Did Jesus ever visit Mars?

[Faithless]

In many ways, our view of religion is close minded to our little blue ball. The following article talks about Christianity and "alien" life, but it can be extended to all our world's religions.

Humans Are Not God’s Only Intelligent Works

Can anything in the Bible be reconciled with the concept of aliens? A Jesuit astronomer mulls Mars, scripture, and more.

The successes of the recent Mars probes have rekindled interest in the religious significance of planetary exploration, especially the question of how the possible existence of alien civilizations reconciles with Christianity.

The plurality of worlds has been long discussed by Christian theologians. Invariably, they conclude that it is a bad idea to underestimate God’s creative powers. But it is still legitimate to ask if such civilizations are consistent with our own understanding and experience of what God is likely to do. Even Einstein defended his theories by noting that, “The Lord is subtle, he is not malicious.” However, we should also remember that our understanding and experience is always incomplete. The Lord may not be malicious, but He sure can be subtle at times!

Is there anything in the Bible that can be reconciled with the concept of alien civilizations? I don’t mean the kind of nonsense that attributes every miracle to an alien technology zapped from UFOs. But at several junctures, we are reminded that we’re not the only intelligent life God created.

There’s that odd and mysterious passage at the beginning of Genesis describing the sons of God taking human wives and a passing reference to “The Nephilim ... the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” Likewise, God asks Job if any human can claim to have been around at the creation, “when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy.” These heavenly beings come up several times in the Psalms, including a beautiful passage in Psalm 85 that calls for praise of the Lord from the heavens, the holy ones, the hosts: for “the heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the universe and all that is in it — You have founded them.”

Granted, most traditional scholars interpret these passages as referring to angels. But angels themselves are an explicit illustration that we are not alone in being creatures made to know and love God.

And consider John’s famous good shepherd passage: “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

In context, these “other sheep” are presumably a reference to the Gentiles, not extraterrestrials. But it is certainly intriguing to read this with alien civilizations in mind. Perhaps it is not so far-fetched to see the second person of the trinity, the Word who was present in the beginning, coming to lay down His life and take it up again not only as the son of man but also as a child of other races.

[Emperor_Mike]

The way some of my rigid Catholic friends interpret aliens is far more entertaining. Aliens are not of God's doing. Aliens were created by Satan and are his fallen angels whose duty is to lure the followers of God into believing that the human race originated from them - these "extraterrestrials." Once humanity has cast aside all notions of faith in God Satan will reveal himself and doom those who followed him and his demonic creations (i.e. aliens) to an eternity of hell fire.

Like I said, more entertaining.

[mr. x]

^---hahahah serious? oh man i bet we are gonna be at war with the aliens cuz of the whole civilization thing and then a hundred years later we'll be friends....sorta

[Faithless]

Imagine if you will:

A universe that has at its core, a repetitive problem with religion somewhat like the repetition that goes with John Conner living, dying, going back and time and doing it all over again.

God sends Jesus to earth to live a tragic end as is told in "The Passion of Christ".

10 million miles away on planet Tatooine, some one million years before, god sends Jesus to Tantooine to live a tragic end as is told in the Tatooine tale "The Passion of Christ".

Maybe not as far away, on Planet Vulcan, some 10,000 years from now, god sends Jesus to Vulcan to live a tragic end.

But this time we're witnessing this from Discovery 10. Do we stand there and allow the Roman Vulcans to commit the same error in judgement as the TAntooines and the Earthlings?

The mind reels.

[Faithless]

So, let's say that in our life times we do eventually get to meet ET. And we start talking about religion.

Now, we say we know the true light. And ET says he does too. What would be the ultimate trump card on who really has the answer on god?

Let's say we hold up our bibles, our korans, what have you. And ET holds up only book for them, something his people call god's law. But of course, only ET knows how to interpret it.

How would be prove ET to be right? How could we prove to ET that we had the answers to god?

[hooligan]

Wasn't there some kind of face on the moon and some artificial structures on one of Mar's moons?

[VV o n g B a]

Originally Posted by hooligan

Wasn't there some kind of face on the moon and some artificial structures on one of Mar's moons?

the face was on mars and the structures were on mars also. the area is named cydonia.

[Shogun Empress]

Originally Posted by ChottoMatte

In many ways, our view of religion is close minded to our little blue ball. The following article talks about Christianity and "alien" life, but it can be extended to all our world's religions.

Humans Are Not God’s Only Intelligent Works

I looked up angelogy when I was curious about the different types of angels God made. When I learned about the angels, the different types of demons, and half-breeds, everything began making sense. Angels existed before God created Earth. The ones that aren't doing their jobs are often mistaken as aliens, ghosts, and creatures of myth.

[kimpossible]

Did Jesus ever visit Mars?

Yes, and his co-pilot was Elvis.

[Hiroshi2]

And 2pac was locked up in the trunk.



Just playing, but no seriously - I don't see why life on other planets neccesarily has to conflict with Christianity.

[kpih]

I remember some popular Hong Kong Sci-fi writer (Wesley) wrote a story in which Jesus, the Buddha, and some other deities are actually aliens from the same planet...

[xzotyqarz]

yes, when He created the universe.

[Faithless]

Originally Posted by Hiroshi2

...I don't see why life on other planets neccesarily has to conflict with Christianity.

Not unless you play along with my idea of this life on other planets having their own religion.

Supposing ET visits, studies our overall religous culture, then determines that islam, buddhism, christianity, etc. are too monotheistic (or whatever), and turns-around and says that the key to universal religious peace is ET's way -- his people's way. And he and his visiting group are hardpressed to make us believe his ways. (Sort of like an intergalactic jehovah's witness.)

How do you convince him otherwise? Or how do you say, "no thanks, I'm happy with my own religion?"

Or do you even risk offending him, at the cost of hurting interplanetary relations?

[achtungbaby]

Wait...there are aliens out there?!?

[I'm a Robot]

Originally Posted by Emperor_Mike

The way some of my rigid Catholic friends interpret aliens is far more entertaining. Aliens are not of God's doing. Aliens were created by Satan and are his fallen angels whose duty is to lure the followers of God into believing that the human race originated from them - these "extraterrestrials." Once humanity has cast aside all notions of faith in God Satan will reveal himself and doom those who followed him and his demonic creations (i.e. aliens) to an eternity of hell fire.

Like I said, more entertaining.

One of the men I respected most in my early teenage yearss believed something like that. A devout Protestant (as I was), he said that 95% of strange extraterrestrial phenomena could be explained by science without a problem. The remaining 5%, clearly, were demons flying around in the night.