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Space aliens a special threat to Christians?

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Recently, we were warned that space aliens are a special threat to Christians, “ because the Christian belief system does not easily allow for other intelligent beings in the universe … ”

Traditional Christians tend not to know about this threat, partly because they are less likely than others to believe claims about space alien sightings and abductions. Also because, among the few who have taken an interest in the matter, the possibility was long foreseen and addressed. This early 20th century poem gives the sense of it:

Nor, in our little day,

May His devices with the heavens be guessed,

His pilgrimage to thread the Milky Way

Or His bestowals there be manifest.

The author, Alice Meynell (1847-1922), assumed – as did C. S. Lewis, that God would deal with the space aliens as he does with humans. And apart from realizing that, one is not to think too much about it.

Here’s an interesting 2008 essay on space aliens and traditional theology.

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Comments
sergiomendes No. The impact of the fall bringing death here on earth and in the universe which looks like things crashing into each other means it could only be only we exist. the universe is simply a place for original mankind to have spent eternity including breeding into the hundreds of billions. now eternity is elsewhere.Robert Byers
July 31, 2012
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Robert Byers, "Then the fall which brought death to us and the universe means its impossible other beings are out there since they would of unjustly been affected by the death in the universe." wouldnt unearthly beings experience side damage as living earthly things not human also have this experience of death? Jesus Christos mentioned "other children" to be gathered under His care. sergiosergiomendes
July 30, 2012
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"Perhaps Christ came only for us because we were the only lowlife civilization that required saving." i'm recalling somone making the same observation somewhere else here. let me see if i can locate....sergiomendes
July 30, 2012
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Since when did the fall include the entire universe? Why isn't there enough of God's Spirit to allow life on other planets? Perhaps Christ came only for us because we were the only lowlife civilization that required saving.Joe
July 30, 2012
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Evangelical christianity completely rejects the option of alien/or any biology outside home here! Its impossible because the bible says directly God Spirit is why there is life on earth. Then the fall which brought death to us and the universe means its impossible other beings are out there since they would of unjustly been affected by the death in the universe. Christ came only for us and talking to space alens who don't need Christ would be a absurdity. Just us folks . They always mean that evolution created other life and so they are out there. They ain't.Robert Byers
July 30, 2012
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I've written a few papers on the discovery of microfossils in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites--thought to be the remnants of extinct comets. Every CC examined--some two dozen or so--has had these fossils. It would appear that comets are full of liquid water that provide a convenient vehicle for taking life from star to star, and possibly from galaxy to galaxy. I'll be presenting a paper in 2 weeks on the fine-grained magnetite seen on these CC, how it is engineered to be a "ferro-fluid" capable of high heat transport, plugging leaks, braking the comet, and warming the comet from passing magnetic fields. We've just recently (within the past 30 years) learned about ferrofluids, and comets are full of them! So there may be yet another answer to the question about extraterrestrial life. It was always there, though not necessarily sentient, but necessary to provide Earth with the information resources for Man. In other words, it isn't just that the Earth was designed for Man, but the entire galaxy. To misquote Jesus, Man was not made for the galaxy, but the galaxy for Man.Robert Sheldon
July 30, 2012
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Maybe God used the serpent, or a different method of testing on each individual intelligent species. I will say though, it we were to find aliens with no knowledge of a God, it would be very hurtful to Christianity in my opinion. Being that I believe the serpent was nothing more than a puppet used by Satan, I would say there is also the problem of Satan's influence on other worlds. Is Satan the king of evil in the universe? Of just one of many evil kinds, he is just the king of our world's evil. The ideas are quite hard to discern and make conclusions on though.ForJah
July 29, 2012
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vjtorley: They prevent the spiritual infection of a fallen species from spreading…
Then why was the "serpent" allowed to tempt "Adam" and "Eve" ?mike1962
July 29, 2012
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Well thanks and please keep me informed of other things Christians are threatened by. I'll tell all the local Christians, so they know :) I hope you are not drinking coffee when you read the stories you report on. Can you imagine being a Christian your entire life and then coming across an article that sez you are threatened by something you never saw as a threat before? I went to Catholic schools and was threatened by the nuns, but never by the thought of aliens.Joe
July 29, 2012
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Sorry, Joe, the Canadian bacon was eaten by an enterprising alligator, so we could not offer you a real Sunday breakfast. Had to make do with this schluck.News
July 29, 2012
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Hi News, C. S. Lewis addressed this problem over 54 years ago in a 1958 essay originally titled, "Will we lose God in outer space?" and later re-titled, "Religion and Rocketry." It was published in The World's Last Night and Other Essays, a collection of essays by C. S. Lewis published in the United States in 1960. It's also in the U.K. anthology, Fern-seed and Elephants and other essays on Christianity (1975). I'll just quote a few brief excerpts.
If there are species, and rational species, other than man, are any or all of them, like us, fallen? This is the point non-Christians always seem to forget. They seem to think that the Incarnation implies some particular merit or excellence in humanity. But of course it implies just the reverse: a particular demerit and depravity. No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician. Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it... If all of them (and surely all is a long shot) or any of them have fallen, have they been denied Redemption by the Incarnation and Passion of Christ? For of course it is no very new idea that the eternal Son may, for all we know, have been incarnate in other worlds than earth and so saved other races than ours... Perhaps of all races we only fell. Perhaps Man is the only lost sheep; the one, therefore, whom the Shepherd came to seek... I have wondered before now whether the vast astronomical distances may not be God's quarantine precautions. They prevent the spiritual infection of a fallen species from spreading... I ... fear the practical, not the theoretical, problems which will arise if ever we meet rational creatures which are not human... What I do know is that here and now, as our only possible practical preparation for such a meeting, you and I should resolve to stand firm against all exploitation and all theological imperialism.
Food for thought.vjtorley
July 29, 2012
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How nice a strawman for Sunday breakfast Small ignorant minds say the darnest things.Joe
July 29, 2012
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