Recently at the end of the meal after Sunday service, a parishioner asked me an unexpected question:
“Is there life on Mars?” Or more precisely: “Is there intelligent life on other planets? What is the Church’s view on this?”
I began my answer with the fact that, with all the hype around this subject in the mass consciousness, there is still no objective scientific evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, highly developed aliens, or even any primitive living beings anywhere in outer space.
The arguments that are being put forward in favor of the existence of extraterrestrials are extremely dubious.
The existence of non-human intelligent beings in the universe is a matter of faith, not knowledge. This topic appeared in the seventeenth century and was discussed mainly among astronomers and intellectuals who recognized the infinity of the cosmos. Then they were joined by some esotericists.
In the mass consciousness, the belief in aliens has been persistently promoted since the 1940s in the United States, from where it has spread throughout the world. Ufology, a pseudoscience that “studies” UFOs and aliens, came into being in the same place and at the same time.
The main rational justification for believing in forms of non-human intelligent life on other planets is the infinite cosmos theory, which claims it is likely that there are other non–humanoid cultures in it. Again, this idea cannot be confirmed or refuted experimentally.
Thus, ufology is based on a dubious assumption, paradoxical in that it contradicts all human experience. After all, all material things are limited in time and space. Limitedness is an essential property of material existence. How then can we assume the infinity of the totality of limited material objects, phenomena and processes?
“Well, even if space is not infinite, it is still so enormous that other rational beings and realms inhabited by them may exist in it,” ufologists argue.
Again, this is just a bold assumption that cannot be verified in any way. And you can either accept it on faith or not. In your choice, everything depends on the worldview that you adhere to.
For all its scientific groundlessness, today ufology is an extremely important phenomenon of global mass consciousness and mass culture. At the same time, its influence on people is steadily growing.
This happens through purposeful propaganda in the media, literature, cinema and other forms of art. Stories about “UFOs” and “alien encounters” have become, in fact, the mythology of our cosmic age. Nowadays many if not most people tend to believe more in the existence of aliens than in angels.
Why is this happening? I think it’s because the alien/UFO theme is extremely convenient for distracting people’s attention from their real earthly problems. Modern Western politicians, with the help of the media and modern art, have learned to use it masterfully to manipulate people’s minds—by intimidating them with a possible alien threat or by encouraging them with possible benefits of communication with other civilizations.
Strangely enough, believers and even clergymen are influenced by UFO propaganda as well. Thus, a friend of mine, a seminary teacher, after reading about UFOs in newspapers, began to tell his seminarians about the existence of space aliens in his dogmatics lectures. Fortunately, the seminarians perceived his words more as a joke than the truth, writing a quote from the Holy Scriptures on the blackboard: The Lord preserveth the strangers (Ps. 145:9).1
Unlike secular people, who have nothing to shield them from the pressure of propaganda, we believers have a source of true understanding of reality—the Holy Scriptures, from which we should proceed when solving any issues, including the above-mentioned one.
At the same time, it should be taken into account that the Bible does not have answers to all questions without exception. The Bible is not a scientific textbook. These are books that focus on recounting the sacred history of man’s salvation by God. Everything here is subordinated to this central theme, including the teaching on Creation, its origins, structure, and movement in time and space.
There is no question of the existence of any intelligent aliens in the books of Holy Scripture, and, accordingly, there is no direct answer to it.
It follows from this fact that this theme is absolutely unnecessary for the Christian faith and for our salvation. After all, everything we need for meeting Christ and converting to Him, for faith and enlightenment by grace, for transfiguration and deification (theosis) in the Church, was revealed to us by the Lord in the Word of God to the fullest extent possible for our perception and understanding.
On the whole, what the Scriptures do not say is not important for Christian consciousness and life. If God had deemed one or another topic to be important and relevant to us, He would surely have mentioned it. If He didn’t mention something, it means we don’t really need it.
However, based on what God has revealed to us, we can speculate on extraterrestrials, since this theme worries many and distracts them from what is truly important, and for many it is a spiritual temptation. Especially where ufology has become a kind of new “religious faith”.
Its adherents quite seriously claim that life on our planet has an extraterrestrial origin, that the gods, spirits and heroes of different religions are “aliens”, including Christ Himself.
Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose; 1934–1982) of blessed memory, who lived in the United States and had extensive knowledge of ufology—which was born there—called it a new religion and yet another sign of the “post-Christian faith”, along with various Eastern cults.
According to Fr. Seraphim, work of the demonic powers is hidden behind UFO phenomena. The so-called UFOs, gray and green humanoids, are new forms that the demons take to tempt and delude modern people.2
Hieromonk Seraphim repeatedly expressed a strongly negative evaluation from a spiritual perspective of some people’s interest in “extraterrestrial rational beings”, stating that it not only distracts, but also leads people who are carried away by this phenomenon away from God. In his view, there are no intelligent material beings in the created world other than humans. All appearances of such beings are nothing but demonic temptations.
Fr. Seraphim’s position is understandable. After all, there were too many victims of this unhealthy interest before his very eyes. And he himself, in the course of his spiritual quest, might have become one of such victims.
However, there is also another, milder approach towards ufology among the faithful. Those who hold this attitude do not take the claims of ufology seriously, regarding it as pseudoscience. At the same time, they basically do not deny the possibility of discovering other intelligent life forms in the universe in the future. They believe that if it happens, then the Church will have to formulate its official position on this. So far this has not happened, and, therefore, there is nothing to discuss.
It should be noted that there is currently no single official conciliar stance of any of the Local Orthodox Churches, or of the entire Orthodox Church, on the problem of ufology.
It remains for us to study the existing opinions of theologians on this subject and reflect on their arguments based on the text of the Holy Scriptures in its Patristic interpretation.
How can the Holy Scriptures help us in the question of the possible existence of intelligent life on other planets? Let’s try to analyze this.
The Bible is, firstly, theocentric; secondly, geocentric; thirdly, anthropocentric; and fourthly, soteriological. It is the Word of God addressed to man on Earth, written down by people and for people for their salvation.
It speaks about God Who created the invisible spiritual and visible material worlds. Our planet, the Earth, is in the center of the visible world. Man—the crown of all Creation, both visible and invisible—was created and settled on Earth by God.
Let us emphasize that man is the last and therefore the most perfect being in all Creation—in the entire cosmos. God created the living beings of the visible world as the perfection of their natures grew. There is not and cannot be any more perfect being than man. After all, immediately after the creation of man, He [the Creator] rested on the seventh day from all His work (Gen. 2:2)—that is, He stopped creating new beings.
Those who believe in aliens consider them superior beings to humans, more intelligent and more developed. This directly contradicts the Biblical teaching on man as the crown of Creation.
God’s creative will extended from the inanimate to the animate, from the earth to the plants, from the fish to the amphibians, and from them to the birds and the mammals (Gen. 1:1–25).
Lastly, God created man in His own image and likeness as a rational, free, spiritual and corporeal being that is capable of loving (Gen. 1:26-27).
In Divine Revelation there is no mention of any other corporeal intelligent beings in the universe. Even if we assume that the Scriptures are simply silent about the existence of extraterrestrial beings, they should still be less perfect than humans, less intelligent, less free and less capable of love.
However, reason, freedom and love do not tolerate any measuring; there cannot be “more” or “less” of them. They either exist or don’t exist. There is an incommensurable gap between the intelligent, free, and loving beings and those who do not possess these capacities.
On the one hand, there is God as an uncreated infinite Mind, Freedom and Love; there are the angels as created bodiless minds, freedom and the ability to love; and there is man as a created corporeal mind, freedom and the capacity to love. On the other hand, there are all unintelligent and unfree animate and inanimate creatures and objects. On the one hand, there are spiritual beings and spiritual and corporeal beings. On the other hand, there are animate and corporeal creatures and inanimate and material objects.
In the Biblical coordinate system, the existence of other intelligent corporeal beings other than humans is absolutely unnecessary and illogical.
God cares for all of His Creation, and most of all, for man whom from the very beginning He bestows with the gift of God-likeness and the bliss of Heavenly communion with God (cf. Gen. 2:8).
God has continued to take care of people even after they betrayed Him by committing the fall, plunging themselves and the whole world into corruption and death.
Let us emphasize that the state of the whole world and cosmos directly depends on the spiritual state of the human beings. Corruption and death entered the world through man’s sin. Through man’s coming back to God, the whole world must be healed of corruption and death.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:19–21).
This means that the real state of any alien beings, if they exist, should depend on the spiritual state of human beings. If they exist, they must be ontologically dependent on it by their very nature.
God prepared the salvation of people, as well as of all the visible created world, and accomplished this salvation through the incarnation of the Son of God—that is, through assuming the entire human essence (with the body and soul) while retaining His Divine hypostasis.
In Christ as the God-Man are accomplished the redemption, sanctification, transformation and deification (theosis) of the human essence. In the Church as the Body of Christ the forgiveness, purification, sanctification, transformation and deification (theosis) of those human beings who believe in Christ and love Him are accomplished.
As you can see, there is simply no place for any aliens in the Christian teaching on salvation. It focuses on the relationship between God and people, on which the healing and renewal of the entire cosmos directly depends.
Dear people, don’t believe in aliens! This belief is false and not saving. Believe in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Father and the Holy Spirit, and in the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity. Believe in the Orthodox Church of Christ. And live in accordance with this faith.
And then you will never be scared by any horror stories about aliens.
