Alien Ideas

Many people believe in extra-terrestrial life. High proportions of these believers are well known for their atheism. Is there a link? It seems that atheism is as unfulfilling as it is hollow- as a race we long for company in this huge, bleak universe. Yet the evidence for extra-terrestrial life forms is sparse indeed. As the 1950 Nobel Prize winner and atomic scientist Enrico Fermi asked “Why haven’t we seen any traces of extra-terrestrial life such as probes or transmissions?” Seventy years later and his question still stands.

Gary Bates, an Australian researcher, quotes the Fermi paradox in working out that if the universe is 15 billion years old, and assuming that alien forms are as curious about space as we are, then we should have met them by now. Even allowing a million years or so of travel between the first alien colony and its home-planet, they should have begun other colonies, doubling their number every million years. After 20 million years, he calculates there would be a million alien planets or colonies. After 40 million years, there would be a trillion civilisations- all this from just one species of alien. So if the universe is 15 thousands million years old, it should be teeming with alien life. No doubt the universe is so huge we may have missed them, but it seems odd that they have kept so quiet in the process. 

Some groups have converted the belief of extra-terrestrial life into something of a religion, claiming these beings created life on earth and continue to watch us from afar. By rejecting God, we attempt to fulfil our longing for fellowship by seeking alien life forms. The atheistic world-view is drab and dreary, meaningless and empty. By rejecting our loving Maker, we seek to fill His void with other things:

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. Romans 1:25

Image by Ribastank from Pixabay