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Friday, July 25, 2008
NASA UFO Coverup and Intergalactic Jesus
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
With the news that Apollo 14 astronaut and moonwalker Edgar Mitchell has claimed that NASA covered up alien existence and UFO visits to Earth, Christians will once again be faced with the strange theological question of not only alien souls, but the role that faith in Christ plays intergalactically.
It is rather common for people, conspiracy theorists or not, to admit a belief in the existence of intelligent life on another planet. But as soon as a belief in aliens gets juxtaposed with religious belief—a comparison too often ignored—a cognitive dissonance surfaces, calling into question how Christian theology ought to handle intelligent life on other planets.
Firstly, one must wonder if aliens must take Christ as their personal savior to become “saved.” This is a basic tenet to Christian faith, and many Christian alien-believers will admit that, yes, intelligent life anywhere in the universe must be saved by Christ.
The next question, obviously, is whether these aliens will be forced to worship Christ in his human form, or whether Christ has appeared on all the planets with intelligent life—a kind of intergalactic tour, of sorts.
Many Christians to whom I have posed this question opt for the intergalactic Christ model, reasoning that it would not make sense for aliens to worship a human.
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25 Jul 2008 at 09:34 am | #
Aw, come on Dean, with the War in the Middle East, The Health care crisis, the job crisis, the mortgage crisis, global warming, the virtual shredding of our Constitutional rights, and immigration fairness, now you want us to start worrying about how we are supposed to deal with visitors from outer space? Vera Z
25 Jul 2008 at 09:53 am | #
I contend that it would not make sense for the aliens to need to be saved. Man needs to be saved due to the original sin of Adam. We need to be saved because we are all descended from that one man and his chick (the ever tempting Eve). Aliens...not being descended from Adam and Eve (not adam and steve, mind you) would not need to be saved, as they had committed no original sin. Of course, this presupposes that the Aliens have not committed any other sins that we can be aware of.
On the other hand, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is all forgiving and does not request that anyone be saved.
25 Jul 2008 at 06:25 pm | #
I personally don’t think so. Christ, according to Christian theology, came to save us humans because of our fallen condition. Aliens, if they exist, did not fall with us.
One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, explored this theme in his so-called space trilogy, especially in the first two books: Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Lewis is perhaps better known today as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia.
25 Jul 2008 at 10:27 pm | #
In the story of creation God looked at his creation (us) and saw that it was very good. Then it says he made a deep sleep fall over him. There is no reference to him waking up. Upon tasting the fruit of the tree of knowledge his eyes were opened into a new world. He was ashamed and hid himself from the Spirit that had given him life, image and likeness. His eyes were open to contradiction and he began to judge everything on that basis.
What man lost was his Cause and what he gained was time. Everything in the universe was thought into existence. Thought is creative and that is where are we are created equally. Through thinking we shape our worlds into what we want. Often I find I tell myself I had no choice, however, that is simply not true.
The curse that God described was man’s split mind through which he became self aware. We became aware of the outside world and lost touch with our Cause and the world within. Fool that he is, man watches tv and pretends this is all real important. Especially those in busyness think all this is real. I must work hard so I can get some green paper strips and little metal disks in order to feel secure. What that brings is the illusion of security. None of us have a guarantee about anything in our lives. Christ’s message was wake the fuck up! You are doing this to yourselves. The prodigal son is us collectively lost in this world. Our hiding place from God, who lives within us and makes our hearts beat. When the Spirit leaves, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Enjoy it while you are here for tomorrow may not come for some of us. There is no security in this world. Have faith and you will be forgiven, as you forgive.
26 Jul 2008 at 07:04 am | #
But MEP, that does not mean they didn’t fall!
How is an Earthling missionary supposed to know the difference?
26 Jul 2008 at 01:14 pm | #
The first step, of course, would be for the missionaries to find the aliens. By the way, a couple months ago the Vatican newspaper had an article about the possibility of alien lifeand how that would not contradict Catholic teaching.
In C.S. Lewis’s book, Out of the Silent Planet, the hero, Dr. Ransom, is kidnapped by two Earthmen and taken to the planet Malacandra where he escapes and finds refuge among the native inhabitants. He learns the language and realizes that they are living the Christian ideal even though they never heard of Jesus. It is he who learns from them.
Of course this is fiction. We’ll have to wait until such time we meet—or the government allows us to meet
—real aliens.
28 Jul 2008 at 01:05 am | #
"There are more things in Heaven and in Earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy,” Hamlet. You want to know whether aliens from another planet need to be saved? Perhaps they have come to save us from destroying ourselves and our planet. Who knows? The truth is we don’t even know who or what we are or if we need to be saved. All we know is that we are born and we die, and as for whether we existed before or will continue to exist after this space of time, we don’t really know. Of course we have the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, and any number of other Holy Books to guide us through life, but how do we know? Vera Z
28 Jul 2008 at 10:32 am | #
We know because the “truth is out there”....
Really though,I don’t think that aliens would be bound by Christian rule. Their exsistance pre-dates that of JC (as can be established by Anunnka Hypothesis) by something like 6,000 years.
If one wanted to get analytical, one could even deduce that perhaps aliens are the true Messiahs, as their missinary work on earth began WAY before JC made his debut. Not to mention, “evidence” of alien exsitance and human interaction can be found in ancient writings and early Christian art.
Either way, the image my imagination just whipped up of the 62-foot Jesus off I-75 making an intergalatic tour is a fantastic way to start off my Monday!
28 Jul 2008 at 04:34 pm | #
but how do we know?
libriangirl responded with, “We know because the “truth is out there”,
If “the truth is out there”, it is so interspersed with lies and fantasies how do we find it? Most Christians would respond with, “We know because the Bible tells us so.” but the Bible leaves so many gaps for us to try to fill in on our own, that we mere mortals are left to interpret it in so many different ways and we are still depending more on our imaginations than on “Truth”. Vera Z
28 Jul 2008 at 08:01 pm | #
Vera Z., Vera Z., Vera Z.,
In re: “the truth is out there”.
I was quoting the X-Files… It was a joke. A bad one apparently, as often I forget that everyone isn’t as much as a dork as I am.
I don’t believe in absolute Truth(s). I find that most “Truths” are generally illusions meant to help people cope with the reality of nothingness.
I think Shakespeare did the best job of explaining Truth when he said that art holds a mirror up to nature. If nature is really the only absolute Truth that we have, our only way of exploring, knowing, and expressing this Truth is through art. Therefore music, literature, visual, and performance art are really the only way we can experience Truth. It explains the transendant feelings one feels when experiencing a truly brilliant work of art.
Nietzche also does a great job of outlining my feelings about this in: “Truth and Lying in a Nonmoral Sense”. Fantastic read--as long as you are not prone to suicide.
30 Jul 2008 at 05:38 am | #
Thanx, librariangirl, I plan to read “Truth and Lying in a Nonmoral Sense by Nietzche soon. I did get the quote from the X-Files, I’ve used it myself, on more than one occasion. I don’t believe that Truth is absolute either, but neither do I believe in the “reality of nothingness?”. But then, of course the only thing I am certain on is that I know nothing for certain. Vera Z
30 Jul 2008 at 09:09 pm | #
Vera,
Start with the premise that only truth is true. Then trace your genealogy all the way back to its beginning. God only made one son. Adam was the creation of a Perfect Father that is all loving, powerful and wise. Man was created in the image and likeness of his Creator and given the power to create by thinking. Everything man made is the manifestation of thought. From jellybeans to viagra someone thought about it. Nothing is more powerful than thinking. Thinkers guide the world and lead us forward. Our educational system teaches us to memorize and regurgitate facts and our media ensures we don’t wake up and recognize our gift. Television is the great american wasteland and it controls our lives. After reading Psycocybernetics or some other bs where they compared the mind to a computer, some 30 years ago, I came to the conclusion that there is a reason they call it tv programming. Needless to say garbage in, garbage out applies.
You said “The only thing I am certain on is that I know nothing for certain.” This is the best possible position to be in although it is the most uncomfortable. Being in a position of “I don’t know” leaves the mind open to learning. Once you arrive at “I know” the mind is closed and no further need exists for questioning our beliefs. As humans, we feel safer when our world is in a neat little package and doesn’t challenge our belief system (bs). Reality is unpredictable and there are no guarantees about anything. We have no security anyplace on this planet. Change is constant and we cling to illusion because we fear change rather than welcome the adventure. “It came to pass” is one of the more frequent passages in the Book. Not once does it say “it came to stay.” Live each day as if it was your last and one day you’ll be right.
Our world is one of ideas and fortunes change constantly. In 1980 Bill Gates went to Seattle because he couldn’t find investors in Albuquerque for his little company, Microsoft. In the 1900’s energy fortunes were held in New England based on whale oil. When oil was discovered in Pennsylvania everything changed and we started on the path we pursue today.
If you want to change your world, change your mind. The terrorists would have us live in fear and that is what we are experiencing in these united states today. Terrorists need Love too, because they are the most frightened and live behind a cloud of secrecy. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” makes no judgment about what they do. This is the highest form of Love and is so far from fear that it doesn’t allow for doubt about His words. Love the people while you remove them from office and get them out of our country for their detestable actions. Love and fear cannot co-exist any more than light and darkness, for when the light shines the darkness disappears.