Discovering Alien Life Will Change Nothing
There has been a great move to demote the Earth and humankind from central importance. Copernicus showed that the Earth is not the center of the universe. The Earth revolves around the Sun and so do the other planets. The Moon revolves around the Earth, but other planets have more moons. The Sun is a very ordinary star, not even at the center of its own galaxy, but about 30 000 light-years from the center in one of the spiral arms. The Milky Way galaxy is but one member of a local cluster of galaxies. The Andromeda galaxy, another member of the local group, is comparable in size to the Milky Way. There are billions of galaxies and clusters of galaxies spread throughout the known universe.
Some people have concluded from all this that the Earth is like an insignificant grain of sand lost in an immense ocean. It may be small in comparison to the giant planets, to the galaxy, and to the universe, but is it insignificant? To us it will always be significant. It is our home.
It is true that we are not at the center of things. “Man is the measure of all things” was the pagan creed of the first of the sophists, Protagoras (Greek philosopher, about 480 BCE–about 411 BCE). Plato refuted the doctrine, but it dies hard.
“If we can’t be the center, then nobody will be,” is an angry but all too human response. Soon astronomers may refine planet detection methods enough to find Earth-sized planets. Most of these will probably be in systems that rogue giant planets disrupt, but perhaps a few will be part of a tranquil arrangement like the one we have in our solar system. When enough extra-solar systems are found, we can assess the probability that a star might have an Earth-like planet, rich in the chemical variety needed for life, free of catastrophic disturbances. Even if the probability is one chance in a million, people will immediately multiply the probability by the number of stars in our galaxy, 100 000 million. They will then conclude, for example, that there are 100 000 Earth-like planets in our galaxy. Some people have already decided that life inevitably arises wherever conditions are suitable for it. Once again they will claim that the Earth is hardly unique or significant.
When that happens, nothing in the dialogue about the origin of life will change. If alien life or even alien intelligence is found in other parts of the universe, the Darwinists will of course say that Mother Nature got creative and made it without divine help. The panspermia advocates will say that the same advanced civilization that sowed life on Earth planted the other life there also. Some people will continue to search for a kind of life, not based on atoms, which designed our life. Bible believers will identify that life as God, and will say He made life and intelligent organisms on other planets, too.
If it is really true that the Earth is the only planet with life or intelligence in the universe, then the Earth has tremendous importance. If there is atom-based intelligence elsewhere in the universe, there still may be unhappy reasons that make the Earth unique. Ours might be the only planet with conflicts, war, or even death. In that case the great interstellar distances may be a kind of quarantine until the inhabitants of Earth improve their relationships with each other. On the other hand, if extraterrestrials come to attack us, they are just as bad as we are.
Some people have concluded from all this that the Earth is like an insignificant grain of sand lost in an immense ocean. It may be small in comparison to the giant planets, to the galaxy, and to the universe, but is it insignificant? To us it will always be significant. It is our home.
It is true that we are not at the center of things. “Man is the measure of all things” was the pagan creed of the first of the sophists, Protagoras (Greek philosopher, about 480 BCE–about 411 BCE). Plato refuted the doctrine, but it dies hard.
“If we can’t be the center, then nobody will be,” is an angry but all too human response. Soon astronomers may refine planet detection methods enough to find Earth-sized planets. Most of these will probably be in systems that rogue giant planets disrupt, but perhaps a few will be part of a tranquil arrangement like the one we have in our solar system. When enough extra-solar systems are found, we can assess the probability that a star might have an Earth-like planet, rich in the chemical variety needed for life, free of catastrophic disturbances. Even if the probability is one chance in a million, people will immediately multiply the probability by the number of stars in our galaxy, 100 000 million. They will then conclude, for example, that there are 100 000 Earth-like planets in our galaxy. Some people have already decided that life inevitably arises wherever conditions are suitable for it. Once again they will claim that the Earth is hardly unique or significant.
When that happens, nothing in the dialogue about the origin of life will change. If alien life or even alien intelligence is found in other parts of the universe, the Darwinists will of course say that Mother Nature got creative and made it without divine help. The panspermia advocates will say that the same advanced civilization that sowed life on Earth planted the other life there also. Some people will continue to search for a kind of life, not based on atoms, which designed our life. Bible believers will identify that life as God, and will say He made life and intelligent organisms on other planets, too.
If it is really true that the Earth is the only planet with life or intelligence in the universe, then the Earth has tremendous importance. If there is atom-based intelligence elsewhere in the universe, there still may be unhappy reasons that make the Earth unique. Ours might be the only planet with conflicts, war, or even death. In that case the great interstellar distances may be a kind of quarantine until the inhabitants of Earth improve their relationships with each other. On the other hand, if extraterrestrials come to attack us, they are just as bad as we are.
Creative Design Suits the Universe for Life
Even if some previous form of life sowed our life in the universe, that fact does not explain why the universe itself is fit for life, unless the previous form of life created the universe.
We use intelligence and information when we speak of our own ability to think and our own ability to organize. Then we ask where these capacities come from.
Obtaining information and using it intelligently overcomes disorder. The universe began in a highly organized state. That must mean that a powerful, pre-existing, intelligent form of life created it.
The Apostle John meditated on Moses’ creation narrative and began his gospel as follows:
We use intelligence and information when we speak of our own ability to think and our own ability to organize. Then we ask where these capacities come from.
Obtaining information and using it intelligently overcomes disorder. The universe began in a highly organized state. That must mean that a powerful, pre-existing, intelligent form of life created it.
The Apostle John meditated on Moses’ creation narrative and began his gospel as follows:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood {Or darkness, and the darkness has not overcome} it–John 1:1‑5.
John notes in Moses’ account that the first light shone after God spoke. The word of God was therefore prior to the formation of the light from the darkness. If we understand that when God speaks, He is expressing His timeless decrees, then the word of God already existed when time began. All created things including created intelligence owe their origin to uncreated intelligence. John deduces that the Word was involved from the beginning in the making of the universe.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet and dramatist, 1749–1832) wasn’t satisfied with John’s reading of Moses’ creation account and tried to improve on it. In Faust: Der Tragödie (“Faust: The Tragedy”) Goethe wrote a scene in which Faust decides to translate John’s Greek into German. He rejects the priority of the Word and tries “der Sinn” (“the mind”), then “die Kraft” (“the power”) and settles on “die Tat” (“the act”).
God’s almighty power had to act to provide the energy for making the universe. That satisfies the requirements of the first law of thermodynamics. But God had to use His power with intelligence, as the second law says. Everybody knows that “acting without thinking is like shooting without aiming.” Goethe was wrong. John was right because he followed through on Moses’ thought.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet and dramatist, 1749–1832) wasn’t satisfied with John’s reading of Moses’ creation account and tried to improve on it. In Faust: Der Tragödie (“Faust: The Tragedy”) Goethe wrote a scene in which Faust decides to translate John’s Greek into German. He rejects the priority of the Word and tries “der Sinn” (“the mind”), then “die Kraft” (“the power”) and settles on “die Tat” (“the act”).
God’s almighty power had to act to provide the energy for making the universe. That satisfies the requirements of the first law of thermodynamics. But God had to use His power with intelligence, as the second law says. Everybody knows that “acting without thinking is like shooting without aiming.” Goethe was wrong. John was right because he followed through on Moses’ thought.
The Quest Continues
Some have plunged into science and forgotten all about God. Others kept their faith by hiding out in a kind of spiritual bomb shelter and calling all scientists liars. A few have developed their gifts for science and still kept their faith, tested though it may have been. These last are the heroes of the quest.
From here on the quest begins for some and continues for others. Bible believers have nothing to fear. All of precision science is consistent with the Bible. Bible believers may reasonably expect that when other sciences approach precision they will confirm the Bible also. At that time Bible believers will have to retain some flexibility in their interpretations. It will still be possible to mix our adult, modern ways of thinking with the message of the Bible. The most reliable guide will still be to interpret the Bible as a small child understands it, because children are unhindered by a huge accumulation of conflicting ideas learned from adults who have this or that point to press, and because the God of the Bible makes Himself understandable to children.
We need not oppose science or the teaching of science. Some people who call themselves scientists will still promote unbridled speculation as if it were proven fact, provided it fits their own prejudices. However, Bible believers who know enough science will easily distinguish science from speculation, and they can alert others. We will continue to Test everything. Hold on to the good–I Thessalonians 5:21.
The number of prominent evolutionism promoters has been decreasing rapidly in recent years. Younger biologists realize that Darwinism is a dead end. Since the appearance of new species has never been observed, there is no experimental work to be done, and the plausibility arguments have been hashed over ad nauseum. Gene sequencing has opened up important new lines of biological research. It is certain to produce something much more complicated than the gradual evolution of one species from another. At present the great advances in biology are in the field of medicine, where Darwin hardly has anything to say. Talent goes where the action is.
Darwinists think that a lucky accident began life as we know it. Stephen Hawking comments on the similar proposal some make to explain the beginning of the universe. He says, “Was it all just a lucky chance? That would seem a counsel of despair, a negation of all our hopes of understanding the underlying order of the universe.”[i] Luck is incompatible with order. Our explanations should not mix the two.
Some people would stop doing research if they knew that origins are traceable back to divine intervention. They say, “In that case there is nothing to investigate.” There truly would be nothing to investigate if the capricious pagan gods started everything for arbitrary reasons. But that idea is also inconsistent with the “underlying order of the universe.” The God of the Bible is not like that. One of the proverbs of Solomon says, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings–Proverbs 25:2. The God of the Bible works according to the laws He has made. He hasn’t revealed the laws of physics, but we can search them out. In the time of Solomon only kings had the resources to do research. It is still true in our days that the government sponsors research. When research finds laws and order, it is finding evidence of God’s good purposes and creative design.
Let us continue our quest. Much remains to be discovered, and some of it will be beneficial to humankind. We will know the truth, and the truth will set [us] free–John 8:32.
[i] Hawking, Stephen W., The Theory of Everything (Beverly Hills, California: New Millennium Press), p. 115.
From here on the quest begins for some and continues for others. Bible believers have nothing to fear. All of precision science is consistent with the Bible. Bible believers may reasonably expect that when other sciences approach precision they will confirm the Bible also. At that time Bible believers will have to retain some flexibility in their interpretations. It will still be possible to mix our adult, modern ways of thinking with the message of the Bible. The most reliable guide will still be to interpret the Bible as a small child understands it, because children are unhindered by a huge accumulation of conflicting ideas learned from adults who have this or that point to press, and because the God of the Bible makes Himself understandable to children.
We need not oppose science or the teaching of science. Some people who call themselves scientists will still promote unbridled speculation as if it were proven fact, provided it fits their own prejudices. However, Bible believers who know enough science will easily distinguish science from speculation, and they can alert others. We will continue to Test everything. Hold on to the good–I Thessalonians 5:21.
The number of prominent evolutionism promoters has been decreasing rapidly in recent years. Younger biologists realize that Darwinism is a dead end. Since the appearance of new species has never been observed, there is no experimental work to be done, and the plausibility arguments have been hashed over ad nauseum. Gene sequencing has opened up important new lines of biological research. It is certain to produce something much more complicated than the gradual evolution of one species from another. At present the great advances in biology are in the field of medicine, where Darwin hardly has anything to say. Talent goes where the action is.
Darwinists think that a lucky accident began life as we know it. Stephen Hawking comments on the similar proposal some make to explain the beginning of the universe. He says, “Was it all just a lucky chance? That would seem a counsel of despair, a negation of all our hopes of understanding the underlying order of the universe.”[i] Luck is incompatible with order. Our explanations should not mix the two.
Some people would stop doing research if they knew that origins are traceable back to divine intervention. They say, “In that case there is nothing to investigate.” There truly would be nothing to investigate if the capricious pagan gods started everything for arbitrary reasons. But that idea is also inconsistent with the “underlying order of the universe.” The God of the Bible is not like that. One of the proverbs of Solomon says, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings–Proverbs 25:2. The God of the Bible works according to the laws He has made. He hasn’t revealed the laws of physics, but we can search them out. In the time of Solomon only kings had the resources to do research. It is still true in our days that the government sponsors research. When research finds laws and order, it is finding evidence of God’s good purposes and creative design.
Let us continue our quest. Much remains to be discovered, and some of it will be beneficial to humankind. We will know the truth, and the truth will set [us] free–John 8:32.
[i] Hawking, Stephen W., The Theory of Everything (Beverly Hills, California: New Millennium Press), p. 115.