In Theory: Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?

The NASA rover Curiosity is due to touch down on the surface of Mars on Aug. 5 after a journey of some 130,000,000 miles and a cost of $2.5 billion. Part of its mission is to see if Mars ever was, or even is, capable of supporting life. To do this, it will dig below the surface of the planet looking for signs of water, a key element in the development of life.

People have wondered about life in outer space for years, with encounters with aliens being a staple of novels, movies, video games and TV shows. But so far there’s nothing. Although the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program, running since the 1960s, has had some “hits,” concrete proof that alien intelligence exists hasn’t been found. That hasn’t stopped people from hoping, though. Harvard physicist and SETI leader Paul Horowitz said in an interview with Time magazine, “Intelligent life in the universe? Guaranteed. Intelligent life in our galaxy? So overwhelmingly likely that I’d give you almost any odds you’d like.”

Q: The chance of Curiosity finding little green men on the Red Planet is zero, granted; but do you believe intelligent life could have developed somewhere in the endless reaches of space? And if such life existed, would it also be in God’s image?

For me, the answer is yes to both questions: Yes, there could be intelligent life somewhere other than our own planet, and yes, that intelligent life would be in God’s image. That intelligent life might not look as we humans look, but it would still be in the image of God.

One of the great Scriptures that Christians like to quote is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world....” If intelligent life is discovered on other planets, we might have to update our understanding of John 3:16, as follows: “For God so loved the cosmos....”, or, “For God so loved the universe....”

It has always been interesting to me that in our postulating of life forms elsewhere, they are always ugly or evil or aim to do us humans harm. That is, until the movie, “E.T.” In that marvelous picture, the alien creature wished us no harm but wanted to establish a relationship with us. I know that Steven Spielberg is Jewish, but that movie is so Christian that I can hardly believe it. All the forces on earth seem bent on killing E.T., the extra-terrestrial, but all he does is love back. Does that remind you of anybody the New Testament talks about? I mean, the E.T. even comes back to life, for crying out loud. And he wants for us only good, nothing harmful.

Probably because of fear, we expect bad things from outer space, not good things. And probably because of fear, we expect bad things from God, not unconditional love. That kind of love, by the way, can be found in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Christians don’t have a corner on the concept of undeserved love and forgiveness.

But back to the subject of life elsewhere. We’ll have to re-write our theology if intelligent life is found somewhere else. And that wouldn’t be a bad thing. And think of this: What if sin or alienation from God didn’t occur elsewhere as we religious folk claim about the Earth: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)?

The possibilities, like God and God’s universe, are endless.

The Rev. Skip Lindeman
La Cañada Congregational Church
La Cañada Flintridge

---

The Bible is overwhelmingly silent on the topic of extraterrestrial life. I believe it possibly exists, but I won’t presume to say absolutely “yes” or “no” about its existence. There is much the Bible says about God’s acts of creation, however, and that’s a great place for us to begin.

The Bible teaches that God created the universe and everything in it. “By the word of the lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” (Psalm 33:6). Of Jesus Christ, John 1:3 says, “All things came into being by him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.” So if there is life elsewhere, and planets capable of supporting it, God created them personally and he created them for his glory.

Scripture teaches that of all Earth’s creatures, only man is made in God’s image. We have a spirit, in addition to our bodies and our souls. We can know and love and communicate with our creator. If we receive Jesus Christ as our lord and savior, we even become “children of God” (John 1:12). It’s certainly possible that God made other extraterrestrial life in his image. Such beings we would classify as “persons,” in essence very much like us, or angels, regardless of the physical form in which they existed. It is significant to remember, though, that Jesus, God’s only-begotten son, is called “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), and he has forever taken humanity upon himself, even a human (not an alien) body.

Pastor Jon Barta
Valley Baptist Church
Burbank

---

The scale of the universe isn’t known, and any intelligent life out there having the capability of communicating with civilizations such as ours may be extremely rare; but the existence of such worlds seems highly likely, virtually certain, whether or not we can detect them or communicate with them.

The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, saw a spiritual component to all life, which is the image of God expressed in our human affairs and in the universe. With respect to the merely material view of life and the universe, she wrote in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “No form nor physical combination is adequate to represent infinite love [God].” And she wrote, “The universe if filled with spiritual ideas, which he evolves, and they are obedient to the mind [God] that makes them.”

The life that is God has no physical boundary, and if we consider God as infinite mind, then we can expect that divine intelligence to be manifest without limitation, in his “image” and “likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

The biblical accounts that establish today’s religious thought speak within the context of the era in which they were written; but the underlying spirit applies to all ages, places, and circumstances. Those “lights in the firmament of heaven” (Genesis 1:14) are part of Creation, and if we see a spiritual component permeating the universe, then we need not constrain God’s highest activity to any physical location or time.

Much remains to be discovered about our world and our universe. We live in an exciting era, where new vistas of research and thought are opening up. It’s also an opportunity to learn increasingly more about God’s presence everywhere, available to unfold new horizons and opportunities. This necessarily implies that we need not fear what we might discover out there.

Realizing God’s, divine love’s, embrace of humanity and the universe frees human thought to reach beyond its own limited world, and to see his spirit manifest unendingly. I look forward to the discovery of intelligent life elsewhere, which inevitably is already made in God’s image.

Graham Bothwell
First Church of Christ, Scientist
La Cañada Flintridge

---

Intelligent life probably has arisen in our Milky Way galaxy or one of the hundreds of billions of galaxies out there. Biologists understand how abiogenesis resulted in life here on earth, and other planets likely have similar conditions. Life could be different out there, without the normal earth shapes and bodies. So no familiar forms like mice or dolphins.

Even though intelligent life likely is out there, we might never make any direct contact. The immensity of space is staggering. The closest possible habitable planet seems to be about 600 light years away. That makes a 600-year journey for the light to reach us from there. But the distance also keeps the bad aliens away.

It is fascinating to live in a time where we can ask this question and have the tools and science to explore space and time for the answers. While we are not likely to speak to any aliens soon, just the search for them helps us discover new things and develop new technologies. So I would say that the search for alien life helps reveal the true nature of the world, both seen and unseen.

Steven Gibson
Atheist
Altadena

---

If there is life elsewhere in the universe, it’s probably more intelligent than we are, because it wouldn’t blow $2.5 billion looking for little ol’ us, especially if they’re already trillions in debt, like we are. Oh well, we already owe so much, we might as well keep spending looking for bugs on Mars.

You know, I’d be all for space trips to the moon if they’d just haul some of the stuff in our landfills and dump it up there. Nobody’s using the moon, and maybe the foul life forms in our trash will evolve into lunar-atmosphere-loving creatures that will someday fly back to Earth and thank us for kicking off their whole evolutionary cycle.

I jest of course, because I do not see the value in these space missions looking to answer life’s origin on Earth. In my view, God created Earth, with its perfect distance from its heat source, with its perfect axial tilt and rotation and its perfect atmosphere and abundant symbiotic resources, and us, fully formed. Our world is so unique and amazing that the mathematical probability of a duplicate is terrible. But I can grant that God could have another project elsewhere in another galaxy far, far away — however, the distance would be like our national debt: impassable.

Much of space exploration and observation (like SETI) is, I believe, motivated by the purpose of disproving God, because it would reassure the faithless that life didn’t take divine creation, only simple elements: a bit of electricity, lots of time, and voila, Martians, Klingons, or whomever.

If life exists elsewhere, there’s still the question, “where did it originate?” How is it that anything exists at all, rather than nothing? I’d say it was something eternal that launched the temporal. It would have to be that way, and that something is a someone: God. So if there are ETs, then there’s also a commonality we’ll have with them, a creator who made us in his own image, and endowed us both with “unalienable rights.”

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

The Rev. Bryan Griem
Montrose Community Church
Montrose

---

I believe that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and that it was created in God’s image, just as we were. Scientists estimate that there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and that there are millions of other galaxies. In a cosmos so vast, it doesn’t seem logical, or appropriate, for us to place a limit on the scope and power of God’s work.

Paul writes in Hebrews that through Christ, God “made the worlds.” Members of the LDS church believe that Paul’s meaning is clarified in another book we regard as scripture, “The Doctrine & Covenants.” It refers to the creation of other worlds whose inhabitants are, like us, “sons and daughters unto God.”

It is fascinating, in fact awe-inspiring, to look up into a clear night sky and contemplate the heavens. However, the most important aspect of our relationship with God has little to do with what exists on other planets. What inspires even greater awe is the realization that he has given us the opportunity in mortality to learn and make choices that will enable us to live in his presence eternally. Knowing this, we can, as one LDS author wrote, “confess his hand in our individual lives just as we can confess his hand in the astonishing universe.”

Michael White
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
La Crescenta

---

Reality is that scientists are all over the map in their ideas about the possibility that there is, or has ever been, extraterrestrial life. Some believe that life on other planets is highly likely, while others are just as strongly convinced that such an idea is completely untenable. And there are a great many perspectives between those two extremes.

Although I am not a scientist, I see no reason to assume that there is not life on other planets in our galaxy, or beyond, just because we have no indisputable proof of its existence. And it seems to me to be the height of egotism to assume that we are the only living creatures in the cosmos, or even that we are the final product of evolution on our own planet.

Given the diversity of religious traditions on Earth and their various notions about creation, it is inconceivable to me that creatures on other planets could be expected to look or act like those on our planet. The idea of humankind being created “in the image of God” has been taken directly from the Judeo-Christian historical tradition and is unlikely to have been translated into the cultures of those from other planets. And what does it mean to be created in God’s image? Do we physically look like God? I think it is more likely that we have envisioned a God who looks like us, since no one has actually seen God. But that theological assumption is far too esoteric for an article as short as this one.

My expectation is that one day we will have the answers to questions about life on others planets — at least I hope so. But for now, I believe we need to work on ways to live in peace, love and sustainability here on Earth. That will be enough to keep us busy for a very long time. My hope is that we will learn how to do that before we destroy ourselves, whatever those in the wider universe may do.

Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills
La Crescenta

---

“In the fire were four living creatures. In appearance, their form was that of a man, but each had four faces and four wings. Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. Each had the face of a man, and on the right side the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox. Each also had the face of an eagle. Each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side and the two wings covered its body.”

I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a description of an ET to me. It is a direct quote, not from a science fiction novel, but from the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. It is a description of the “four living creatures” that surround the throne of God. The same creatures are described by the prophet John, when he visited heaven in the book of Revelation.

These are not the only ETs mentioned in the Bible. Angels are ETs that can assume human as well as other forms, and have communicated with people directly. The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and the appearance of a host of angels to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth are two examples. From the way these creatures are described, they behave intelligently. We are not told whether they come from another part of this universe, a different dimension, or even a parallel universe. We are simply told they exist and they serve almighty God.

As intelligent and powerful as these beings are, they are never described as being created in the image of God. That honor appears reserved only for humankind. Psalm 8 describes it this way: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You’ve made them a little lower than yourself and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.”

Is there other intelligent life? I think Scripture leaves no doubt that there is. Is it created in the image of God? Scripture gives no indication that anything other than humankind is created in God’s image.

Pastor Ché Ahn
HRock Church
Pasadena

---

I try to stick to what I know, as the Chick-fil-A guy may do from now on. Since we are talking belief, not scientific knowledge, yes, life probably exists elsewhere in the universe. Space is ginormous, to use a technical term, too big for our little planet to have the only life.

I should specify that to me, intelligent life includes non-human animals and even plants. If you have ever gone mano a mano, i.e. no chemicals, with weeds, you know they have an impressive and adaptable plan for survival.

Other life we discover might be more like mice or dolphins than homo sapiens. Whatever their form, if they are no more belligerent and self-destructive than humans, I say they qualify as intelligent life.

For our second question I again will stick to what I know. The human love and intelligence demonstrated in the Mars project can be seen as reflecting God’s/ gods’ images. I hope these endowments flourish so that we keep space for peace as we encounter our neighbors, be they wondrously advanced tiny microbes, or just piles of rocks.

Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose

---

During the 1960s, a young biologist named Velvl Greene was working for NASA on a project to find life on Mars. Professor Greene visited one of the greatest Jewish leaders of the 20th Century, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and asked if his career path was acceptable according to Jewish tradition. After all, some religions teach that we should not search for extraterrestrial creatures, since their sacred texts do not mention anything about life beyond our planet. Rabbi Schneerson replied to Greene, “You should look for life on Mars. And, if you don’t find it there, you should look elsewhere. Because for you to sit here and say that God did not create life elsewhere is to put limitations on God’s infinite abilities, and no one can do that.”

I believe that intelligent life may very well exist beyond planet Earth. Looking for such life throughout our galaxy and across the universe is a wonderful expression of human creativity and intellectual striving. Equally important, the process of space exploration itself provides valuable scientific knowledge that may be very useful for humankind and our environment. By inspiring new generations of scientists, engineers and mathematicians, the space program offers an exciting venue in which to expand man’s knowledge in many spheres.

Even if extraterrestrial life is not found in our lifetimes or our children’s lifetimes, there are so many other possibilities that may await us among the stars. Conceivably a new form of safe and effective fuel could be found on Mars that would be able to sustain our insatiable power needs for centuries. Who knows, perhaps the secret to clean, affordable renewable energy will be found on some faraway planet. Maybe the cure to a disease will be discovered in some galaxy far from ours. We can never know until we try. We should therefore continue to seek out life wherever it may be, and revel in the discoveries we make along the way. These activities, in my opinion, are beneficial for all of humanity.

Rabbi Simcha Backman
Chabad Jewish Center
Glendale