Vera Verba

There was a fascinating news story this week about the Chief Astronomer of the Catholic Church (and who knew that they had such a position!) letting the faithful know that believing in aliens was okay. The story is more or less what one might expect, save for a flamboyant remark or two about “the alien is my brother.”

However, the story did bring up an area of study that I never thought I’d have occasion to revisit.

THE HEAVEN, THE EARTH, THE STARS

One fact, usually overlooked, is that the creation story of Genesis is almost entirely focused upon the earth, and ignores the rest of the universe.

Let’s start with “heaven.” Most people think of heaven as a supreme alternate universe - a perfect world. That idea, however, is entirely different that what the author of Genesis meant. The word originally meant, “the opening between the ground and the clouds.” Or, as we might say, “the atmosphere.” The reference is Genesis 1:6-8. If you have time, look up “firmament.” The Blue Letter Bible is a convenient tool for such things. (It was Plato, by the way - one of my least favorite philosophers - who popularized a more modern idea of heaven.)

So, even when Genesis says that God created the heaven and the earth, it is really only talking about the area within earth’s cloud cover.

The creation story of Genesis really says only two things about the universe beyond the clouds:

1. He made the sun and moon.

2. He made the stars also. (You can find this in Genesis 1:16)

WHAT THIS MEANS

This means that all of the Middle Ages stuff about the earth being the center of the universe and the sole focus of God’s attention rested on the flimsiest of scriptural foundations. In other words, those “Christian” beliefs had very little to do with the Christian book. (Not that many people read the book at that time.)

This also means that if you are considering Middle Ages insanities to be representative of Christianity, you are making an error. But, that’s a separate discussion.

WHAT ABOUT ALIENS?

First of all, the Bible really doesn’t say anything about them. I suppose that someone must interpret some Bible passage to refer to aliens, but that would be, in my opinion, a real stretch. The Bible just isn’t concerned with very much outside of this particular space rock.

There is no essential theological problem with the Creator making life on other planets. But, once people try to tie that concept to their particular doctrine of salvation, they come up against some real difficulties. And this applies to Protestants just as much as it does Catholics. (My background in Orthodox theology is a little thin, so I’ll pass on commentary there.)

Here are some particular problems:

Did their first person sin like Adam? This is the issue of Original Sin. (Another religious phrase not found in the Bible.) And if not, this opens up a fascinating field of study regarding Adam’s original state and what pre-fall humanity was like. (We did examine this in A Second Look At Eden.)

Did Jesus die for the aliens too, or only for men of earth? Do they need a different savior, or was ours effective for them too? The Bible calls Jesus “the only begotten,” which pretty well excludes another like him, so this question is big.

Are they “men”? The Bible says a lot about men, but does this term extend to alien beings? And if not, are there separate rules for them? (Presumably, any rules would be the same in essence as ours, being given by the same coherent, unchanging God.)

Are they made in the image of God? What if they look different than us? Does “the image of God” refer to appearance or to some other structure or set of characteristics? And do they necessarily have spirits and souls like we do?

Do they have their own hell or heaven? This is a tough one, and it is predicated upon some of our previous questions. Here’s one interesting fact: The aliens presumably wouldn’t even have to think about a hell if they had never fallen into sin.

Angels and demons? Some Christians think that aliens exist, and that they are either angels or demons. Certainly, that would be a problem for the Vatican’s Astronomer, especially if it meant he had called a demon his brother, but that doesn’t make the idea false. And… few know this, but the word “angel” simply means messenger; the word “demon” means “divider of spoils.” Supernatural characteristics related to both classes of beings do exist in the Bible, but not by definition.

Did the whole universe stand still on Joshua’s long day? Or was it just earth? Refer to the 10th chapter of Joshua (6th book of the Bible) if you don’t remember this story.

I’m sure there are many other questions that spin-off from this subject. But do notice that problems arise more from the doctrines of religions than from the text itself.

Once people feel they need to have an answer for everything, they tend to fill theological gaps with weak ideas, and to defend them all the more fiercely.

ACTUALLY…

Here’s a really interesting idea: If the aliens had never fallen into sin, then they’d probably want to avoid us like a plague. And this, of course, would explain why they never seem to drop in to say hi!

Maybe sinless aliens should be the subject of my next novel? :)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Theology. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.