How Would Life on Other Planets Impact Our Beliefs?
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Week 12: How Would Life on Other Planets Impact Our Beliefs?
There’s likely another life form somewhere given the size of the universe, but there’s no guarantee that it’s as advanced as humans. If God created the entire universe, do we as Christians believe that there is more than one God possibly or that we’re just special? Why did Jesus pick earth?
Intro to Exotheology
Since the 1950s there has been increased interest in space, and the search for life outside of earth. This brings up a lot of really interesting theological questions as to what we believe, and how that impacts life outside of earth. Exotheology, coined in the 1960s and 1970s, is approaching theology through the lens that there could be alien life in the universe. The idea of other life brings up a lot of questions in line with the ones submitted for tonight's crew. Questions like "What does religion mean if there are other creatures out there?" "Is religion contextual or universal?" "What does God/Jesus mean to life outside of earth?" I think these are important questions; questions we aren't going to be able to answer in one hour on a Wednesday night, but questions worth exploring.
Our Relationship to Other Living and Non-Living Things on Earth
This conversation will deal a lot with what God means to life beyond earth, therefore I think it is worth taking a second to explore our relationship to other living and non-living things on earth. Last year we did an entire series on liberation theology, which is a theology that believes God is always on the side of the oppressed and against the oppressor. We spent several weeks of that series talking about Christianity and the environment (Week 1, Week 2). I could spend entire semesters talking about our relationship to the environment, but for the sake of time, if you want to learn more you can check out those past crew guides!
Christianity is an unbelievably self-centered, anthropocentric religion. In the Neighborhood, we have talked about how we do harm to other humans, but it's important to recognize that we also do an insane amount of harm to other living and non-living beings in the world around us. Lynn White Jr. published an article in 1967 claiming that Christianity is to blame for our current environmental crisis. White was a professor of medieval history at Princeton. He outlines the shift of humanity’s relationship to nature that was influenced by Christian thought in the Middle Ages. One theologian, who seems to come up a lot, is Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas believed that the earth was here for us to dominate, and that there weren't moral implications for the way we treat animals or the world around us. I think White is on to something; Christianity has systematically used colonialism as a means to fuel capitalism and therefore exploit humans, animals, and earth. I say all of this, because I think we need to have the knowledge of our theological shortcomings in relation to earth, while we begin to discuss what else is in the universe.
I want to take a second to look at that passage from Genesis 1. (If you want to know more about creation myths, check out the Creation Myths crew guide).
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion (radah) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue (kabash) it, and have dominion (radah) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The words dominion and subdue used in the Genesis 1 passage can be traced back to two Hebrew words: radah, and kabash. Radah refers to humans’ relationship to animals and kabash to earth. The English words dominion and subdue have violent war-like connotations. However, this is skewed from the original intent of the author of this text. It is meant to represent a loving dominion, promoting peace and unity. I think it is significant that the author of this creation story would place humans as these stewards and protectors, and that this was God's last act in the creation of the world. God believed humans should be stewards over creation in order to promote unity and create a world that can thrive. However, over the years, Christian thought has strayed farther and farther from this message. Not only do we not care for the earth, but I don't think we would graciously welcome extra-terrestrial life.
Connection and Progression of the Universe
I believe there is a lot of room in Christianity to imagine what God can mean on a cosmic scale. Evolution and our growing knowledge of science show us that the universe is a self-transcending reality that is ever-evolving in depth, unity, and complexity. In his Everything is Spiritual Tour, Rob Bell discussed the progression of the universe. It keeps growing and expanding beyond itself, adding more layers and complexity as things progress. Think about atoms. They bond with other atoms to make molecules, which have characteristics that aren’t present in atoms. Something new and more complex is created as unity increases. Leonardo Boff, Brazilian Liberation Theologian, argues that the stronger the relationship, or unity, the greater impact. Or, the deeper, more genuine the relationship, the more the universe transcends and evolves. Therefore, I believe God is very entwined in the make-up of the entire universe. And that through genuine care and connection to all other things, we are partnering with God in creating a more unified, transcending universe.
Back to Your Question!
As for the question, "If God created the entire universe, do we as Christians believe that there is more than one God or that we’re just special?", I have several thoughts. First, I won't go so far as to say there is only one god, because I simply don’t have that answer. For a lot of human history we have believed that different groups of people all had their own gods. Within Christianity we morphed into believing in just one God. I think it is interesting to think about. Are there other gods, and what does that mean in relation to the Christian God? I'm not sure we will have an answer, but I do think it matters what we believe about it.
Personally, I believe in a God that created, cares for, and speaks to all things living and non-living. I think we are special in the sense that we are unique from other beings on earth, but I don’t believe that means we are entitled to be self-centered beings who treat other people, animals and the world as disposable or lesser. So no, I don't think we are special in the way that some Christians might think we are. As Christians, we are taught (maybe erroneously) to believe God created and called humans to be above all other things, because we were created in God's image. However, God is boundless. A better term might be that God created us to come alongside creation, in a way that God would call all things to come alongside creation. St. Francis of Assisi was a wonderful advocate for nature in the 13th century. He would often preach to the birds, believing all life was valuable in God's eyes. So when we think of the bible, and of Christian history we are looking at a human perspective of understanding God. That would vary from a bird's, tree's, dog's, rock's and even extra-terrestrial's perspectives of the divine.
If we believe the bible is the end-all be-all of truth and fact (which Methodists don't, we believe the Bible is divinely inspired) than we wouldn't believe in aliens because they wouldn't be mentioned in the Bible. However, I did see one theory that angels are actually aliens. This is probably the only version of angels I could get behind, outside of generally believing in guardian angels or past loved ones. Especially if we look at some of the insane descriptions of angels, if we take that literally you could easily convince me those were aliens. The fact that the Bible doesn’t mention aliens isn’t surprising. It was written thousands of years ago and is an account of human interactions with the divine. There are so many other things not mentioned in the Bible that we believe in, like DNA, galaxies, etc. I believe in progressive revelation, which posits that we are constantly re-understanding and re-interpreting God within the current contexts. Just like the Judeans did when the temple was destroyed, rebuilt and re-destroyed, or how early Christians re-interpreted God after the fall of the Roman empire. We are constantly re-understanding God with what we are going through as humanity. Therefore there is definitely room to interpret extra-terrestrials within faith. The Bible is written by humans as an ancient male, human, middle eastern/Mediterranean account of relating to God. This gives us a limited window, and not necessarily the complete picture.
Though there aren't specifics in scripture when it comes to aliens, there are a few passages that can elude to God being the God of the cosmic universe. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Colossians 1:16, "For in God all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through God and for God."
Our Bible is written for the perspective of humans. Therefore Jesus, was also understood through a human lens. Anselm of Canterbury has had a lasting impact on our Christology (or understanding of the Christ event). He wrote Cur Deus Homo or “Why God Became Human” in 1098, this is where the satisfaction theory comes from. The satisfaction theory is the idea that Jesus provided atonement by dying on the cross. He was one of many trying to answer the question of why Jesus died, but we see even in his argument he didn’t leave room for anything non-human. Anselm lived in a specific context, the middle ages, where the feudal lords ruled in lieu of a centralized state. You can see the undertones of this feudal substitutionary atonement in his view of the crucifixion. This theory idealizes violence and decreases hope while increasing apathy. In his view, life on earth is rendered irrelevant because it is all about the end destination—heaven. Thus there is an apathy towards lived life and its consequences.
There is also little regard to the earth because heaven will be a “new earth.” For instance, Anselm believed that Angels couldn’t be saved by Jesus. So Lucifer, the devil, who fell from grace, would need to be saved by a perfect angel dying to cover the sins of all angels. By that line of thought, Anselm likely would assert that aliens would all need another alien being to be sent by God in order to exact salvation. C.S. Lewis, wrote an article for the Christian Herald where he believed that Jesus either incarnated in other Extra-terrestrial forms, or that God saved that life in a different way. Regardless, both Anselm and Lewis would carry a similar line that the Christ event doesn't really transfer to humans.
There are many ways we can interpret the Jesus event, but all of them are through the lens of a human perspective. I would agree with Anselm and C.S. Lewis to the degree that I don't think Jesus would mean as much to extra-terrestrials, as it means to us. I do think that there are implications that go outside of humans, such as the moral implications of how we should deal with life outside of our own. We will get a little bit more into salvation and Christology next semester, but I wanted to lay out a few options for how we understand Jesus and what that means for life beyond earth. In my view God was coming to show humans a new way to interact in the world in a way that promotes unity, and justice. It was a message that humans needed to hear, and a message that I think informs the way we treat all things, living and non-living, discovered and undiscovered. I believe that God is speaks to and through all things. I believe in a generous creative God that isn't bound to one world or species, but has the capacity to create a fruitful universe with various intelligent beings. I fear that if Christians (generally speaking) found out tomorrow that there were other intelligent life forms in the universe, that we (Christians) would rush to convert aliens to the truth. I fear we will follow the pattern of oppressive and harmful dogmatic colonialism that we have followed for far too long. Instead, I think we should make room to discover and interpret God in a new way, operating in a way that promotes unity and allows us to transcend to a new level of "one-ness" together.
Discussion Questions
Do you believe in aliens? Why or why not?
Do you think belief in aliens impacts your faith? Why or why not?
Do you think Jesus's death would be relevant to aliens? Or do you think God would communicate differently to each planet/life form?
How do you think Christians would react if we found out there was other intelligent life out there?
Resources
What Would Life Beyond Earth Mean for Christians?
Crew Guide: Christianity and The Environment