North End Church of Christ

Sellers Crain, Jr., Via The Rivergate Messenger, 6/29/03

One of the reasons I strongly object to the millions of dollars being expended to explore Mars searching for life is that I believe it is the aim of some atheistic scientists to prove God did not exist and that the Bible is a myth. Most of these scientists are evolutionists, and so they begin with the premise that since life evolved on this planet, what’s to keep it from evolving on other planets. When you begin with an erroneous premise, you end up with an erroneous conclusion.

Some try to harmonize the Bible with evolution by accepting Theistic Evolution. This is the idea that God created all things, but he used evolution as the mechanism to accomplish that end. In spite of the fact that evolution is taught in some circles as an established fact, it is neither established nor a fact. It is to this day an unprovable hypothesis. God is not limited to human imagination to accomplish His purposes. Regardless of the efforts of Theistic Evolutionists to do so, evolution cannot be harmonized with the Genesis record of creation without viewing that record as some kind of allegory or simplified explanation. Since I reject the notion of evolution altogether, and I believe that it will be rejected by most scientists in the future, I also reject the idea of life on other planets. Let me share just some of my reasons why.

One author very boldly states in a recent article that “Nowhere in the Bible does it say that planet Earth is the only place where God has seen fit to create life.” I would certainly agree with that statement, but it is important to also note that the Bible also nowhere says that He did create life on other planets. I find that interesting, if such life did exist somewhere out there.

From what we know about the other planets in our Solar System, we can be absolutely certain that no life exists on any of them. Why of all the planets in our solar system is this one inhabitable? The Bible gives us that answer. It is because God put life down here, and He created the conditions for life to exist. Why are the other planets there? My unscientific, but reasonable answer would be, that they are there to help keep the Earth in its proper orbit in relationship to the sun. Without the magnetic pull exerted on the earth by the other heavenly bodies we would either be pulled into the sun and burned to a crisp, or else be hurled into outer space never to be heard from again.

If we are to find Extra Terrestrial Intelligence in our universe, we must go outside of this solar system. If life did exist out there somewhere, we would not know it. If life did exist on other planets, do they also have free will? If so, are we to assume that they are more “perfect” than we are and are thus incapable of sin? If not, and they did sin, does this mean Jesus had to go here and die for them too? How many deaths did He have to die? One of these assumptions would have to be true if other life existed beyond our Earth.