Are Aliens Among Us?

If we simply channel-surf a bit or scan through the offerings on Red-Box or stroll through Game-Stop, we can see a plethora of alien and futuristic "Star Trek" style stories.  Everything from "X-Files" to "Star Trek" to "Clone Wars" to the "Faster-than-light travel" of "Mass Effect." 

Simply stated, this is all fiction and obviously so.  But, where does this stem from?  Where does our craving for this kind of story originate?  What in society has made such a fiction become plausible enough for us to be interested in it without rejecting it outright? 

I wonder if this can mostly be traced back to the writings of H.G. Wells around 150 years ago.  Whether or not it originated there, most science fiction appears to try to be based, at least somewhat, upon real science.  That is, "Star Trek" would often use technical and theoretic physics terms.  Even more generally, there is often a theme of space being the "final frontier".  Here, we hearken the days when the 13 colonies of America were on the edge of a continent with thousands of miles of "uninhabited" land beside them.  There appears to be so much potential.  There appears to be plenty of room for growth and expansion.  Space would appear to be the next "Western" with all its opportunities and vices.

This is the myth that society has taught us.



But, how much truth is there in this myth?  Is there a possibility of life outside of Earth?  Are there habitable planets outside of our solar system?  There is much that is unknown and the little that we do know is often hotly debated. 

Serious scholars, from my perception, appear to fall into a gradient between two camps:
1. "17%, or one in six, of all the sunlike stars in the Milky Way host a rocky planet that orbits closer than the distance at which Mercury orbits our own sun."  National Geographic
2. On other planets, "Life is pretty improbable"  NASA

Agreed, this is a bit of a simplification of the matter.  But the essential debate is over the largeness of the universe and the fine-tuning Design necessary for life.  Both ideas are often misunderstood and must be accounted for. 

The modern myth often emphasizes the largeness of the universe as can be best expressed in Carl Sagan's belief that if there was no other life in the universe that it would be a lot of wasted space.  But, the often passed over aspect is the real fine-tuning Design that is necessary for life as we understand it.

Some argue, perhaps with some validity, that the fine-tuning Design adherants are unwilling to consider the possibility of life on other planets.  Such a possibility, from their perspective, has much greater probability than from the perspective of those who focus on the fine-tuning Design aspects.  Yet, the the possibility is still there, and it stands as a legitimite question.  If life exists on other planets elsewhere, and especially if that life is intelligent and sentient, where would this life come from?  Is it randomly generated from a chemical soup as proposed in the modern myth?  Is it created at some point?  If so, how? 

So many questions to answer and so many questions that we don't have an answer to.  It often reminds me of Job's response to God's list of questions in Job 38-39.  In Job 38-39, we see God listing a bunch of scientific questions out to Job, questions that Job does not (and would be unable to) have an answer to.  Sometimes, in the questions that we face, we can only respond as Job did:

"I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
 I spoke once, but I have no answer—
twice, but I will say no more."  -- Job 40:4-5


Though the modern myth is of space as the "final frontier", Hamlet had a more theological approach of death as the "undiscovered country."  Indeed, Hamlet was not a theologian nor intending to speak theologically, but his focus on the realm of the dead shows a different focus and a different societal orientation. 

As a Christian, I look forward to this "undiscovered country."  It is our blessed hope.  2 Cor 4 teaches us that we can have hope in a resurrected body after our body corrodes and we die.  This is indeed a different orientation than often propounded in the modern myth. 

I like the response seen in Pilgrim's Progress:

Christian: I seek an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that
   fadeth not away, 1 Peter 1:4; and it is laid up in heaven, and safe
   there, Heb. 11:16, to be bestowed, at the time appointed, on them that
   diligently seek it. Read it so, if you will, in my book.