New!
Author resources • Lorehaven Guild
Podcast sponsors • Subscribe for free
Crew manifest Faith statement FAQs
All author resources Lorehaven Guild Subscribe for free

Into the Darkness
Reviews, Feb 3, 2023

The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
Jenneth Dyck in Articles, Feb 2, 2023

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, Feb 1, 2023

Library

Find fantastical Christian novels

fantasy · sci-fi · and beyond
middle grade · young adult · grown-ups
All novels Search Add a novel
Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
A Sword for the Immerland King, F. W. Faller
Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
Dream of Kings, Sharon Hinck
The Change, Bradley Caffee
Quest of Fire: Desperation, Brett Armstrong
Wishtress, Nadine Brandes
Flight, Kristen Young
The Deliverer, Jason William Karpf
Podcast

Get the Fantastical Truth podcast

Podcast sponsors | Subscribe links
Archives Feedback

147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
Fantastical Truth, Jan 31, 2023

146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 10, 2023

143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 6, 2023

142. What Christmas Gift ‘Tools, Not Toys’ Helped You Grow As a Person?
Fantastical Truth, Dec 20, 2022

Quests

Join our monthly digital book quests.

Lorehaven Guild Faith statement FAQs

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, February 2023

Prince Caspian
Book Quests, January 2023

Dream of Kings
Book Quests, December 2022

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
Book Quests, November 2022

Reviews

Find fantastical Christian reviews

All reviews Request review

Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

A Crown of Chains
“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 27, 2023

Lander’s Legacy
“Lander’s Legacy stacks modern thrills and complex characters on a foundation of biblical what-ifs.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 20, 2023

Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

Gifts

Find new gifts for Christian fans

Archives

The original SpecFaith: est. 2006

Speculative Faith | archives

Lorehaven issues (2018–2020)

Order back issues online!
New
Library
Podcast
Quests
Reviews
Gifts
Archives
Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Subscribe free to Lorehaven
/ SpecFaith /

One Word: Aliens

Would proof of intelligent alien life end the world’s religions?
Mark Carver on Jun 17, 2015
6 comments

I’m a sucker for extraterrestrials. I loved reading conspiracy theory books about Area 51 and Project Blue Book when I was younger. I even faked a very convincing UFO photograph utilizing a discarded hubcap I found in a field. And of course, the movies.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was on Turner Classic Movies the other night (people give me strange looks when I sculpt my mashed potatoes at dinner). I prefer the more aggressive alien movies like Independence Day and the TV show Falling Skies, but it’s nice to have a balance. Heck, I even watch the comedy romp Paul when it comes on.

There was one scene in Paul that never sat right with me. Kristen Wiig plays a jittery Christian who is only a few inches away from brainwashed-cult-fanatic. She spouts some very Bible Belt-inspired phrases in dealing with the intrusion of three aliens into her narrow worldview, although only one of the aliens is actually from outer space. See, the others are two nerds from England, and they’re technically aliens since they’re not from the USA, so it’s like a play on words…never mind…

Anyway, the scene in question involves the alien named Paul placing his hand on Kristen Wiig’s forehead and transferring all of his spacey knowledge into her brain. It’s quite a shock to her system and instantaneously convinces her that her Christian beliefs are a total sham. This in turn prompts her to start groping people and use foul language, but that’s neither here nor there.

Every time I watch that scene, I wonder: why does the existence of Paul negate a belief in God? Would proof of intelligent alien life end the world’s religions? If Klaatu landed in Central Park, what exactly would that mean for us as Christians?

This debate is nothing new, and so far, its only fuel is speculation. Skeptics and supporters point to Bible verses that could either be talking about invading hordes from other planets o33r demonic forces running wild across the Earth (Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 13:5, Revelation 9:7-11, etc.). The Bible does not explicitly refer to life on other planets, or even implicitly for that matter. From a strictly Scriptural perspective, it appears that this planet is the only world in God’s universe with intelligent life, and all other entities live in the supernatural dimension (angels, demons, those who have died). Does this mean there are no aliens? Logically it does not, just as the Bible does not mention black holes or string theory but that is not an argument against these concepts.

Secular scientists take the existence of alien life as a given. I mean, I would too if I started from an atheistic viewpoint. Have you seen that photo making the rounds on the internet recently, the one being labeled as “the largest photo ever taken”? It’s a close-up of a chunk of the night sky and it is staggering. Thousands of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, all contained within a tiny fragment of the sky. Statistically speaking, if life could develop by chance here on Earth, it’s preposterous to think that the same thing wouldn’t happen on at least one of the innumerable worlds out there. Of course, the crux of this argument is exactly how life came to exist on this world, but that’s another discussion.

One thing is clear from the Scriptures – that God is Lord of all creation. If aliens did exist, they would be created by God. Their existence would surely be a head-scratcher but that wouldn’t be enough to make me forsake my faith. But would they be cursed by man’s sin, since “all of creation groans” (Romans 8:22)? If they had the ability to traverse the galaxy, they would have to be highly intelligent and likely made in the image of God as we are. Would it be fair for them to be cursed by our transgressions? Would they be fallen of their own accord? Would they even be fallen at all?

These questions are entirely unanswerable in our present reality, and it’s easy to get lost down a rabbit hole in this debate. The discovery of intelligent alien life, or any life at all, would certainly send the world into a tizzy, but it’s not an automatic stake in the heart of a theistic belief system, though many people certainly hope it would be. Right now, there are hundreds of brilliant people anxiously searching the stars and scanning the radio waves, desperately yearning for contact like a lovesick damsel in a fairy tale looking out her window for the handsome prince to come and make her dreams come true. They’re all looking for the answer to one simple question: are we alone in the universe?

The answer is just as simple: no, we’re not. And we don’t need a telescope to find out.

Mark Carver
Mark Carver writes dark, edgy books that tackle tough spiritual issues. He is currently working on his ninth novel. Besides writing, Mark is passionate about art, tattoos, bluegrass music, and medieval architecture. After spending more than eight years in China, he now lives with his wife and three children in Atlanta, GA. You can find Mark online at MarkCarverBooks.com and at Markcarverbooks on Facebook.
Website · Facebook · Twitter
  1. Tim says:
    June 17, 2015 at 8:24 am

    I still wish we could have first contact and I could move to Vulcan. CS Lewis spoke to this concept before.

    Reply
  2. Autumn says:
    June 17, 2015 at 9:52 am

    Sometimes it really amazes me that some atheists will believe in aliens, something only seen by most of the world in movies invented by humans, yet they will dismiss every possibility of God. They want to chase after aliens and look until they find them, saying they must be there simply because the universe is infinite, ignoring the fact that the same argument could be used to say we should instead look for God, a being that we know isn’t going to invade us.

    I agree that Christianity doesn’t contradict the idea that there might be aliens, and even if it said there weren’t any, that would technically be at the time the bible was written, and God could have created them later. I tend to think we should all just think of it as a possibility and from there live our lives and improve our own planet as we can. We do have a lot of issues to solve as it is.

    Reply
    • Mark Carver says:
      June 17, 2015 at 10:25 am

      Ain’t that the truth. Believing in an all-powerful Creator? Nonsense. Believing in beings from other worlds despite no hard evidence and relying only on statistical probability? Science.

      Reply
  3. Lisa says:
    June 17, 2015 at 2:33 pm

    It’s fun to speculate about aliens, and I love me a good alien-invasion movie with the best of them. My favourite is probably Signs….there is so much in that movie that is NOT about aliens but the alien part is soooooo creepy and Hitchcock-ish….just love it!

    My default answer to any of these speculation-type questions is, why not? God is God, and He can do anything, create anything. It’s interesting to speculate on what that all looks like. I have just finished re-reading Lewis’ Space Trilogy, and I love how he handles this question, too.

    Reply
  4. HG Ferguson says:
    June 17, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    To those who assert aliens cannot exist within the framework of biblical Truth, I am reminded of a quote by Hawkeye (Lee Horsley) in the largely ignored but well-done single-season French and Indian War series HAWKEYE.  Here is my slightly altered version:  “Your God must be mighty small if He can’t handle aliens.”

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      June 18, 2015 at 9:59 am

      The biblical God can certainly handle aliens.

      But a wholly other race of sentient species, either left out of God’s very human-centric gospel-redemption Story (for His glory) or somehow adjunct to it? That’s another matter.

      Reply

What do you think? Cancel reply

Lorehaven magazine, spring 2020

Wear the wonder:
Get exclusive shirts and beyond

Listen to Lorehaven’s podcast

Authors and publishers:
Reach new fans with Lorehaven

Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter