Intelligent life on other planets

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roseproject

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Is it possible that God could’ve created other “humans” living on other planets, that is, beings created in the image and likeness of God and having a spiritual soul (even if they don’t physically look like us)?
And if this is possible, how would these “humans” obtain salvation? Would Christ have had to appear to them too…assuming that these humans would have made the choice to reject God?

Thanks in advance 🙂
 
roseproject said:
Is it possible that God could’ve created other “humans” living on other planets, that is, beings created in the image and likeness of God and having a spiritual soul (even if they don’t physically look like us)?
And if this is possible, how would these “humans” obtain salvation? Would Christ have had to appear to them too…assuming that these humans would have made the choice to reject God?

Thanks in advance 🙂
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I can’t think of any reason that it couldn’t be that way. I’ve often wondered the same thing…
 
I consider it odd there is life on earth let alone humans and all the abundant forms of complex life on earth.

A monk many centuries ago once thought there were people on the moon or some planet in the Milky Way. I can’t remember which. He saw what appeared to be flickers or bonfires of light and concluded the people to be a merry people that indulged in a lot of celebration.

Science and the bible offer interesting stories of how a non-populated earth became populated by the mathematical presence of 1 and 2.

Maybe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe or maybe this is just a lonely universe which humans emotionally have trouble handling. I don’t know. But I’ll believe in aliens when I see them. Would be funny if they look like leprechauns though. It would be a new experience for me to be a giant.

If they exist though, and if God created the world, then I guess God created them (intelligent life elsewhere) too. I don’t know how to answer the Jesus part. I’ll defer to the philosophers with that.
 
roseproject said:
Is it possible that God could’ve created other “humans” living on other planets, that is, beings created in the image and likeness of God and having a spiritual soul (even if they don’t physically look like us)?
And if this is possible, how would these “humans” obtain salvation? Would Christ have had to appear to them too…assuming that these humans would have made the choice to reject God?

Thanks in advance :)/QUOTE

In the movie “Contact” it was said this universe would be a lot of wasted space if it is just only us. It is not revealed to us if there is life out there. I mean God has not told us and we haven’t asked Him when He was here. It seems there may be possibilty because of the immense size of the universe. Why wouldn’t God create other peoples? He is in the creating business. I am an astronomer and studied a bit about the universe. We know from our telescopes and other measuring instruments that the farthest light we can see is 14 billion light years away. That means for us to see that light it must have traveled 14 billion years for us just to see it. Amazing! This universe is not young. Since from calculations the earth is approx 4 billion years old and that humanity is only contained in a very small time zone it can actually point to God developing other human societies on other planets while the earth is being formed. While this is only speculation there is nothing really to rule it out. May be God works only at one planet at a time and we are the ones presently alone in the universe. After our time ends God will create another human socity to work with. It’s a possibilty.
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roseproject said:
Is it possible that God could’ve created other “humans” living on other planets, that is, beings created in the image and likeness of God and having a spiritual soul (even if they don’t physically look like us)?
And if this is possible, how would these “humans” obtain salvation? Would Christ have had to appear to them too…assuming that these humans would have made the choice to reject God?

Thanks in advance 🙂
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The Jewish perspective accepts intelligent life on other planets with enthusiasm but does not believe such life would be mandated to receive the Torah in the same way the Jewish people are. IOW, G-d would handle their salvation (which is not really a concept in Judaism in the same way as in Christianity) in a different way.

BTW, what do you mean by intelligent life on OTHER planets? Do you think there is intelligent life on THIS planet?
 
It is undoubtedly possible that there are other persons in the universe but they need not have been redeemed in the same way as human beings. No one could have predicted the immense variety of life on this planet, let alone the Incarnation! The extent of divine originality and creativity is far beyond the limits of our imagination…
 
There’s no reason why there couldn’t be, but I don’t think there is any evidence to suggest that there is.
 
There was an astronaut that was well respected in the scientific community that said NASA has proof of alien life. You can find it on YouTube.
 
I once read that satan loves when people divert their attention away from God with this silliness. Curiosity killed the cat.
 
meltzerboy said:
BTW, what do you mean by intelligent life on OTHER planets? Do you think there is intelligent life on THIS planet?
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LOL. Good one.
chimo said:
In the movie “Contact” it was said this universe would be a lot of wasted space if it is just only us.
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I am an astronomer and studied a bit about the universe. We know from our telescopes and other measuring instruments that the farthest light we can see is 14 billion light years away. That means for us to see that light it must have traveled 14 billion years for us just to see it. Amazing!
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Dr. Chimo, then you’re aware the universe is mostly “wasted space”?

The earth is enormous at human scale but if viewed from the scale of say… the universe itself, then the earth is about the size of a grain of sand and humans would be what… smaller than bacteria or viruses maybe? And there is enormous gaps between each of the grains of sand (cosmological bodies like planets), some as far in distance from one another as a light year or more if I recall correctly?

Which is an enormous universe beyond my comprehension of scale.

But what I can comprehend on scale, or try to a bit at least, is a female reproductive egg being roughly 10 or 15 micrometers I believe. Or roughly the size of this dot or period → .

That’s pretty big. Humans would be even far smaller than that.

Some of these planets are so far away… as you alluded to… that if planets are roughly the size of grains of sand then one grain of sand would be located in the center of Milwaukee and another in the center of Chicago and most empty space between the two.

So, the universe might rightly be described as mainly “wasted space” I would think.
 
There is no reason other intelligent civilizations couldn’t have their own “Redeemer”, like we have Jesus.

Since Jesus is not a human person but a divine person, the Son of God would be the person of all these Redeemers.

Each civilization would owe it’s allegiance only to it own Redeemer.

The Redeemers might be aware of each other, but would not need to know details about each other’s histories.

God might choose to mix civilizations up in Heaven. On the other hand, he might choose to keep civilizations separate forever. Why? I don’t know.
 
empther said:
There is no reason other intelligent civilizations couldn’t have their own “Redeemer”, like we have Jesus.

Since Jesus is not a human person but a divine person, the Son of God would be the person of all these Redeemers.

Each civilization would owe it’s allegiance only to it own Redeemer.

The Redeemers might be aware of each other, but would not need to know details about each other’s histories.

God might choose to mix civilizations up in Heaven. On the other hand, he might choose to keep civilizations separate forever. Why? I don’t know.
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Interesting idea, but I think it may pose some challenges to Christian theology.
 
TimeEntrance said:
LOL. Good one.

Dr. Chimo, then you’re aware the universe is mostly “wasted space”?

The earth is enormous at human scale but if viewed from the scale of say… the universe itself, then the earth is about the size of a grain of sand and humans would be what… smaller than bacteria or viruses maybe? And there is enormous gaps between each of the grains of sand (cosmological bodies like planets), some as far in distance from one another as a light year or more if I recall correctly?

Which is an enormous universe beyond my comprehension of scale.

But what I can comprehend on scale, or try to a bit at least, is a female reproductive egg being roughly 10 or 15 micrometers I believe. Or roughly the size of this dot or period → .

That’s pretty big. Humans would be even far smaller than that.

Some of these planets are so far away… as you alluded to… that if planets are roughly the size of grains of sand then one grain of sand would be located in the center of Milwaukee and another in the center of Chicago and most empty space between the two.

So, the universe might rightly be described as mainly “wasted space” I would think.
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It was just a line from a movie that got you thinking, that’s all. If you are not interesting in this vast universe except for this earth that is your priveledge. Some of us like to venture beyond this earth because God created it as well. If we put more of energy in the awesome realities of God’s creation we would be thinking more about Him. I am open to the fact our God is bigger than this earth. But that does not take away what people think about when they only think of this earth. If we broaden our horizons a bit either way this is what the character means when he says “wasted space”. He is just saying it is good if we just be open to other possibilities.
 
With the advent of incredible telesopes and other astronomical instruments we are able to bring the universe into your home. The fantastic images from the world’s first orbiting telescope will astound you if you will only take a look at its images. The exploration and discovery of everything out there is telling us much about God and His creative works and ways. Just look at the Eagle Nebula and its rising pillars of circling hydrogen gases that has given the nickname “Pillars of Creation” by astronomers. These gases are producing stars right in front of these telescopes lenses. Each of these pillars are giantic in size for the smale nodules coming from their end points are the size of our solar system. God is creating new stars and new solar systems right in front of our eyes and what is amazing is this nebula is 7000 light years away and the pillars are a large 9 light years in distance. This thing is massive yet the Hubble telescope can see it as if it is next door to us.

All of this is teaching us how God made everything. It is primarily through one element hydrogen which is the simplest of all of the elements in the table of chemistry. God made eveything out of this simplest element yet He created this hydrogen initially from nothing. Stars initially start out with this element and eventually with all that burning in the stars the other elements we find on earth are formed. Since a fast burning star can go supernova it will take a lot of stars grouped together to form all the necessary elements to form and create our earth. Not all stars go supernova and our sun was this kind of star. If you check out the Eagle Nebula we can see thousands of stars are being formed. This tells us our own Solar System may have evolved in the same way. There was not one star but many more in the beginning of our Solar System. Since God needs chemical elements to form and make the Earth He did so by making all these stars in the beginning. Since our Sun stayed around the other stars went supernova so as to put these elements necessary to make for instance planets. Radium one of the newest elements discovered by Madame Curie made her say when she saw light emit from certain rocks, “It was if a part of the sun is in this rock!” You can say man was created from the simplist form of mud and earth but you can even go back and say we are made from stardust and back further to hydrogen.
 
By the way Dr. Chimo would like to add one more thing to this discussion. Do you know how carbon for instance is made in the furnance of a star. Since hydrogen is the base element of a star it is continously bombarding these hydrogen atoms at fantastic speeds. When two get together we see a new element formed, helium. Helium is number two in the chemical table of contents and most stars see themselves forming from hydrogen to helium. But what happens when more than one hydrogen atom slams together than the usual two. For an example six can come together and form carbon. Carbon is number six in the table of chemical elements. But carbon to be made has to have each of these hydrogen atoms coming together in the same odds for instance when six different people come to visit the same place exacltly at the same time. The other chemical elements are also formed in the furnances of each star. In time all the elements you find on earth are in each star. When some of these stars go supernova you have the means to make planets and even yes solid planets. And from these solid planets the means for humanity to live on.
 
chimo said:
It was just a line from a movie that got you thinking, that’s all. If you are not interesting in this vast universe except for this earth that is your priveledge.
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I don’t know why you would say that or think I thought that?

I was only recounting some things I learned in a first semester online astronomy course. One not a prerequisite for my major.

I did not realize how vast the universe was until I took that course. But it helped to re-frame some of my perspective. I also did not realize how empty outer-space is.

But one theme in the pedagogy of the sciences of biology, chemistry, and astronomy at my university I’ve begun to notice is that of attempting to get the student to have some idea of measurable scale. “Big” or “small” aren’t sufficient communicators of the scales of a cell with a selectively permeable membrane with all its organelles organized and seemingly intelligently functioning, or the sheer size of the universe those cells form and live in.
Some of us like to venture beyond this earth because God created it as well. If we put more of energy in the awesome realities of God’s creation we would be thinking more about Him. I am open to the fact our God is bigger than this earth. But that does not take away what people think about when they only think of this earth. If we broaden our horizons a bit either way this is what the character means when he says “wasted space”. He is just saying it is good if we just be open to other possibilities.
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I’m not nor was I discouraging anyone from venturing beyond planet earth.

I was speaking about the sheer size and emptiness of outer-space. Also, science fiction and relegating one’s self to facts, laws, theories and what can be known or not known, as the scientific process goes, are not necessarily the same thing. The former might inspire the research or hypotheses in the latter but it is not in and of itself science.

Science is big on quantification and drawing from facts. I believe in angels for example. Science would require proof of their existence not what “I believe” and it would ask me further to quantify how many angels there are, at least give an approximation. If possible it would want to know the molecular structure of these being and how they derive energy. Are angles made of elements unknown to humans and not on the periodic table?

Talk of intelligent creatures on other planets strikes me as a biology student as akin to speculating on the make-up of angelic creatures. Neither are science. The only thing we o know of life let alone intelligent life is from planet earth. Plus, I think a biologist along with bio-mathematican Ian Stewart have pondered if intelligent life in a galaxy light years away may be essentially incorporeal beings. Christians say angels are incorporeal beings. But see how serious someone in science takes you or atheists take you if you openly question and ponder if angels inhabit planets far away from earth?
 
chimo said:
By the way Dr. Chimo would like to add one more thing to this discussion. Do you know how carbon for instance is made in the furnance of a star. Since hydrogen is the base element of a star it is continously bombarding these hydrogen atoms at fantastic speeds. When two get together we see a new element formed, helium. Helium is number two in the chemical table of contents and most stars see themselves forming from hydrogen to helium. But what happens when more than one hydrogen atom slams together than the usual two. For an example six can come together and form carbon. Carbon is number six in the table of chemical elements. But carbon to be made has to have each of these hydrogen atoms coming together in the same odds for instance when six different people come to visit the same place exacltly at the same time. The other chemical elements are also formed in the furnances of each star. In time all the elements you find on earth are in each star. When some of these stars go supernova you have the means to make planets and even yes solid planets. And from these solid planets the means for humanity to live on.
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I think humanity needs more than just a carbon based planet to live on. But more importantly, if the theory of evolution is correct, life on another planet would evolve–likely–differently than life on earth.

I still have trouble seeing how a single cell comes into existence out of colliding molecules and how out of that it gives birth to the Amazonian forests and the Tupi Indian.

http://www.mongabay.net/images/wren/amerindians-0.gif

But don’t get upset with me. I have trouble with how from Adam and Eve their son Cain went out and gave birth to an unpopulated earth. They both tell an incredible story.
 
There are 100,000,000,000 galaxys, each one containing 100,000,000,000 stars. Mathematically it is close to certainty that there are millions of other civilisations.
There is no empirical evidence. However,statistics is very reliable. For example,imagine a randomly shuffled deck of cards. I do not know for sure that the cards are ordered by suit and value. However, it is obvious that that is very very unlikely. Similarly, it is very unlikely that there are no other civilisations in our universe.
 
wittgenstein said:
There are 100,000,000,000 galaxys, each one containing 100,000,000,000 stars. Mathematically it is close to certainty that there are millions of other civilisations.
There is no empirical evidence. However,statistics is very reliable. For example,imagine a randomly shuffled deck of cards. I do not know for sure that the cards are ordered by suit and value. However, it is obvious that that is very very unlikely. Similarly, it is very unlikely that there are no other civilisations in our universe.
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Ah yes… the statistics.

This comes from people to me that don’t realize how complex a single eukaryotic cell is let alone the 50 or more trillion cells (differentiated for specialization) that make up the human body.

The empire state building is far less complex than one human on planet earth. So, in my view, the empire state building should have been “statistically” created on earth and should have equivalents on many other planets in other galaxies, birthed out of random molecules colliding and absent of any intelligent designer (intelligent life).

http://www.empirestatebuildingnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Empire-State-Building-2.jpg

But instead of getting back to my point as to how Adam or Cain and their symmetrical equivalent the first cell on earth birthed all this abundant and diverse life on earth, a regression into storytelling happens, and some meaningless statistics. I’ve never been in another galaxy by the way. I only believe in them because of the stories I’m told the same as Moses and Zeus.

But the biology student in me tells me I’ll believe in aliens and the Loch Ness Monster when I see one. I don’t claim my belief in angels to be based off science either. I claim it to be the symmetrical of belief of intelligent life on other planets (planets I’ve never been to or seen).

Maybe there’s life on electrons? Few seem to have the “imagination” for that. No one has ever seen an electron either. There are certainly more of those than planets in the universe–probably a quadrillion times more. There might be intelligent life on electrons. Tiny humans going to discos.
 
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