists decided that we are nowhere near the “center” of the universe, but only a small planet in a small solar system on the outer rim of the Milky Way galaxy. This being true, we found ourselves as the "center" of nothing, but only a minuscule, seemingly infinitesimal speck on the edge of a galaxy that is one of billions...trillions!
The secularists point this out as an indication of our triviality. They say that we are only a tiny grain in the heavens and that we are no more important than any other planet, object or being in existence. They say our place of existence that demonstrates our lack of merit. (Somewhat like a child in the womb has less value than a child in the crib.)
7. We are not the center of the universe: we are not the center of our galaxy; we are not the center of our solar system; we aren't an outstanding constellation in the heavens or a significant planet in size. We’re nowhere near the center of this limitless existence we call the universe. We're just the third rock from the sun. Still, we are the center of God's universe! Our importance is not based on where we live in God‘s creation, but where we live in the God‘s heart. He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son that if we believe in Him, we'll have everlasting life. (See John 3:16)
Is it the height of arrogance to think that God would make this great expanse for mankind only? I'll go one better than that: I'll claim that He did it all for me!
Labels: Adof Hitler, Area 53, E.T., evolution, extra-terrestrials, sin
