SETI public: The aliens according to gospel?

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The aliens according to gospel?

Religious leaders discuss beings on other planets

By Brad A. Greenberg, Staff Writer

Article Published: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 8:06:49 PM PST

God only knows if there's life on other planets.

"War of the Worlds,' which opens in theaters today, is sure to stir
meta-planetary curiosities among more than just UFO spotters and "X-Files'
fanatics.

Many Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders say the revelation of
extraterrestrial beings would not contradict their theological beliefs.
Rooted in the dogma of Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists is the existence
of aliens.

And one group believes the God of Genesis was a group of space-traveling
scientists.

But is the truth really out there?

"We believe that mankind originated with Adam and Eve. And their habitat is
the Earth. But (Allah) told us there are some other things we don't know, so
there could be other creatures in the universe,' said Mustafa Kuko, director
of the Islamic Center of Riverside.

Scientists have found no evidence of aliens or even microbes outside of
Earth. Mars and Europa, a moon of Saturn, are the two best habitats for life
in our solar system, said Pamela Conrad, an astrobiologist at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. The organic compounds of life
have been discovered elsewhere but not "assembled into anything that looks
like life.'

The theological significance of extraterrestrial life has been debated for
centuries. In the Middle Ages, as today, some argued that God could have
created worlds better than ours; others maintained that Earth was the center
of God's universe.

"Although it became heretical to deny that God could create other worlds, it
was dangerous to claim he had,' Joseph L. Spradley, a physics and astronomy
professor at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., wrote in 1998 for a
fellowship of Christian scientists.

The verdict from most Christians is still out. However, many theologians
say, if God did create other worlds and other people, that would not
contradict the biblical story of the sin of man being redeemed by the son of
God.

"How God shares the story of creation and of love and of the ultimate hope
for the restoration of all things in God's design, I think that can be
worked out in many different ways,' said Philip A. Amerson, president of the
Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary.

There could be different paths to God on different planets, Amerson said.
Others accept a more traditional salvation model.

"Saint Paul would suggest to indicate, and it is just a hint, that if there
is life on other planets, and these beings needed salvation or redemption,
the death of Christ on planet Earth would be a sufficient price,' said the
Rev. John Jefferson Davis, a Presbyterian and professor of theology at
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston.

Another possibility is that extraterrestrials would not need atonement,
Seventh-day Adventists believe. Because these beings would not have been
borne of Adam and Eve, they would be perfectly moral beings incapable of
sin.

"The science-fiction version of life on other planets and the Adventist
interpretations would certainly be at odds,' said Calvin Thomsen, associate
pastor at University Church in Loma Linda.

Also at odds with widespread scientific thought would be the belief of a few
thousand Americans that aliens created humans.

The group's founder, a French journalist named Rael, claims he was visited
by an alien in 1973 who said: "We were the ones who designed all life on
Earth.... You mistook us for gods,' according to the movement's Web site.

Aliens who visit Earth are gentle beings, said Ricky Lee, the leader of the
U.S. Raelian Movement.

"It's not possible that extraterrestrials that can go from one planet to
another are violent or malevolent. If they were, they would have destroyed
themselves before they had the technology to leave their own planet,' said
Lee, a Las Vegas resident.

But who knows what else could be out there.

"It is an infinite universe so there are infinite civilizations,' Lee said.

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