Over in the Science & Religion subforum, Miles started a thread about the possibility of NASA discovering life on Mars with its new Perseverance rover expected to touch down on February 18, 2021.1 Its mission parameters include investigating and assessing the possibility of life once existing on Mars, which Miles thought raised an interesting question:
- Would finding evidence that life once existed on Mars threaten Christian beliefs?
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TL,DR
Otseng thinks that finding non-terrestrial3 life on another planet would mean Christianity is purely a matter of blind faith without a tenable connection to the realities of the natural world (and is confident no such life will ever be found, so Christianity is safe).
John Bauer disagrees with this assessment and wants to explore it further (and is confident that finding such life would not be any kind of threat to Christianity). Mostly it's because Bauer believes it's possible that Otseng knows something he doesn't, so Bauer wants to make sure he hasn't overlooked some crucial biblical or theological issue.
This thread is for continuing that discussion in a venue more appropriate to the substance of the disagreement, namely, the Bible and Christian theology.
.Otseng thinks that finding non-terrestrial3 life on another planet would mean Christianity is purely a matter of blind faith without a tenable connection to the realities of the natural world (and is confident no such life will ever be found, so Christianity is safe).
John Bauer disagrees with this assessment and wants to explore it further (and is confident that finding such life would not be any kind of threat to Christianity). Mostly it's because Bauer believes it's possible that Otseng knows something he doesn't, so Bauer wants to make sure he hasn't overlooked some crucial biblical or theological issue.
This thread is for continuing that discussion in a venue more appropriate to the substance of the disagreement, namely, the Bible and Christian theology.
A summary of the discussion so far
Otseng said that, although "there is no explicit statement" in the Bible about life existing only on Earth, it is nevertheless "highly implied." He mentioned having reasons beyond the Bible compelling his belief that "life would not exist on other planets, including Mars" (e.g., the Rare Earth hypothesis), but when it comes to his biblical and theological convictions, "finding any life on Mars would completely reshape my beliefs," he said.4 For Otseng, it would mean that Christianity is purely a matter of blind faith and that, he said, would mean he may as well hang up his hat and shut this forum down.5
I had a different take on the question. As far as I can tell, finding life elsewhere in the universe should not threaten Christian beliefs precisely because the Bible never says God created life only on Earth. Granted, using very comprehensive language, it does say that God created all life on Earth—ergo, you won't find any life on Earth that God did not create—but that doesn't preclude God creating life elsewhere in the universe. That question is one which the Bible does not address, for the focus of its message (redemptive history) is on the human realm and thus centers on us and our world. As such, finding out that life once existed on Mars should arouse interest and curiosity for Christians, plus in-depth theological reflection on hard questions about our long-standing anthropocentric conceits, but there seems to be no good reason for it to threaten the biblical beliefs of Christians.6 And I am speaking from a theological perspective that is conservative and borderline fundamentalist (Calvinist).
I asked Otseng how it is supposed to follow that Christianity is purely a matter of blind faith if any life was found on another planet that did not arise from Earth. He replied by outlining his belief that Christian theology should be consistent with the natural world. "The Bible should be consistent with the realities of the natural realm as well as the spiritual," he said—yet another thing we agree on. If there are inconsistencies or conflicts, then either the theological or the naturalistic position is wrong, or they are both wrong—and, given a review of history, it "has often been the case" that the theological position is wrong, as skeptics point out. (I strongly disagree with this, as it is revisionist history, but it's a separate matter.) "Theology has been having less and less claims on the natural world. There is some point where [theology in retreat] completely leaves the natural realm and then can only make spiritual claims. At that point, theology would just be based on faith."7 There is a three-component line in the sand for Otseng, namely, the origin of the universe, life, and humans. Finding non-terrestrial life on another planet would erase that line.
The discussion going forward
So I want to explore the five main arguments Otseng put forward and see how the conclusion is supposed to follow. I will try to capture those arguments in the following questions.
1. In the Bible, where and how is it highly implied that life exists only on Earth?
As far as I know, the Bible addresses only the human realm here on Earth. There is a whole universe of facts about the natural world which the Bible simply does not address because they have no immediate or meaningful relevance to the narrative threads of redemptive history weaved together in the Bible, all of which is centered on Christ and the people of God. (Consider this: There is not a single word mentioned anywhere in the Bible about Japanese people. Is it possibly because, in all the history captured by the canon of Scripture, no Japanese people ever interacted with the people of God? Nevertheless, they existed.)
As I said in that other thread, we cannot legitimately infer that God didn't create life anywhere else in the universe from the fact that he created all life on Earth. So finding life on Mars would not result in a conflict between biblical Christianity and the natural world. "Telling people that I did X at a particular time and place," I said, "does not by itself mean that I've never done X anywhere else at any other time."8
2. If the Bible does not explicitly say that God created life only on Earth, would finding life on Mars contradict any Christian doctrine?
Not all theological beliefs have to be directly biblical. It is possible for a doctrine to be traditional, enjoying a long history in Christian thought, and yet not exactly biblical—that is, there is no specific biblical reference that teaches it. Is there any such traditional doctrine that would be contradicted by finding life on another planet?
3. Assume for the sake of argument that the universe is teeming with microbial life (at best)—organic molecules, viruses, protists, etc. What would that picture do to Christianity or the Bible, in your estimation?
We both accept the Rare Earth hypothesis, so let's set aside the Martians and the Vulcans for now. Let's just assume that microbial life is typical for the universe but complex, intelligent life is so extremely rare that it probably exists nowhere else but Earth. Microbial life is abundant and NASA discovers evidence of such life once existing on Mars (and perhaps elsewhere, too, decades down the road). What impact would that scenario have on Christianity or the Bible? Or is it just complex, intelligent life that's problematic?
4. If we find life on another planet, why would that mean human life is not special or unique and there is nothing privileged about Earth?
Even if we did assume there are Martians and Vulcans out there, how does this conclusion follow? If God has a covenant relationship strictly and only with humans, wouldn't that make this planet privileged and us humans special and unique? It seems to me that it would. Do we have any reason to think God has a covenant relationship with any life other than humans? I don't think so.
5. Why do you think finding life on another planet would raise christological issues?
Again, just to make sense of the problems you are wanting to raise, let's assume there are Martians and Vulcans. You asked, "Does God love the Vulcans, too, so that Jesus died for their sins? Are there multiple types of incarnations of God among all the extraterrestrial civilizations?"9
Your question presupposes that Vulcans sinned, a premise that is bereft of any warrant. I'm not saying it's impossible, only that there is no reason to suppose it. As I understand it, sin is a meaningless term apart from a covenant relationship with God, which (as far as we know) he has only with humans. No covenant relationship, no sin. No sin, no need for salvation, or an incarnate savior. That's why trees, earthworms, giraffes—all earthly creatures other than humans—are not characterized as sinners, for example, and why Christ became incarnate only in human form (despite all the life forms existing on Earth). Presumably, that would extend to life forms beyond Earth. No covenant, no sin, no incarnate savior.
Conclusion:
If discovering life on another planet doesn't contradict anything in the Bible or any particular Christian doctrine, then there is no inconsistency between Christianity and the realities of the natural world.
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Addendum: Otseng raised another theological problem but, since it does not exist for my world-view, I basically left it alone. That problem was captured by the following question: "Do Martians also have souls?" (And I assumed that he was using the term "Martians" as a stand-in for any complex, humanoid, intelligent alien life.) I don't believe that even we have souls, much less would I think that Martians would, so this problem does not exist for my world-view. I take the constitutionalist view of Lynne Rudder Baker, an alternative to substance dualism. (It raises different problems but they're unrelated to the topic of this thread.)
Update (January 6, 2021): PinSeeker inadvertently showed me how to offset text without having to use the [quote] tag, so I modified this post accordingly.
Footnotes:
1 Miles, "What If Evidence For Life Is Found On Mars?," Science & Religion, Debating Christianity (forum), August 19, 2020.
2 Otseng suggested taking this discussion to the Christianity & Apologetics subforum. However, when I read the guidelines for that forum, I found it advisable to post it to this subforum instead. Rule 7 of those guidelines states, "For debates purely on theology with the assumption that the Bible is an authoritative source, please consider posting in the Theology, Doctrine, & Dogma subforum." A discussion that explores the ramifications for the Bible and Christian theology if life is found on other planets will have to draw from Scripture as an authoritative source. Therefore, it seemed to me that this is the appropriate subforum to host it.
3 I am using the term "non-terrestrial life" to capture Otseng's concern—namely, "life that did not originate on Earth"—because the term "extraterrestrial" has baggage that leads people to think of complex, humanoid, and intelligent alien life. Otseng referred to that as a "Star Trek" world with Martians and Vulcans. I want to avoid that implication.
4 A response by Otseng in post #14 (November 12, 2020) on the thread "What If Evidence For Life Is Found On Mars?" posted by Miles (see above).
5 Otseng, in post #18, ibid. (November 12, 2020).
6 John Bauer, in post #20, ibid. (December 28, 2020).
7 Otseng, in post #21, ibid. (December 29, 2020).
8 John Bauer, in post #23, ibid. (December 29, 2020).
9 Otseng, in post #30, ibid. (January 1, 2021).
