Short answer:
The existence of life outside our world has been a mystery
since ancient times. In 1971, eighty-four of the world’s leading
authorities in various fields of science converged in Armenia for a conference jointly
sponsored by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Objective: Solve an equation
formulated to determine if certain radio signals came from extraterrestrial beings.
Result: The world’s top scientists arrived at the consensus that there was only
one technical civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy – the one on planet Earth.
What about UFOs? Biblically, there is nothing about alien conveyances. The closest things to flying saucers in the Scriptures are the flaming wheels that the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel saw beneath the throne of God. Regarding man’s dream of journeying to the stars, the Bible says God has fixed “the bounds of their habitation” and has “appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”
Many reports describe strange
lights in the sky. Angels are lights. Satan can manifest as “an angel of light.” UFOs are said to execute
improbable aerial maneuvers at fantastic speeds. According to the Bible, Satan
is “the prince of the power of the air.”
He can thus perform incredible feats in the atmosphere: “the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.”
Detailed explanation:
Are there humans, humanoids, or
even other forms of extraterrestrial intelligent life out there in the vastness
of outer space? Servants of pharaohs and soldiers of Alexander the Great told
of “shields” in the sky. Medieval monks reported flying vessels. In modern
times, H.G. Wells’ book, The War of the
Worlds, sparked public interest
in 1898; its radio dramatization
caused panic in 1938 when many Americans thought Martians had actually invaded
New Jersey. Since then, alien life has become de rigueur in science fiction books, comics, TV series, movies,
video games.
UFOs and
ETs.
Countless news reports, articles,
and books about close encounters -- sightings, communication, even abductions –
with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrials (ETs) have been
written since the mid-20th century. The first widely publicized UFO
sighting took place in 1947, when American businessman Kenneth Arnold, flying a
small plane near Mount Rainier in Washington, claimed seeing nine
crescent-shaped objects flying at the incredible speed of several thousand mph.
In the newspaper report, Arnold said they moved “like saucers skipping on
water,” giving birth to the term “flying saucer.”
Over 90% of reported UFO's have
been dismissed as bright planets, stars, meteors, aircraft, missiles,
satellites, weather balloons, auroras, peculiar clouds, searchlights, aerial
flares, kites, birds, insect swarms. Radar sightings are more reliable, but
they do not distinguish between artificial objects and meteor trails, ionized
gas, rain, or thermal discontinuities in the atmosphere. Recollections of
abductions are highly doubtful, because of the use of hypnosis to obtain
forgotten, or probably imaginary, information. Many psychologists suggest that
the temporary immobility and sensation of being watched experienced by
“abductees” could be the effects of a common occurrence called “sleep
paralysis.”
Close
encounter of the dead kind. The most celebrated close encounter with
UFOs and ETs is the alleged crash of an alien spacecraft in New Mexico and the
retrieval of the vessel and its dead crew.
The crash supposedly took place on
July 3, 1947. Rancher Mac Brazel found the wreckage a few days later and
notified Sheriff Geo. Wilcox. Irrigation water surveyor Grady Barnett, as well
as a group of archeologists and their students, also saw the debris field. A
detail from the nearby Roswell Army Air Field, led by intelligence officer
Major Jesse A. Marcel, was said to have recovered the partially-crushed
saucer-shaped vehicle and four lifeless non-human bodies in and around it. The
July 8, 1947, issue of the Roswell Daily
Record blared: “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.”
However, the newspaper made an abrupt about-face the following day: “Gen. Ramey
Empties Roswell Saucer.” The news read: “An examination by the army revealed
last night that the mysterious object found on a lonely New Mexico ranch was a
harmless high altitude weather balloon – not a grounded flying disk.”
Case
closed?
UFO researchers later pieced together an incredible picture: The creatures,
with large hairless heads, huge slanted eyes, and long arms with hands of just
four fingers, were wearing skin-tight suits with no visible fasteners. At the
airfield, dozens of witnesses allegedly saw the actions taken to examine the
aliens’ bodies. Dr. Jesse Johnson, Roswell base pathologist, purportedly
revealed the bodies weighed about 40 pounds each. They had heavy brow ridges;
almond-shaped eyes without pupils; mere slits for ears, mouths, and noses
unconnected to internal organs. They had no teeth, gastrointestinal tracts and
alimentary canals, showing they did not eat to stay alive. Their skin,
pinkish-gray with a mesh-like appearance, was tough and leathery. In lieu of
blood, there was only a clear liquid. The bodies were reportedly packed in ice
and flown to Fort Worth, Texas; later, to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.
Project
Blue Book. As sightings increased, in 1948 the U.S. Air Force initiated an
investigation called “Project Sign.” “Project Grudge” followed within a year.
In 1952, “Project Blue Book” began at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in
Dayton, Ohio, to determine if UFOs posed a threat to national security. Out of
12,618 UFO cases, 701 (5.6%) were classified as “unexplained.” The USAF also
commissioned a study at the University of Colorado from 1966 to 1968.
Scientists later concluded that further study of UFOs would not produce any
useful information about a security threat, and Project Blue Book ended in
1969.
In 1997 the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) admitted hiding information about high-altitude spy planes -- the
U-2A and SR-71. These had accounted for over 50% of the UFO sightings in the
late 1950s and 1960s.
From
CETI to SETI.
In September 1971, eighty-four of
the world’s leading authorities in various fields of science converged at the
Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory in Yerevan, Armenia, for a conference
jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Soviet
Union’s Akademiia nauk SSSR. The forum, called “Communication with
Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (CETI), aimed to solve the Green Bank equation
formulated by Dr. Frank Drake of Project Ozma, which attempted to detect radio
signals from extraterrestrial civilizations in 1960.
Green
Bank equation. The formula was N = R*fpneflfifcL,
where:
N is the
product showing the number of extant civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy at
or beyond our level of technological development;
R*
is the rate of star formation, averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy, in
units of number of stars per year (astrophysics);
fp
is the fraction of stars which have planetary systems (astrophysics);
ne
is the mean number of planets within such planetary systems which are
ecologically suited for life (astronomy and biology);
fl
is the fraction of such planets on which origin of life actually occurs
(organic chemistry and biochemistry);
fi
is the fraction of such planets on which, after life arises, intelligence in
some form develops (neurophysiology and evolution of advanced organisms);
fc
is the fraction of such planets on which the intelligent beings advance to a
communicative stage (anthropology, archaeology, and history); and
L is the mean
lifetime of such technical civilizations (psychology, psychopathology, history,
politics, sociology, etc.).
Result? The
world’s brightest minds in their respective fields arrived at the consensus
that there was only one technical civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy – the
one on planet Earth. As astronomer Carl Sagan once said, life on Earth is
unique, “a miracle rather than a statistic.”
Despite the conclusion reached by
CETI, a project called Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) at Palo
Alto, California, continued. Clearly, however, the once highly hopeful “communication”
plan (CETI) had been downgraded to “search” mode (SETI). Undeterred,
astronomers at the Harvard/Smithsonian observatory began using the
Million-channel Extra-Terrestrial Assay (META), a 26-meter, steerable
Cassegrainian radio telescope, in 1985.
Exercise
in futility?
What are the prospects of SETI? The nearest star system is Alpha Centauri, some
4.3 light years away. In the remote event that radio signals transmitted by
intelligent beings are actually received from that sector of outer space,
communication between them and us would require patience. An exchange of a “hi”
and “hello” by radio signals traveling at the speed of light would take 8.6
years, assuming both parties respond promptly. Fair enough. However, farther
out from the Earth the conversation could bore the parties to death, literally,
since introductions alone would take hundreds or even thousands of earth years.
Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus, is 130 light
years away. Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, 150 light years. Spica, the
brightest star in Virgo, more than 500 light years. Pleiades, nearly 800 light
years. Orion, 3,000 light years. The Crab Nebula, 12,000 light years. And these
handful are the nearest.
Space travel beyond our solar
system may simply be no more than a pipe dream. Intergalactic journeys would
have to be made at the speed of light, which is physically impossible. Light
travels at the speed of, well, light, because photons have no mass. Hence, no
physical object with mass, such as a spacecraft, can travel at the speed of
light.
Referring to men, the Bible says God has fixed " the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:26b) and has “appointed his bounds that he cannot pass” (Job 14:5b). Luke, in the first verse, speaks of space limitations; while Job, in the second verse, talks about time limits. In Einstein’s theory of relativity, time and space are interchangeable. So, the message is clear: there are space-time boundaries that man cannot transcend or go beyond.
Invaders
or saviors?
The ETs reportedly belong to two categories. One group consists of invaders who
want to take over Earth and even the bodies of its inhabitants. The second
group is made up of do-gooders with a mission to save mankind from destroying
itself in a nuclear holocaust, ecological devastation, or some other global
calamity. Thus, if or when they eventually reveal themselves, they would be
hailed as saviors! They would pre-empt the anticipated return of the Messiah. “For false Christs and false prophets shall
rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even
the elect” (Mark 13:22).
Some New Age cults nurture the
idea that every inhabited planet in the cosmos has its own avatar or incarnated
savior. Christ’s mission of redemption therefore is only for planet Earth. The
Scriptures, though, declare that salvation through Christ is universal: “And, having made peace through the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether
they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Col 1:20). The phrase “things in heaven” evidently means all
matters pertaining to the universe.
Extraterrestrial
creators?
Others, including some prominent scientists like Nobel Prize laureate Francis
Crick, theorize that the seed of life came to Earth through ancient alien
astronauts. ETs are thus man’s alleged creators, just visiting the planet
occasionally to check on the condition of their creation. In 1968, writer Erich Von Daniken (Chariots of
the Gods, Gods from Outer Space)
started broaching the idea that aliens must be the God of the Old Testament and
man the product of an intergalactic experiment.
One
self-declared contactee, Frenchman Claude Vorilhon (Space Aliens Took Me to Their Planet,
1975), purportedly renamed “Rael” (“light of the Elohim” or “Ambassador
of the Elohiim”?), claims to have been told: “There is no God and no soul.”
With a claimed following of 55,000 in 84 countries, he established an “embassy”
in Israel in preparation for the return of his “creators” from outer space.
What does the Bible say? “The fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God” (Ps 14:1). “And every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this
is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3).
Demonic
deception.
There is no hint about UFOs in
Scriptures. The closest things to flying disks from outer space in the Bible
are the flaming wheels that the prophets Daniel (Dan 7:9) and Ezekiel (Ezek
10:1-17) saw beneath the throne of God. If ancient and medieval men saw ETs,
what would they have called them? They probably did and called them elves,
gnomes, trolls, fairies, etc.
Many reports describe UF0s as
strange lights racing across the sky. Angels are lights (James 1:17, Heb 1:17).
Satan can manifest as “an angel of light”
(2 Cor 11:14). UFOs reportedly execute improbable aerial maneuvers, such as
blinding acceleration to vanishing point and right-angle turns at fantastic
speeds. According to the Bible, Satan is “the
prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2), able to perform seemingly miraculous
feats: “the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess 2:9b).
Alien
anatomy.
Although humanoid, the Roswell ETs were said to differ anatomically from humans
-- with mere slits for ears, mouths, and noses unconnected to internal organs;
and without respiratory, digestive, and excretory systems. How could any living
organism live without breathing and eating? Alleged victims of abductions say
ETs act like droids without minds of their own. Could they have a connection to
the cases of mysterious cattle mutilations in the American West, where body
parts of cows appear surgically removed with some kind of laser? Are those
little gray aliens simply organically made up dummies or droids put together
with animal parts?
Occasionally reported directing
the little ETs are reptilian or tall, blond, Nordic-looking masters of
seemingly great intelligence and beauty. This brings to mind the various forms
of Satan, “the dragon, that old serpent” (Rev
20:2), who was also an angel whose “heart
became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because
of your splendor” (Ezek 28:17, NIV).
The
image of God. Christ, on the other hand, “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature”
(Col 1:15; cf. 2 Cor 4:4, Heb 1:3).
Man has also been created in the “image” and “likeness” of God (Gen 1:26-27). That
image has countless examples of the golden ratio or divine proportion (1:618).
ETs, from the way they are said to look, do not have the divine proportion.
This is of utmost importance, “For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29).
God made Christ and man look
alike, because the spiritually saved will become the brothers and sisters of
His firstborn Son! Obviously, the strange looking ETs are unlikely candidates
to become the brethren of Christ. Besides, without blood in their systems, the
aliens cannot possibly be among the sinners for whom Christ substituted His own
blood on the cross as a ransom or payment for sin.
HalleluYah! Amen.
Excerpted from the book The Deep Things of God and the booklet Cryptic Creatures by M.M. Tauson. Printed copies available at Amazon.com – For free pdf copies of our e-booklets, click the Booklets and/or Google Drive tabs on the menu bar.
Bible quotations are from the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise indicated.
