Alien Ideas: Christianity and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

CRISIS magazine via CERC ^ | BENJAMIN D. WIKER

[concerned about politics]

UFO's in ancient art. Interesting!

[yendu bwam]

Second, if there are intelligent aliens, why aren't they here?

Quite possibly for the same reason that we aren't spread out all over the galaxy ourselves. The speed of light limit, and the enormous energies or time needed to traverse the galaxy put an enormous barrier to its exploration. Those barriers may be untranscendable, making them as difficult for others as they are for us.

[TopQuark]

I have no quarrel whatever with any of the words you said. In the previous post, I merely pointed out that the author's disregard for this fact is disingenuous.

[yendu bwam]

I have no quarrel whatever with any of the words you said. In the previous post, I merely pointed out that the author's disregard for this fact is disingenuous.

Got it. Sorry about that.

[TopQuark]

No problem at all. In fact, I enjoyed reading your well-reasoned and well-informed post. Thank you.

[concerned about politics]

In the Bible, the angels rode "chariots of fire."
In Ezekiel, he saw something similar to a UFO the color of berl (sp) and that's silver, or berillium.

Now, many have claimed to have been abducted by "grays." They're experimented on. According to the Bible, Satan will eventually inhabit a human body. That human will have the "soul" of Satan, and be called the Anti-Christ.
Also, the Bible says the Jews will crusify christ, but accept the Anti-Christ. Right now, the Israelites think the "grays" are angels!

After the flood of Noah, God took the ability of Satans minions to take on human form. Before that, they could become human if they wished, and bread with human females. Could the "grays" be those Demons attempting to regain their ability through experimentation?

Why can't we see angels? Because man kind has a tendancy to bow down andworship them. A no no. They can , however, take human form and walk amoung us. An angel could be standing next to anyone at anytime. Jesus said to be nice to people, for they could be angels of God.

This is a strange subject. Could there be good aliens and bad aliens running around? Are they angels, or just space creatures? According to ancient art, especially religious art, they had a lot of contact with humans, and weren't afraid to be seen.

[Physicist]

Second, if there are intelligent aliens, why aren't they here?

'Cuz the trip is really, really, really, really long.

[concerned about politics]

LOL!

[longshadow]

'Cuz the trip is really, really, really, really long.

Not to mention the price of the ticket....

[Varda]

bump for later cause I haven't read the article but this gave me pause;

"Benjamin D. Wiker, a fellow with Discovery Institute, teaches theology and science at Franciscan University."

Wiker teaches creationism (aka intelligent design) and philosophy of science at Franciscan not theology and science.

[Polycarp]

Wiker teaches creationism (aka intelligent design)

"Intelligent design" is not equivalent to creationism.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Depends on what the meaning of "Gentiles" is...

[MHGinTN]

Thank you for the ping, PH. I found it hard to give credence to an author who would assert the following: Further, those who compare angels to aliens forget that angels are by definition immaterial beings. What kind of a scientific test would one devise to locate a being who, because it is not embodied, has no location? If this author read the Bible, it would be evident that Angels have physical reality though they appear to have super-natural powers. They are only immaterial beings when we cannot see, hear, or feel their presence.

Quite possibly for the same reason that we aren't spread out all over the galaxy ourselves. The speed of light limit, and the enormous energies or time needed to traverse the galaxy put an enormous barrier to its exploration. Those barriers may be untranscendable, making them as difficult for others as they are for us. 42 posted by yendu bwam In our current physical definitions ('laws' of physics?), the speed of light appears to be a barrier and the temporal gel of present time appears to require trabersing moments as if topping grains of present time along a temporal line. It is not outlandish to believe there is a better perspective available if we can discover the key to unravelling the foundational principle. Should someone discover a way to unify all the known forces, the key to transcending temporal limits as we now believe them to exist may be a natural outcome.

[Uri’el-2012]

Desdemona;crystalk

The Bible doesn't tell Christians to "go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every person."

It says "go ye into all the COSMOS, and preach the gospel to every CREATURE."

5 posted on 12/17/2002 3:29 PM MST by crystalk

Could you provide the chapter and verse and the translation for the above.

Barukh haba b'Shem Adonai
Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord
Y'shua HaMashiach

chuck <truth@YeshuaHaMashiach>

[RightWhale]

it became clearer and clearer that fewer and fewer places in the universe could meet the conditions required for even the most rudimentary forms of life.

Actually, the possible environments are being expanded in types and qualities. Someone suggested there are microbiotics in the atmosphere of Venus, and who was left to say "No way!"? Europa, Titan, Mars, all have conditions not so different from where extremophiles have already been discovered on earth. Instead of the statgement as it was written should have appeared something like it becomes clearer and clearer every day that more and more places in the universe could meet the conditions required for at least the most rudimentary forms of life.

[Varda]

I equate ID to creationism because the content is the same i.e anti-evolution.

[MHGinTN]

Thank you for the ping, PH. I found it hard to give credence to an author who would assert the following: Further, those who compare angels to aliens forget that angels are by definition immaterial beings. What kind of a scientific test would one devise to locate a being who, because it is not embodied, has no location? If this author read the Bible, it would be evident that Angels have physical reality though they appear to have super-natural powers. They are only immaterial beings when we cannot see, hear, or feel their presence ... they are immaterial only when we do not detect their intersection with our spacetime, but they are very material when they do intersect our spacetime, they write on walls, spew forth fire, sit beside a tree, wrestle with a shepherd, etc.

Quite possibly for the same reason that we aren't spread out all over the galaxy ourselves. The speed of light limit, and the enormous energies or time needed to traverse the galaxy put an enormous barrier to its exploration. Those barriers may be untranscendable, making them as difficult for others as they are for us. 42 posted by yendu bwam In our current physical definitions ('laws' of physics?), the speed of light appears to be a barrier and the temporal gel of present time appears to require traversing moments as if topping grains of present time along a temporal line with past at one end and future at the other end. It is not outlandish to believe there is a better perspective available, if we can discover the key to unravelling the foundational principle. Should someone discover a way to unify all the known forces, the key to transcending temporal limits as we now believe them to exist may be a natural outcome. Just as dimension space has three variable expressions (three functions), so dimension time may also have three variable expressions. Eventually, someone may devise a way to mathematically express this notion and equations will pour forth.

[PatrickHenry]

Should someone discover a way to unify all the known forces, the key to transcending temporal limits as we now believe them to exist may be a natural outcome.

Those who actually work in that field disagree about your hope of transcending the speed of light. But perhaps you will prove them wrong. I hope so. The inter-stellar empire I hope to found will be slow going otherwise.

[Polycarp]

Glad to see you are so "objective."

[Johnny Shear]

I'm guessing you'll find this interesting...