So I got this e-mail today...

[ccgr]

So basically I'm ieserntted in becoming an astronaut, Sometimes I ask my self are we alone?' And I'm 100 percent sure we're not because there has to be an advanced alien civilization some where out in our galaxy?, there might be some? They don't want to contact us because they don't want to contaminate us? So my question is if a rogue alien civilization attacks us, what kind of defences do we have?

Not sure how to respond...

[JesusIsLord713]

That is quite a strange email...and I know that aliens do not exist because the bible never said God created aliens. I mean do you absolutely have to respond to the email?

[storm]

I had bit of a time following it but I do believe that a God who created all the universe could of created life forms on other planets. It is something that causes controversy among many including Christians. And the devil (I believe)is in control of the air and such around us, so for all we know they could be his creations or followers (demons) I believe ghosts are simply evil spirits sent to deceive so why not aliens. But I unlike ghosts I can't say that God didn't create other life on other worlds.
As far as are we prepared to fight back many felt President Reagan's star wars plan (I think it was his) was in reality a alien defense not just soviet, and we have continued secretly to build it. Some even show on NASA films made in outer space what looks like missiles being shot at objects.
In the end we as Christians must trust in God that He will defend us from harm be it from nature, the devil, sin ,ourselves or aliens

[ArcticFox]

There isn't anything in the Bible that states whether there are other life forms in the universe or not. For Christians, it's entirely a matter of personal opinion and doesn't really matter either way.

It surprises me when people say that religion would freak out if it were ever revealed that there were aliens... Why? There's plenty of room in God's Creation for other civilizations.

[Sstavix]

As can be heard in the movie "Contact...."

"If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space."

Of course, given my tendency to play with people's mind, especially when we're venturing into conspiracy theory territory, I'd respond something like....

"If aliens invade? Did you know that there is some evidence to show that they are already here? They use technology to look like us, and have infiltrated the top levels of all the major world governments, corporations and religions. I'd be able to give you sources, but most of these are classified, and they're monitoring all my e-mails in case I slip up."

[Wolfeman]

Of course, given my tendency to play with people's mind, especially when we're venturing into conspiracy theory territory, I'd respond something like....

Yea. That would be my tendency as well. Of course I'd mention our orbital laser platforms,our moon base and the fact that MIB was based on a true story in order to convince humanity that "aliens" are just special effects.

[ArcticFox]

As can be heard in the movie "Contact...."
"If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space."

If you liked that, you'd love the book. In it, there's an entire part that didn't make it into the movie where the alien civilization had come upon mathematical proof that the universe was created by an Intelligent Designer. I don't remember the specifics now, but it had to do with calculating the value of pi out to a ridiculous number of decimal places and finding a pattern that was irrefutably placed there by the Creator of the universe. In this way, the Atheist main character found a belief in the divine.

[Deepfreeze32]

As can be heard in the movie "Contact...."
"If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space."

If you liked that, you'd love the book. In it, there's an entire part that didn't make it into the movie where the alien civilization had come upon mathematical proof that the universe was created by an Intelligent Designer. I don't remember the specifics now, but it had to do with calculating the value of pi out to a ridiculous number of decimal places and finding a pattern that was irrefutably placed there by the Creator of the universe. In this way, the Atheist main character found a belief in the divine.

Which is interesting, considering it was Carl Sagan who wrote it...though I guess it's not the most surprising given he said the following:

An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.

BTW, according to Wikipedia, the explanation is: (Spoilered because, well, duh)

Spoiler:

Ellie works on a program to compute the digits of π to heretofore-unprecedented lengths. When Ellie looks at what the computer has found, she sees a circle rasterized from 0s and 1s that appear after 10^20 places in the base 11 representation of π. This indicates proof that intelligence is built into the universe itself.


I don't really understand how that would work in real life (Think about technical compatibility), but it's kinda cool just the same.

[Sstavix]

Which is interesting, considering it was Carl Sagan who wrote it...

I know, and that makes it all the more interesting. With the movie - and presumably the book (I haven't read it yet, but I need to sometime) - the main character experiences something profound that she can't prove or really put into believable words, but she knows with every fiber of her being that it happened. This is pretty much the experience that many of us have had as well, with communications with Heavenly Father. We can't explain it, we can't rationalize it, but we just know its true because of our experiences.

And it was an atheist that created this scene! God has a way to even use unbelievers to get His message out.

I have to wonder what Sagan is thinking or experiencing now....

[Jorgmeisterwork]

I had bit of a time following it but I do believe that a God who created all the universe could of created life forms on other planets. It is something that causes controversy among many including Christians. And the devil (I believe)is in control of the air and such around us, so for all we know they could be his creations or followers (demons) I believe ghosts are simply evil spirits sent to deceive so why not aliens. But I unlike ghosts I can't say that God didn't create other life on other worlds.
As far as are we prepared to fight back many felt President Reagan's star wars plan (I think it was his) was in reality a alien defense not just soviet, and we have continued secretly to build it. Some even show on NASA films made in outer space what looks like missiles being shot at objects.
In the end we as Christians must trust in God that He will defend us from harm be it from nature, the devil, sin ,ourselves or aliens

Agree With you storm.
About how to fight back.. I agree With some programs I saw on discovery, probably eventually aliens would just use what we already fear from each other, biological warfare. If they wanted to travel so far to come to this specific planet, we could assume they had knowledge about how Things work here and viruses would be a logical choose. If mega saucers could be shot down, you cant shoot down viruses, and they are hard to detect.

I dont think anything like this will happen even if aliens should exist. What the bible says about the end is hard to understand. If I should guess the end either will come from God just "wrapping it all up" (making it just disappear) before creating the New Heaven and Earth, or we end it ourselfes with World War 3 and then God wrap it up and creates the New heaven and Earth.

I'm actually glad for not knowing how or when. Jesus knew what He did when He told us just follow him and not be afriad.