If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them?
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Firstly, it would surprise me if aliens communicate in English. But if they were more sophisticated than us, they might have developed a means of doing just that. Even here on earth, with AI, we seem to be close to such skills. I’d be curious to know how they perceive reality.
Way back in 1979, I read Philosophy Made Simple. It’s still in my attic 😀. Some believed that our brains evolved to model reality. But how do we know if our senses are giving us a true picture of reality – especially if you don’t believe in God, who might give us what we needed to know, even if it was a simplified picture. Either way, our model clearly works, but how would an alien perceive the world?
When I was a young kid, I was astonished to learn that the earth was a giant sphere spinning at 1,037 miles an hour – and that we lived on the surface. Then, in secondary school, when I studied biology, physics and chemistry, so much surprised me. Everything seemed so different to how I perceived it at a day-to-day level. And when I studied science at third-level, it seemed stranger still – particularly physics. And whenever I attempt to delve deeper into it, I am utterly astonished at how little we know.
But for practical day-to-day purposes, I do rely on my perception. And I wonder how aliens might differ. Maybe even some humans might not perceive colour in the same way. I remember someone explaining how a microphone worked. I responded by saying “So, we’re not hearing the person’s voice, we’re hearing what the microphone generates?” And he reponded by saying that even without a microphone, we’re hearing what’s generated by sound waves, our ears, brains etc 😀. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.
I’d also be curious to know what aliens would know about God. You could argue that angels are a little like aliens. They are created beings. I don’t see any evidence that they live in our universe. We think of them as living in heaven, but maybe heaven is just some place that isn’t earth – where God’s presence is more vivid. God is present everywhere, but at times He might manifest His presence in special ways.
I don’t like to build my theology on speculation. From a biblical perspective, it seems that the only created beings are what we see on earth and angels. But if we found intelligent aliens, perhaps they might be more like animals, in that their existance would cease when they die, Or, they might be like angels – either good or evil. Or, they might be like humans and need salvation. If we are to be guided by the Bible, it’s best not to start supplementing it with speculative beliefs. But maybe, if they were very human-like – our way of salvation would be open to them too.
Jesus spoke the following words – but I assume that this relates to us gentiles rather than aliens 😀.
John 10:16
I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
Even in the Old Testament, plenty of prophecies suggested that the message would go out to all the world, though it would begin with Israel. So, we gentiles were once aliens:
Ephesians 2:12
12 that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Back in the 1970s, I remember people reading books that speculated that many Old Testament events that recorded supernatural activies related to aliens. It was spurred by the translation of Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken’s work into English and a wave of authors reinterpreting religious texts—particularly the Old Testament—through the lens of extraterrestrial visitation. It annoyed me that people cherished these books more than the Bible itself. So many seemed bored with Christianity. You did have some older people who were into statues, praying to saints etc., but that, to me, didn’t seem to relate to Bible teaching either. That’s why I was so pleased to meet evangelical Christians, whose faith was very Bible-focused – and that resonated with me.
Here’s an interesting video about aliens that I just watched today:
I like to close with a few hymns. I can’t think of any hymns about aliens, but I can think of a few about angels 😀:
Bible visions depict angels in pictorial language and sometimes our picture of them is based on medieval art. In reality, we don’t know what they look like. They have appeared in human form, but who knows what angels or aliens would really look like.
