U.F.O.s, Aliens and the Christian Worldview – 2

Why should Christians reject the popular hypothesis that UAPs/ UFOs are aliens from another planet?

1. This phenomenon has had the nature of the demonic for as long as it has been recorded. U.F.O.s act far more like poltergeists than like ambassadors or explorers from another world. Appearing and disappearing, visible to some but not to all, manifesting often when people are asleep, exhibiting apparent control over space and even time – these are the acts of fallen spirits, not alien astronauts.
2. People who have experienced “encounters” have often been involved in some form of the occult: astrology, seances, palm-reading, Tarot, Eastern meditation, crystal healing, astral projection, and assorted New Age practices. A high concentration of encounters has also been recorded in geographical areas still given to spiritism and shamanism. In other words, there is a connection between dabbling in the occult and encounters with these “non-human intelligences”.
3. Many of these phenomena have actually been “called” or “invited”. New-Age devotee Steven Greer conducts “CE5” encounters, where he invites attendees to invite and summon appearances in the sky. Skywatch is a company that employs ex-military and intelligence operatives that include “psionics” who draw these encounters. This is the same phenomenon as the channeling actions of a shaman, spiritist, medium, witchdoctor, or necromancer. It’s simply being given scientific or secular names.
4. Some of the phenomena have been mischievous (crop-circles), some of it has been sadistic (cattle-mutilations), and some of it has been abusive and malevolent to human beings. These are not the actions of highly-evolved spirit brothers intent on bringing world peace.
5. All encounters have explicitly or implicitly left the message that Christ is not the only way, that salvation is found within man’s own consciousness, and that all religions (or none) have equal benefit.
6. Some have reported that invoking the name of Jesus has caused the appearance or visitation to cease altogether.
7. Many researchers, including secular and non-religious ones, have rejected the idea that these beings are extra-terrestrial space-farers. For example, J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee both came to the conclusion that they are “intra-terrestrials” or “ultra-terrestrials”: some kind of intelligence already present on the earth, interacting with humanity.
8. A space-faring physical race would still be subject to the speed of light and the laws of physics. Light-speed travel would require thousands of years of travel from some stars, and create near-insurmountable obstacles regarding the mass and energy of such a space-vehicle. Some get around this problem by saying these “Non-Human Intelligences” are “inter-dimensional”, which is really another way of saying that they are not biological beings traversing cosmic distances in normal fashion.
9. One would think that beings with “technology” that can traverse the galaxy would not keep crashing their vehicles once they reached the earth and encountered our radar, or even a missile from a fighter jet. That’s as plausible as imagining a human drilling into an ant-hill, the drill malfunctioning due to the ants’ technology and the human getting marooned on the anthill. Instead, supposed ‘crashes’ smack of deception: things left to confuse, mislead, and deceive.
10. Sentient, physical beings from another planet would present a theological problem, and it is precisely that theological problem that the phenomenon seems determined to produce. The problem is this: if sentient, physical beings exist somewhere else in the cosmos, then they are either fallen or unfallen. According to Paul, the whole cosmos has been affected by Adam’s fall (Ro. 8:19-23), which would undoubtedly have brought effects (somewhat unfairly) on unfallen physical beings elsewhere. If such physical beings are fallen, then the question is how they could be redeemed: could Christ be incarnate somewhere else? The particularity of the Incarnation, and therefore the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus’ name, is the doctrine ever under fire by demons and false religion. The extra-terrestrial theory is designed to undo faith in the exclusivity of Christ by presenting supposedly empirical ‘evidence’ that we are not alone.