Continuing Sjoerd Bonting's article

The Greek philosophers Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus (480-270 BC) already speculated about the existence of life outside the Earth.3 The Roman poet Lucretius wrote in De Rerum Natura (c.70 BC): So we must realize that there are other worlds in other parts of the universe, with races of different men and different animals. In the totality of creation no thing is unique.4 Plato (c.310 BC) and Aristotle (c.330 BC), on the other hand, opposed the possibility of extraterrestrial life, which led the early Christian theologians Augustine (c. 400), Albertus Magnus (c.1250), Thomas Aquinas (1273) and his contemporary Roger Bacon to reject the idea. This changed after Etienne Tempier, bishop of Paris, issued in 1277 a list of condemnations of doctrines that seemed to limit God's power, one of them being the idea that God could not create many worlds. This led to renewed discussion of the matter in the 14th century. After a critical consideration of the arguments of Aristotle and Aquinas, William of Ockham (c.1320), Jean Buridan (c.1340), Nicole Oresme (c.1350) and others judged that a plurality of worlds was not impossible. Later Willem van Vorilong (d.1463) and Nikolaus of Cusa (1440) published treatises in which they defended the idea of a plurality of worlds.

After Copernicus

The advent of the Copernican view of the solar system seemed to make the existence of extraterrestrial life more likely. While Galileo, Descartes and Kepler retained a cautious attitude, Giordano Bruno heartily embraced the idea in his 1584 treatise On the Infinite Universe and Worlds5 Other seventeenthcentury pluralists were Tommaso Campanella, John Wilkins, Bernard de Fontenelle (1686), Richard Bentley (1693) and Christiaan Huygens (1698). Voltaire, in the satirical work Micromégas (1752), has two giants, one from the star Sirius and the other from the planet Saturn, visit the Earth in order to impress upon the reader how small the Earth must be in relation to the rest of the cosmos.6 During the nineteenth century the idea of plural worlds became popular, both among atheists like Thomas Paine and evangelicals like Thomas Chalmers and Thomas Dick. Great defenders of extraterrestrial life were the astronomers Richard Proctor (1870) and Camille Flammarion (1862). Their attitude is well summarized by American astronomer and popularizer of science Simon Newcomb, who argued in an article for Harper's Magazine on "Life in the Universe" (1905) that if Earth is a representative planet orbiting a representative star then life must be abundant throughout the universe.7

In a recent book entitled If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens ....Where is Everybody? Stephen Webb8 considers three possibilities: (1) they don't exist; (2) they exist but don't communicate; (3) they are here already. He believes (1), but does not consider the possibility that as we are still technically incapable of interstellar travel, so they might be. In another recent book Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart9 claim that our scientific way to answer the question is wrong. Their approach is, however, more like sciencefiction. They claim that our present cosmology is wrong, that there exists a multitude of universes, and that "the (initial) vacuum of spacetime might possess sufficient complexity to organize itself into some form of life by carrying out a complete thermodynamic work cycle", such that aliens might have lived through the inflation (the rapid and large expansion generally assumed to have occurred immediately after the big bang; chapter 2.2). The idea that living beings could exist, let alone survive, in the very early universe, is highly unlikely. Moreover, they neglect the fact that we cannot observe other universes, if existing, and thus that our search for extraterrestrial life must be limited to our universe.


Search for extraterrestrials

During the 20th century the advent of our modern observational techniques and of space travel has changed the picture considerably. We now know that in our solar system no advanced life exists outside Earth, although microbial life may perhaps have arisen on early Mars in an ancient salty sea, later dried up due to climatic change.10 So for the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life we must look to planets beyond the solar system. About 120 extrasolar planets have so far been detected.11 Visiting an extrasolar planet to look for advanced life is technically impossible: a manned return flight to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, at 20% of the speed of light (highest speed achievable with any current spacecraft) would take 44 years and require for its launch 300 times the total annual earthly energy production.12

Therefore, a simpler but indirect approach is used in the search for extraterrestial intelligence. It is based on the assumption that advanced extraterrestrials, if existing, will have radio and television broadcasts like we do (no irony intended!). Radio and television carrier waves and radiation from large radar installations are known to spread into space to a great depth. There is also the possibility that the extraterrestrials may transmit directed signals. The Phoenix project is a targeted search for microwave signals from 1000 selected sunlike stars within 150 light years from the Earth, which might have an earthlike planet that might have permitted the development of intelligent beings.13 The double "might have" indicates how great the uncertainty is, not even counting the problem of synchronicity (or lack of it) of any extraterrestrial civilization with human civilization. Observations are made with a radio telescope, equipped with an ultrasensitive detector with automatic signal processing by a smart software system.14 A frequency range of 13 GHz (gigahertz, a billion vibrations per sec) was chosen, since in this range there is minimal interference from celestial and terrestrial microwave radiation. In ten years of operation 710 of the 1000 targeted stars have been fully observed without any significant signals being detected.15 This project is now continued with the Allen Telescope Array, a dedicated system of ultimately 350 small (6 m. diam.) radiotelescopes, allowing checking out a few million stars in 20 years laser. An optical search for nanosecond laser flashes that an alien population might emit for communication with spacecraft, has also been initiated.


13.2 Paucity of theological data

Bible and early thinkers

Biblical or nonbiblical creation stories do not refer to extraterrestrial life,16 if we exclude angels, the immaterial messengers between heaven and earth. A passage like Jn.10:16 (I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold) is thought to refer to the Gentiles, while 1 Peter 3:1820 (in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey..) refers to people who died before the time of Jesus rather than to extraterrestrials. Tradition (the body of teaching of the early Church) is also silent about extraterrestrial life.

This silence is hardly surprising, since (1) the biblical message is 'economic' in the sense that it is directed to our life on this planet in preparation for the future life; (2) the geocentric worldview was dominant until the 16th century work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo; (3) the scientific insight in the prebiotic formation of life and the possibility of its arising elsewhere in the universe dates from only the last 50 years. As mentioned earlier, in the preCopernican era only Nikolaus of Cusa and his contemporary Willem van Vorilong clearly expressed a belief in advanced extraterrestrials.3,17 Even after the overturn of the geocentric model in the 16th century the picture does not change much. Bruno (1584), who ended at the stake in 1600 on the accusation of pantheistic immanentism, maintained the likelihood of the existence of extraterrestrial beings, "no less nobly" than humans. In his On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584) he presents a fictitious dialogue between Burchio (B) and Fracastorio (F): "B: Then the other worlds are inhabited like our own? F: If not exactly as our own, and if not more nobly, at least no less inhabited and no less nobly".5 Tommaso Campanella, in his Apologia pro Galileo (1622), rejected Aquinas' objection against a multitude of worlds with the argument that it concerns many small systems within one large system. He claims that the inhabitants, not descending from Adam, do not need salvation unless they have committed other sins. De Fontenelle, in his Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686), maintains: "The moon.... is inhabited, because she is like the earth; and the other planets are inhabited, because they are like the moon".18 Christiaan Huygens (1629-95) left a very speculative work Cosmotheoros, in which he claims the presence of water on Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury, and thus of all kinds of plants and animals, and even creatures endowed with reason, created as described for humans in Gen.1, and having both virtues and vices like us.19


Contemporary theologians

Few contemporary theologians show much interest in the matter of possible extraterrestrial life. This may be due to two factors: the geocentric model has lingered on in our thinking as a result of our human selfcenteredness, and the divorce between science and theology since Darwin's time has placed the question of extraterrestrial life outside the view of most theologians.20 These two factors may well explain why such prominent contemporary theologians, like Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Hans Küng, John Macquarrie, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jürgen Moltmann, Edward Schillebeeckx, Keith Ward, and even scientisttheologians Arthur Peacocke and John Polkinghorne have not considered the possibility of extraterrestrial life in their theological works. Willem Drees mentions only T.M. Hesburgh, E.L. Mascall, Paul Tillich, H. Berkhof, A. Ford, and S.L. Jaki as contemporary theologians willing to accept the possibility of extraterrestrial life.21 To them may be added Teilhard de Chardin, who left an unpublished and not very helpful paper on the topic.22 Over against them Drees cites several lesser known theologians, like U. Köhler, L.J. van Holk, J.J. Buskes, E.A. Milne, P.J. Roscam Abbing, and A.J. Burgess, who argue for the physical and/or theological uniqueness of life on Earth.23

The near absence of sound theological reflection on this topic in Bible and Tradition, and by prominent contemporary theologians necessitates some pioneer work in formulating a theology of extraterrestrial life. In particular, the implications for Christ's redemptive work should be considered. A book edited by Steven J. Dick24 offers little help in this; the chapters by Ernan McMullin25 and George V. Coyne26 only list the questions to be addressed, and the principles for a "cosmotheology" offered by Dick27 hardly represents a Christian theology. Before turning to the theological implications of possible advanced life beyond Earth, I first consider the likelihood of its occurrence and the characteristics such life might acquire.


13.3 Possibility of extraterrestrial life

Since we can be fairly certain that no extraterrestrials exist on any of the other planets in our solar system, we must look for extrasolar planets where conditions similar to those on Earth exist. The presence of the intermediates in the formation of aminoacids and of ribose (component of RNA) in interstellar space, and of aminoacids of extraterrestrial origin in meteorites, suggests that life can have arisen elsewhere in the universe by a process resembling the prebiotic evolution on Earth (chapter 2.4).

Beyond the solar system there are billions of stars, some of which resemble our Sun in size, age and luminosity, and these may well have planets. Direct observation of such planets is difficult, because the bright light of the star overshines the faint emission of the planet.28 Indirect evidence can be obtained from the detection of small motions ("wobble") or small light fluctuations of the star due to the orbiting planet. So far only planets with a mass equal to or larger than that of Jupiter and with elliptic orbits bringing them at times very close to their star, socalled 'hot Jupiters', have been observed with this technique.11 Advanced life could not have arisen on any of these. Three Neptunesize extrasolar planets (1421x Earthmass) have been observed, but lacking data on their density there is doubt whether they are rocky planets like the Earth.29 This doubt is fed by the idea that the formation of the planets in our solar system by agglomeration of dust particles left from the Sun's formation is special, and that hot Jupiters may have condensed directly from the gaseous material surrrounding their star.30

In addition, any earthlike planet will have to satisfy some 32 requirements in order to permit development and maintenance of life on it, e.g., a star of between 0.4 to 1.4 solar mass, stable in radiation and temperature for at least 4 billion years (the length of time needed for the development of human life on Earth), and a constraint on the distance of the planet to its star of about 5%.31 The requirements for star mass and planetstar distance alone may eliminate 99.9% of all candidates. There also needs to be some synchronicity in their appearance with that of the Earth, but 75% of the sunlike stars in our galaxy are at least one billion years older than the Sun,32 making it uncertain whether any of their planets would still harbor advanced life. This may leave few fitting candidates, but in view of the very large number of stars we cannot rule out that there are some. What can we predict about the nature of the advanced life that could have developed on such a planet?


13.4 Nature of extraterrestrial life (if existing)

Everywhere in the universe the same chemical elements are present as on Earth, because hydrogen and helium have been formed in the Big Bang, the elements up to iron by nuclear fusion in stars, and the elements heavier than iron probably by neutron capture during early supernova explosions. As far as we know, the earthly physical and chemical laws are valid throughout the universe. We can therefore make some predictions about extraterrestrial life. Such life will be based, like all earthly life, on carbon chemistry, since carbon is the only element able to form the longchain compounds (e.g., DNA, RNA, proteins) that are essential for the complex processes of growth and replication of living cells.

It is estimated that during 4 billion years of biological evolution on Earth some billion species arose, of which less than one in thousand have survived the process of natural selection. This suggests that in the evolutionary process all possible life forms have been explored. Moreover, all existing species on Earth have basically the same biochemistry, the same DNAbased replication system, and an identical genetic code. Thus it seems likely that in extraterrestrial evolution of life the same DNAreplication/transcription system would evolve. That in all earthly DNA only four (labeled A, T, G, and C) of sixteen possible nucleotides occur, appears to be due to the fact that these four provide the lowest incidence of replication errors.33 Hence, I would expect the same four to be selected in extraterrestrial beings.

Another interesting point is the chirality of aminoacids and many other biomolecules. The finding of a preponderance of Lform over the Dfom of certain aminoacids on the Murchison meteorite suggests that the preference for the Lform already existed in the universe before life on Earth originated.34,35 This means that the aminoacids of extraterrestrial beings would probably also have the same chirality as those of earthly creatures.

Considering all this, it seems likely that advanced extraterrestrial beings (if existing) would not be radically different from Homo sapiens in physiology and biochemistry. I would expect these creatures to have brains and neuronal systems resembling ours, and thus to have similar thought processes. Stanley Jaki36 comes to the same conclusion on theological grounds. Further we may expect these creatures to be mortal as we are, since without the life cycle biological evolution cannot take place.

On the basis of our present scientific evidence I consider the development of intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos, resembling that on Earth, a definite possibility. However, I shall refrain from assessing its probability, since I think we cannot reliably calculate it. Chaos theory shows that it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the behavior of complex nonlinear systems over a long period of time (chapter 7.3). Moreover, multiplying the probabilities of each separate step in a process like the origin of life may greatly underrate its actual likelihood, because of the occurrence of selforganization. We must also bear in mind that the methodology used in the SETI project allows the detection only of advanced extraterrestrials that have developed television or radar one or more centuries ahead of us in view of the time it takes to reach us.

13.5 Theological considerations: bottomup

I have presented arguments for assuming that advanced extraterrestrial beings, if existing, would show considerable likeness to us humans, in physiological and even mental processes. Because religious awareness is common to all humans through the ages, we may then expect this to arise also in extraterrestrials. This makes it meaningful to trace the development of religious awareness in humans. I call this bottomup theological considerations, because we look at the process from the creaturely side, from nature to supernature.

Animism and polytheism

The earliest evidence for religious awareness in humans is presented by Neandertal burial places with evidence of ritual, dating from about 100,000 years ago.37 Three stages of religious development are commonly distinguished: animism, polytheism, and monotheism.38 Primitive, nomadic humans were utterly dependent on nature, saw nature as sacred, and every natural object trees, rocks, streams as endowed with a spirit. These spirits were thought not only to control the existence of its object (a tree spirit makes the tree grow and spread its branches; a stream spirit makes the water flow) but indirectly also to influence human life by providing shade, water, etc. Rituals were used to ensure the favor of these spirits and to ward off evil. This is animism. Gradually, the spirits of animism came to be seen as deities with a personality, whom one had to please with gifts, sacrifices, in order to survive. Deities were then given a name, and were usually associated with forces of nature, like storm, rain, and thunder. In addition, tribes commonly adopted a territorial god, like the Canaanite Baals and Els in the OT. In a further development one deity came to be seen as more powerful than the others, and featured as a creator god in the creation stories.16,39 This is polytheism.



Monotheism

In the OT we can trace the extended struggle that it took for the people of Israel to advance from polytheism to monotheism.40,41 It is interesting to note that this transition occurred only in tiny Israel rather than in the great nations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. During the Exodus the Israelites chose Yahweh, the territorial wilderness god from Mount Horeb, as their guide and protector, but still only as a tribal god. After many instances of apostasy (see the books of Judges, Kings, Chronicles) their experience during the Babylonian exile led to the conviction that Yahweh is the universal, omnipresent God, the God of all peoples (Is.49:6), the Creator of everything that is, the eternal and only God (Isa.43:10; 45:57,18), to whom the cosmic forces are small and insignificant (Isa.40:12-15,28). Yet, they also come to experience Yahweh as a loving and caring God (Isa.40:11), who seeks to have a personal relationship with his human creatures and who gives them the Law to live by. This posed the question, How can the perfect Yahweh forgive transgressions of his divine Law without compromising his perfect justice? Initially this led to the image of a vengeful god, who ruthlessly punishes the sinner. The prophet Jeremiah sought the solution in replacing the old covenant of Mount Horeb by a new covenant "written upon the heart" (Jer.31:31-34), but he failed to solve the problem that to the ancient mind a valid covenant requires the blood of a sacrifice. Other prophets predict the coming of a Messiah (Mic.5:25; Zech.9:9-10), the suffering servant in Second Isaiah (Isa. 42:14, 50:49, 52:13-53:12), who will bring reconciliation between Yahweh and his people. Here ends the evolution of religious thinking in the Old Testament period, which brought the crucial transition from polytheism to monotheism.



Trinitarian monotheism

Six centuries later the Jewish followers of Jesus of Nazareth (again a small minority) recognize in this Jesus the promised Messiah, who through his death on the cross brings reconciliation, a new covenant. Through their experience of his resurrection they come to see him as the incarnate Son of God. The pentecostal experience in Jerusalem leads to the awareness of the Holy Spirit as our lasting link with God the Father. The Christian Church is born, which grows rapidly and spreads over the entire world. Ten centuries of evolving religious experience of Jews and Christians are recorded in the books of the Bible, Old and New Testament. During the first four centuries of our era the experience of the Apostles is formulated by the Church in the trinitarian monotheistic doctrine of the one God in three persons, Father-creator, Son-redeemer, Spirit-communicator. To me this is the deepest understanding of God that so far has developed in the human mind, even though the trinitarian nature of God remains a mysterious concept.



Morality

Along with this evolution of religious thought in humans went the evolution of moral awareness.42 The first notion of morality can be seen in higher animals in the form of kin concern, reciprocity and altruistic behavior 43 and in primitive humans. The first moral codes were developed by Egyptians and Babylonians. The precept of 'eye for eye, tooth for tooth' in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, where it was restricted to the elite, is taken over into Jewish law, where only foreigners are excluded (Ex.21:23-25). The Jewish code of law is summed up in the Decalogue (Ex.20:1-17), which is based on the covenant of Israel with Yahweh. Jesus affirmed and at the same time radicalized the Law (Mt.5:2148), so that no human can hope to comply fully with it. From a moral code the Law has thus became a mirror showing us our brokenness, from which we can only be rescued by God's intervention in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Having accepted this message, we may in joy and gratitude for our salvation follow the guidelines of the radicalized Law, knowing that the decisive step has been taken by God in Christ (Rom.3:20-26; 8:1-17). Morality has thus developed from group morality, without clear transcendent basis, through morality from a divine Law to morality out of gratitude for God's saving act in Christ. Christian morality, rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, invites all members of the human family to imitate Jesus in their lives, and thus to share in his work of salvation. In this way kin concern, reciprocity, and altruism have evolved into a communal ethic with an emphasis on love (agape).

From these considerations it appears that evolving religious experience with an associated moral awareness is a universal phenomenon among humans. It seems to me quite reasonable to assume that a similar religious evolution will take place in the development of any extraterrestrial advanced creatures. However, we must recognize that religious evolution on Earth has led to other faiths beside the Christian faith: continuing Judaism and Islam as closely related monotheistic religions, Hinduism and Buddhism as other forms of religion. Which kind of religion(s) may eventually have developed in any extraterrestrial culture can thus not be answered by bottomup considerations. So I shall now move to topdown considerations, based on the JudeoChristian image of God.


13.6 Theological considerations: topdown

Cosmic revelation and salvation

Religion can be seen as the result of the interaction between divine revelation and human experience. This means that the development of religious thinking among humans, described in the preceding section, can be considered to reflect the interaction of God's progressive selfrevelation with increasing human understanding in the evolution of the human race. The experience of the presence of Yahweh with them during the Babylonian exile led the Jewish prophets, particularly Second Isaiah, to the conclusion that Yahweh is not only the God of Israel, but the Creator of the entire universe (Gen.1 was written in the same period). Thus we may say that God is also the creator of any possibly existing extraterrestrials. He is the universal, omnipresent God of all peoples, Jews and Gentiles (Isa. 49:6), and thus also of any extraterrestrials. In the early Church Christ came to be seen as the cosmic Christ (Eph.1:20-23; Col.1:15-20; Heb.2:7-9; see chapter 10.2), as the universal Redeemer (that the world [kosmos] might be saved through him, Jn.3:17; in Christ God was reconciling the world [kosmos] to himself, 2 Cor.5:19). This means that the creative work of the Father, the saving work of Christ and the communicative action of the Holy Spirit will apply just as much to any creatures on another planet as they do to us. Van Vorilong (c.1450) already stated that Christ's death on Earth can bring salvation to the inhabitants of other worlds, even if there were an infinite number of these worlds, viz. extrasolar planets on which advanced life has arisen.44 Then we may also expect that the one God of the universe will have made himself known to them, as he has progressively revealed himself to us humans.


Would they be sinful?

This leads to the question: Would such extraterrestrial beings also be sinful and in need of salvation? Thomas Campanella (1616) did not think so: they do not descend from Adam and thus are not tainted by his sin, so they do not need salvation, unless they have committed another sin.45 In this somewhat simplistic reasoning he bases himself on the doctrine of original sin, which is untenable in the light of our scientific insights about the origin of humankind and the weakness of its biblical and theological foundation. Over against this I claim, in agreement with most current theologians, that the story of the Fall in Gen. 3 does not concern a unique, historical event but describes in mythical form the condition common to all humans, namely, the human ambivalence of being both image bearers of God and sinners grasping for equality with God. It is likely that this would also apply to any extraterrestrial creatures, for the following three reasons: (1) in my view such beings will have a similar way of thinking as we possess; (2) such creatures will also have received freedom of will as an expression of God's love, giving them the possibility for disobedience; (3) in view of the operation of remaining chaos in the entire universe these creatures will also be affected by it. Thus there seems to be good reason to expect extraterrestrials to be sinners just as much in need of salvation as we are. I would even claim that salvation and reconciliation will come to them at the same time as to us, namely when Christ at his triumphant return will definitively banish the remaining element of chaos from the universe.


Would this require multiple incarnations?

Another question is: Would this require a repetition of Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection for our extraterrestrial brothers and sisters on their planet? Van Vorilong said that it would not be "fitting" if Christ would have to come to another world to die again.44 This is the expression of a sentiment, rather than a rational theological statement. E.L. Mascall has discussed the question in a more theological way.46 He first rejects the "extreme kenotic view", according to which in the incarnation Christ would have scaled down his divinity to the limits of humanhood; in which case the incarnation could hardly have taken place simultaneously on two different planets. He also rejects the idea of a second incarnation after Christ had already been taken up in glory. But, Mascall says, the orthodox view is that the incarnation is not the conversion of Godhead into human flesh, but rather the taking up of humanhood into Godhead, so there is no reason why another finite rational nature of inhabitants of another planet could not also be taken up in this way, in other words that several incarnations would be possible. Brian Hebblethwaite47 has argued against the possibility of multiple incarnations, but strangely, he believes that this also rules out the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life.

My answer to the question about multiple incarnations follows a different line of thinking, but also leads to the uniqueness of Christ's incarnation. Over the centuries popular Christian belief has narrowed down the significance of the incarnation to being merely the prelude to the salvation of us humans. I rather recognize, with Paul (2 Cor.5:19) and on the basis of our insight in cosmic and biological evolution, in Jesus the cosmic Christ. The human Jesus, like us made of 'stardust', is united with the entire cosmos and thus through the incarnation he becomes the cosmic Christ. Incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, taking place in Palestine 2000 years ago, are of cosmic significance and lasting validity. These epochal events bring salvation to us, who live 2000 years later in other parts of the planet, yes, to all humans who ever lived on Earth at any time and at any place. And not only to humans, but to the whole creation that "has been groaning in labor pains until now and waits with eager longing" for its final liberation, as Paul says (Rom. 8:19, 22). Why not then to creatures on another planet? There is no need to assume multiple incarnations!

The universe is a single system, evolving in a process where the simple leads to the complex: inorganic matter leads to organic matter, organic matter to living matter, living matter to mind or spirit. The highest principle of unity in our universe is spirit. This insight led William Temple 48 to introduce the concept of the sacramental universe. In a sacrament the spiritual and the material are intimately related, with spirit being first and last and with matter being the effective expression of spirit. Likewise, in the universe God expresses himself in absolute supremacy and freedom through the evolution of matter to life and of life to human spirit, which is then united to God through his love in the new kingdom. On the basis of my earlier argumentation that extraterrestrials, if they exist, will strongly resemble us in body and mind, I suggest that they also will participate in the reconciliation brought about by Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection 2000 years ago in Palestine, without requiring a repetition of these events on their planet. And as God has made the message of Christ's saving work heard in all times and in all corners of our planet, so he will also bring it in an appropriate way to any of his creatures on another planet: God's communicative Spirit fills the entire world. They will then also be offered the opportunity to participate in the New Creation that we expect to be part of. If we should never succeed in meeting them in this world, then we shall certainly meet them in the next world – at least if they exist! This will not require any radical change in our theology, merely the willingness on our part to share with them not only the unique place in the cosmos that we had assumed for ourselves, but also our salvation. All this I believe to follow logically from our present scientific insights and a reasonable extrapolation of Christian theology.


If our search is in vain

And what if none of the ongoing search projects detects any signal from an advanced civilization outside our solar system? A negative finding would not be conclusive: we may have to look further into the universe with its billions of stars or find entirely different ways of searching for the existence of extraterrestrials. And what if the findings continue to be negative, and the scientific community comes to the conclusion that we do seem to be alone in this vast universe? Then we must remind ourselves of the fact that even if advanced creatures arose only on Earth, this still required the vast universe of which we are part: gravity would have made a smaller universe collapse far too soon to permit prebiotic and biological evolution to proceed to the point of the arrival of Homo sapiens. Then we may praise and thank God for his willingness to create this immense cosmos in order to allow us to arise.

13.8 Conclusions and summary

This chapter addresses the question: Could advanced beings exist elsewhere in the universe, and if so, what does this mean for christian theology? Since no advanced life appears to exist on the other planets in our solar system, we must look for extrasolar planets. Search programs are in progress in which scientists by means of radio telescopes with an ultrasensitive detection system watch for microwave signals broadcasted by extraterrestial civilizations on planets of sunlike stars within 100 light years from the Earth. So far no significant signals have been received.

Meaningful references to extraterrestrial life are absent in biblical and nonbiblical creation stories and in other biblical writings. Medieval theologians, like Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, rejected the existence of extraterrestrial life on theological grounds. Only Van Cusa and Van Vorilong (c.1450) accepted the possibility. Even after Copernicus not much interest was shown by theologians. This means that formulating a theology of extraterrestrial life requires some pioneer work.

As to the likelihood of extraterrestrial life, our present ideas about the origin of life on Earth suggest that life can have arisen on other earthlike planets. Such planets have not yet been detected, but with more refined techniques they will probably be detected. In view of the many requirements to be satisfied by star and planet, the number of suitable candidates will be small, though not zero.

What can we predict about the life that could have developed on such a planet? Everywhere in the universe the same chemical elements and physical and chemical laws exist. Extraterrestrial life will then be based on carbon as the only element able to form the longchain compounds (DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids) essential for growth and replication of living cells. Since all earthly species have basically the same biochemistry, DNAbased replication, and genetic code, I suggest that advanced extraterrestrials (if existing) will resemble humans and have similar brains and thought processes.

The development of religious awareness in humans is traced, expecting that a similar process would occur in any extraterrestrials. From a Christian point of view God is the Creator of the entire universe and thus also of any extraterrestrials, while the cosmic Christ is the universal Redeemer and the Holy Spirit will communicate with extraterrestrials as with us. The one God of the universe will have made himself known to them, as he has to us.

Would such beings be in need of salvation? They would be affected by the cosmicwide remaining chaos and thus be sinners, as we are. Their salvation would not require a repetition of Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection on their planet, since these events in Palestine 2000 years ago are of cosmic significance and lasting validity. As God brought the message of Christ's saving work to humans in all times and in all corners of our planet, so he will bring it to his creatures on another planet. Their salvation will coincide with ours on the Last Day, when Christ will definitively banish remaining chaos from the entire universe. All this logically follows from our present scientific insights and from a reasonable extrapolation of Christian theology.

Notes and references


1. Chapter 13 of the author's book "Creation and Double Chaos", Fortress Press, 2005.

2. William Markowitz, The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified Flying Objects, Science, 157:12741280, 1967. Sociologist William S. Bainbridge notes that the New Paradigm in the sociology of religion states that religion is an inevitable feature of all human societies and that secularization merely weakens old religious movements to the advantage of new ones – rather than marking the triumph of science over religion. (William S. Bainbridge, Extraterrestrial Tales, Science, 279:671,1998).

3. Michael J. Crowe, A History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Zygon Journal of Religion & Science, 32 (no.2), 147162, 1997.

4. Donald Goldsmith, The Quest for Extraterrestrial Life, University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA, 1980, p.4.

5. Donald Goldsmith, ref.4, p.6.

6. Donald Goldsmith, ref.4, pp.1719.

7. Donald Goldsmith, ref.4, pp.2427.

8. Stephen Webb, If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens....Where is Everybody? Springer, New , 2002.

9. Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart. Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life, Wiley, New York, 2002.

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18. Donald Goldsmith, ref.4, p.8.

19. Donald Goldsmith, ref.4, pp.1016.

20. W.B. Drees, ref.17, p.264.

21. W.B. Drees, ref.17, pp.264268.

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27. Steven J. Dick, Cosmotheology: Theological Implications of the New Universe, In ref.24, pp.191210.

28. A claim for a direct observation of a 'hot Jupiter' has recently been made (Mark Peplow, Hubble photographs extrasolar planet, Nature news, 14 May 2004).

29. Robert Irion, Planet hunting gets rocky as teams clash over small worlds, Science 305, 1382, 2004 Sept.3.

30. Martin E. Beer et al, How special is the Solar System? Astrophysics, online astroph/0407476, 22 Jul 2004).

31. J.P. Moreland, ed. The Creation Hypothesis, Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1994, pp.16570.

32. Robert Irion, Are Most LifeFriendly Stars Older Than the Sun? Science 303, 27, 2004 Jan.2.

33. David Bradley, The Genome Chose Its Alphabet With Care, Science 297: 17891791, 2002.

34. Jeffrey L. Bada, Extraterrestrial Handedness?, Science, 275:94243, 1997.

35. John Horgan, The Sinister Cosmos, Scientific American, 276 (no. 5): 1618, 1997.

36. S.L.Jaki, Cosmos and Creator, Regnery Gateway, Edinburgh, 1980, pp.124.

37. Sjoerd L. Bonting, Schepping & Evolutie: Poging tot Synthese [Creation & Evolution: Attempt at Synthesis], Kok, Kampen, the Netherlands, 1996, pp.9496 (English translation available: <s.l.bonting@wxs.nl>).

38. George K. Park, ed. Systems of Religious and Spiritual Belief. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago, vol. 26, 1989, pp.569616.

39. Sjoerd L. Bonting, ref.37, pp.154161.

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41. Karen Armstrong, A History of God: From Abraham to the Present, The 4000 Year Quest for God, Heinemann, London, 1993.

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43. Frans De Waal, The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist, Basic Books, New York, 2001.

44. W.B. Drees, ref.17, p.263.

45. W.B. Drees, ref.17, p.262.

46. E.L. Mascall, Christian Theology and Natural Science, Longmans Green, London, 1956, pp.4045.

47. Brian Hebblethwaite, The Impossibility of Multiple Incarnations, Theology 104 (no.821): 32334, 2002.

48. William Temple, Nature, Man and God. MacMillan, London, [1934] 1960, pp.473495. Paul Tillich also recognized a sacramental aspect of nature [Henry Carse, Simple Water, Consuming Flame; Nature, Sacrament and Person in Paul Tillich, Theology, 99 (no.787): 2227, 1996].

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