The Possibility of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life Magnifies the Absurdity of Some Religious Claims

Photo by Brian McMahon` on Unsplash

Aliens are a very fascinating topic. Countless speculations, books and movies regarding the possibility of alien life forms exist. There are alleged accounts of alien encounters and abductions but no substantial evidence. However, in recent years, the topic has gained traction again.

We have alleged UFO/UAP encounters officially released by government individuals. In many of these cases, we don’t know the origin of the alleged aircraft. That’s why it’s called unidentified. We had an Air Force officer testifying that the US government is in possession of actual UFOs. Then, we had a hearing in Mexico with alleged alien remains. In my view, none of these are conclusive evidence. If the government possesses such things or the alleged alien bodies are real, they should be made public. They should be made available to the scientific community. Have it verified by independent teams across the globe. Make the study available in some reputed peer-reviewed papers. That would be some substantial evidence.

I don’t necessarily deny the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but we still need substantial evidence. This brings us to my original question: what would it mean for different religions if intelligent alien life were to be discovered? The possibility of aliens was never a significant issue for me in analyzing theism. I don’t see any inherent conflict between theism being true and aliens being real. Still, some religious claims would sound very absurd if extraterrestrials were to be found, and this video provides one such example.

In this video, a catholic priest discusses how the catholic church views the possibility of aliens from a theological perspective. He provides multiple possible theological interpretations for the possibility, which all sound absurd to me. They will potentially evangelize aliens also if first contact were to be made. That’s just absurd. This really explains the thought process of some religious individuals, as I pointed out in one of my previous articles.

According to Christian theology, humans are unique and made in God’s image. This theology is also one of the reasons many religious individuals still have a beef with scientific theories like evolution. I can imagine something similar happening in the case of extraterrestrial intelligent life. Some will outright reject the possibility by calling them demons or something, and some will restructure the theology a little bit. I find the first possibility very fascinating. I have noticed this insecurity in many instances among religious individuals. They tend to label anything or everything demonic, which they disagree with. This is weird.

The second possibility sounds like a better option for me. Just add a new layer to your theology. After all, the bible doesn’t explicitly mention that we are the only creation. It just tells us we are a unique creation. In principle, there can be room for other life forms besides what we find on Earth. I leave that to theologians. But the issues don’t end here.

The biggest issue is what it would mean for the death and resurrection of incarnate Christ. Just think about it. Unlike the role and nature of humanity, this is one of the core theologies of Christianity. Let’s run through some of the possibilities.

1. The worst option, in my opinion, is that Christ incarnated in their world and died for their sins also. That explains why Jesus has not come back yet. He has been dying for eons. Jokes aside, this option points out the absurdity of the redemption methodology through Christ’s death and resurrection. If aliens also sinned then they are also fallen. This implies God will save them also by dying for them.
2. We may be truly special. For some reason, God decided to incarnate in our little planet, and whatever happened around 30 AD applies to the cosmos. This option points out the absurdity of the practice of evangelization. Why incarnate one time in such a vague way and have that event necessary for the redemption of all civilizations across the cosmos?
3. In my opinion, the best option is that the theology doesn’t apply to other alien life forms. They have their own relationship with God that is different from ours. God revealed to us what was necessary for us. One could theologically argue that angels are also a creation of God. There are fallen angels, but Christ’s death and resurrection seem to be for the redemption of fallen humans only and not fallen angels. That could imply that there can be other life forms in the universe who have their own way of relationship with God that is unrelated to Jesus’s death and resurrection. But if this is true in the case of different species or lifeforms, why can’t this be true in the case of various human civilizations? After all, for a large part of history, different civilizations were, in practice, alien to each other. God could reveal himself to each of them individually, and instead of telling them, “You have the exclusive right religion”, he could say to them, “I reveal myself to everyone as necessary. Go share and collaborate with each other, and if there are lost individuals, guide them”. This would have been a far better way to reveal himself than incarnating in some random time and place and telling people to spread the Gospel, which caused countless violence and misery throughout history.
4. There is another possibility. Hear me out. What if aliens don’t need redemption? Their Adam and Eve didn’t disobey God. This could be one of the solutions to the Fermi paradox. This possibility also aligns with biblical theology because, according to some biblical theologies, we humans are wretched and miserable beings and don’t deserve God. We should be thankful to God that he came down for us; otherwise, we deserve to rot in hell.

If alien life were to be discovered with conclusive evidence, Christian theologians would struggle the most to incorporate the discovery into their theology. It is also possible that we may never make first contact. Either way, the absurdity remains. The possibility of alien life just makes it more visible.