An Article by Guest-Writer ParrotLover77
[Note: My life is momentarily complicated by a Michelle Duggar paternity suit. It’s going to take me a few days to settle up (ever wonder how they make ends meet?), so I won’t be able to blog. ParrotLover has graciously volunteered to help out. With his DNA, I should be able to get off the hook. In the meantime, please enjoy this article that he has written for us. Thank you, ParrotLover! You can also visit his own website. Buy some music. Look at parrots.
All of the artwork in this article is from the brilliant Heathen World. Visit them too.
—Ron Britton, editor-in-grief]
Ron has been very busy and asked me to submit a guest article on BoF to keep the content fresh. I was honored that he would think a mere tech blogger could write for his amazing blog! Then I was slammed with some of the worst writer’s block I’ve had in ages. What the heck do I blog about? Well, I had a few ideas about politics and religion, but nothing came to fruition. The fingers just didn’t want to strike the keys. So I decided to visit our old friends at the Answers in Genesis website for inspiration, and boy did I find some! So today I will discuss an article written by Ken Ham (founder and president of Answers in Genesis–USA) called, Do I Believe in UFOs? Absolutely!
In his article, Ken is trying to convince the reader that life simply cannot exist elsewhere in the universe, because the bible says so. Is there ANYTHING the bible cannot do? It slices, it dices, it turns your brain to mush!
Let’s dig into his article and get snarky. *rubs hands*
Occasionally at conferences, someone will ask, “Do you believe in UFOs?”
What conferences would AiG attend where attendees ask that sort of question? Maybe the alien abductee and literal creation kooks are cut from the same mold…
I usually answer, “Absolutely! Any flying object that can’t be identified is a UFO.”
Wow, that’s actually very intelligent… and almost snarky (me like)! I almost didn’t expect Mr. Ham to start out so sensible. Indeed, the word UFO has been, for quite some time, used in contexts it wasn’t meant to be used. Unidentified Flying Object means just that: it’s flying, it’s an object, and it’s unidentified. That doesn’t mean it’s from outer space carrying little gray men with big black eyes equipped with a variety of anal probes.
I then continue, “But do I believe in UFOs piloted by Vulcans, Klingons, or Cardassians? The answer is a definite no.” Sorry, Star Trek fans!
Why is he apologizing? Are there Trek fans that would actually be offended by that statement? I’m a fan of the Trek, but I certainly don’t believe the aliens made up on that show are real nor have any possibility of being close to real extra-terrestrial life. After all, Trek’s bastardization of the concept of evolution really doesn’t fit into reality (every planet has a humanoid—what are the odds!). But I understand that it’s a lot of work just to get a different looking humanoid alien. One that is TRULY alien would be well over budget and difficult to script. But I digress… Skipping a little…
A good friend of mine, Dr. Clifford Wilson, author of the million-copy bestseller Crash Go the Chariots, did a lot of research on UFOs. He once told me that he concluded that by far the majority were either misunderstood natural phenomena or misinterpreted manmade objects.
That’s a very reasonable conclusion.
However, he did conclude there was a very small percentage that couldn’t be explained, and he allowed the possibility of some supernatural origin—albeit evil. But regardless, he, like me, does not believe in intelligent physical beings on planets other than our earth.
Fascinating. So, intelligent life originating on planets other than Earth is far-fetched, but evil supernatural spirits—why, that’s completely plausible! Very Chick. So, Mr. Ham has some amazing evidence to back up this very broad conclusion he has come to, right?
A number of leading evolutionists, like the late Dr. Carl Sagan, have popularized the idea that there must be intelligent life in outer space. From an evolutionary perspective, it would make sense to suggest such a possibility. People who believe this possibility contend that, if life evolved on earth by natural processes, intelligent life must exist somewhere else in the far reaches of space, given the size of the universe and the millions of possible planets.
Okay, first of all, Carl Sagan was an astronomer, not an evolutionist (whatever that is; I guess I’m a “gravitist” since I believe in gravity). Also, evolution has nothing to do with whether or not a planet can support life and whether life can begin to exist out of the biochemical building block precursors to life (as is speculated to have happened on earth billions of years ago). That process of the origins of life is known as “abiogenesis,” NOT evolution.
All that said, evolutionary theory does seem to postulate that if life arises, it will eventually become clever if given the correct external pressures (at least if it is similar to life on Earth). As for intelligent life capable of using radio communication (as per SETI)—that’s just mathematics (again, not evolution). There seems to be a pretty good probability of there being intelligent life out there somewhere. Whether or not we will ever communicate with them, nobody really knows because we don’t have enough information. We listen for them because we don’t think they’ll land here like Stan Romanek’s aliens.
One can postulate endlessly about possibilities of intelligent life in outer space, but I believe a Christian worldview, built on the Bible, rejects such a possibility. Here is why.
Remember that amazing evidence I wanted? Yes. I was let down.
During the six days of creation in Genesis, we learn that God created the earth first. On Day 4 He made the sun and the moon for the earth, and then “he made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16).
Far be it from me to criticize a deity, but why did it take three days to make the earth when it only took one day to make all the other matter in the entire universe? Talk about a learning curve! I guess when you begin by making “day and night” before you make the planet you are making the day and night for; you are starting out on the wrong foot.
From these passages of Scripture it would seem that the earth is very special—it is center stage. Everything else was made for purposes relating to the earth. For instance, the sun, moon, and stars were made “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14).
It seems a little bit inefficient to make the great majority of the universe (which is unimaginably vast) just as sign posts and time keeping devices for the inhabitants of this little blue planet. But this is what one truly believes when one’s reason hitchhikes its way to a dive bar, drinks too much, and drives its car into the river.
Okay, so Mr. Ham goes on and on about how the bible clearly says that the Earth is very very VERY special because the bible says so. Let’s skip down to the part about aliens.
Now here is the problem. If there are intelligent beings on other planets, then they would have been affected by the fall of Adam because the whole creation was affected. So these beings would have to die because death was the penalty for sin. One day their planet will be destroyed by fire during God’s final judgment, but they cannot have salvation because that blessing is given only to humans.
Screw you, aliens! You didn’t know about a religion on a planet billions of light years from you, so you are screwed for eternity! No matter that you didn’t have anything to do with “the fall.” The deity of the cosmos is going to create you, throw a temper tantrum, and punish you, because of what the first human did. And there is NOTHING you can do!
When Jesus Christ stepped into history, He became the God-man. The Bible calls Him “the last Adam” and the “second man” (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47). He became the second perfect man (Adam was perfect before he sinned)…
Hold on here, Hammy. Isn’t that basically saying Adam was perfect until he wasn’t? If Adam was perfect, he would never have sinned! Oh wait, I forgot. It’s all womankind’s fault for tempting poor innocent Adam. And as a result, we’re all paying for it (even those innocent space aliens). Talk about a bad temper!
…and He took the place of the first Adam by dying for the human race. As the first Adam was the representative head of the human race, so Jesus became the new head, the last Adam. So there can be no other Savior, only Christ. Jesus now sits in the heavens, still in human form, sitting on His throne next to the Father. If Jesus stepped out of His human form, we would no longer have a Savior. He remains the God-man forever.
Okay, that last bit of babbling made no sense, but I wanted to include it just for its laughableness.
But note, Jesus didn’t become a “God-Klingon,” a “God-Vulcan,” or a “God-Cardassian”—He became the God-man. It wouldn’t make sense theologically for there to be other intelligent, physical beings who suffer because of Adam’s sin but cannot be saved.
You are correct; theologically it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Now, regarding animal life and plants, we cannot be so dogmatic because the Bible does not state whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. Based on the passages about the heavens and earth, however, I strongly suspect that life does not exist elsewhere.
Okay, so let me get this straight… Animals and plants (wait—aren’t humans animals?) can exist elsewhere in the universe, because, heck, the bible is mute on that issue. But intelligent life certainly cannot exist because that would mean God would have to punish them for eternity for not being around when Jayzus came to save us all from the first human’s mistake. This is draining the batteries on my logic-meter.
So the next time you hear someone talking about UFOs, think on the Scripture passages quoted above, and use them to segue into a presentation of the gospel: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
Remember, UFO abductee loons are just confusing alien anal probes with the pleasure that is the holy spirit.
