Podcast: Stephen Freeland | Life on Earth and Elsewhere

I think it’s cute that the debate over extraterrestrial life marches on. My firm opinion was always, get lost. Don’t bother talking about that garbage with me.
Now, I know extra life forms fill our universe. They are all over the place. Only once in a great while do we get a glimpse of them.

Grandma, everyone called her, was a sweet, devout, enthusiastic follower of Christ. Her grown daughter was very ill and she lived with her family to help care for her. Occasionally, she would get very excited when she talked about Her Lord’s wonderful involvement in her life.
Years before, her youngest daughter Crystal, became ill and was confined to bed in her bedroom. As the days passed, Crystal got worse. One morning, Grandma went into her room to give her something to eat. As Grandma turned to leave, little Crystal said, “Oh, look at that beautiful lady mother, all dressed in white.” Grandma was sunned. No one else was in the room. “Look! Isn’t she beautiful in the white dress?” Grandma had no idea what she was talking about. “Crystal, where is she? I don’t see anyone.” “Right there mother, in the corner, in the beautiful white gown.” Grandma was worried. By early in the afternoon Crystal was gone and that’s when Grandma realized what had happened earlier. Grandma got excited as she finished this story. She started waving her arms and tears streamed down her face and she raised her voice, “GLORY. GLORY. GLORY!” She was beside herself now in a fevered pitch, all totally sincere without a trace of showmanship. “Crystal saw an angel. An angel had come to take her home. That lady in the white dress was an angel!. GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST. Jesus sent Crystal a beautiful angel dressed in a bright white gown to escort her home to heaven.”

:person_raising_hand: Me! Hi. I don’t think your guest actually considered his field to have anything to do with UFOs/aliens but is used to having to field questions on that topic anyway. As an ex-astronomer, I can relate!

Anyway it is a relevant topic for Christians.

There is a third hypothesis for explaining UFO phenomena that is rarely mentioned: the interdimensional hypothesis. That is, these phenomena are manifestations of intelligent beings who are from “another dimension”, and probably, are being deliberately deceptive (posing as extraterrestrials) for malicious reasons. That’s the conclusion reached by fairly well credentialed and level-headed UFU researchers Jaques Vallée and J. Allen Hynek.

A Christian interpretation of that is that they are demons. That’s the position put forth in a documentary of interest called Alien Intrusion, produced by Gary Bates. It was quite well done and definitely worth a watch.

Actually (although I have never had any UFO experiences), watching this movie played a significant role in my coming to Christ. Finding myself willing to entertain the possibility of the existence of a rag tag bunch of malicious supernatural entities, I had to then also entertain the possibility of the existence of a supreme, beneficient, supernatural Creator and Sustainer.

Unfortunately Bates is a young-earth creationist and his main interest in the topic is to discredit evolution theory as the tool of these demons (a belief in evolution apparently being a prerequisite to being a susceptible to the deception of an apparent visitation by aliens). I can’t stomach that agenda, but nevertheless the devil hypothesis is interesting.

2 Likes

There is no empirical evidence whatsoever, there can’t ever be, but nothing but evidence of the principle of mediocrity in every sense. That’s a perfectly Christian interpretation too.

Klax, did you see that monster that flew over Phoenix a few years ago? That was unbelievable. They never discovered what it was, did they?

1 Like

No Ralphie. The planes and flares of '97? The best meteor I saw was in '76.

Is that what it was? I guess it was 97. You saw a meteor in '76? I saw a Russian rocket fall back and burn up once at 5:45 in the am years ago. It was stunning

1 Like

This was the most spectacular meteor I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many Leonid showers. Wondered if it was space junk as it broke up.

2 Likes

Some people believe I am a UFO plant. :smiley:
I’m going to call a talk radio show someday and announce I am an alien. See what they do.

Well Ralphie, all joking aside, those who have truly been born from above are not of this world. We are a Kingdom of God plant. Our mission, call all to repentance and help bring them to full trust, love and obedience to the Father and the Son. We are strangers and aliens here. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God. Praise God!

1 Like

"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."-Colossians 4:6

At BioLogos, “gracious dialogue” means demonstrating the grace of Christ as we dialogue together about the tough issues of science and faith. Whatever your stance on evolution and Christian faith, we welcome your gracious, thoughtful contribution. The Church desperately needs to learn how to discuss these important issues with charity and humility. We hope it can begin here.

  • Participate with an aim to gain deeper understanding about orthodox Christian faith and/or mainstream science, and constructively explore the relationship between them. Users whose participation in discussions seems primarily focused on promoting unorthodox religious beliefs, idiosyncratic ideas about faith and/or science, or anti-religious sentiments will be asked to take their proselytizing efforts elsewhere.
  • Focus on discussing other people’s ideas, not on evaluating their character, faith, communication style, or perceived “tone.” Please avoid attributing beliefs, motivations, or attitudes to others.
  • Contribute thoughts that are relevant to the topic at hand, and avoid intentionally steering a conversation off-topic.
  • Assume legitimate Christian faith on the part of other people, unless they identify otherwise. The purpose of discussions here is not to judge the legitimacy or efficacy of anyone’s faith or lack of faith.

These guidelines are great. Trying, respectfully, to consider the views of others and making a true effort to learn about their beliefs, is an excellent recommendation. Not easy to do, but Christian, IMO. Also, I have much to learn and an unquenchable sense of curiosity. When I was little, dad used to say I had a very inquiring mind. I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded and felt good.

Jesus is a cool God. The love He has for us is so good, so warm, so sweet and all encompassing, isn’t it?

Keith Green:
“All my life I’ve been searching for that crazy missing part
And with one touch, you just rolled away the stone that held my heart
And now I see that the answer was as easy, as just asking you in
And I am so sure I could never doubt your gentle touch again…
It’s like the power of the wind.”
Dear God, help all of us

BTW, we are called a peculiar people and I excel at that.

2 Likes

Without any doubt, you are:)

1 Like

When did you first hear Keith Green?

1 Like

I look at Him and his mom. She’s wailing in agony, pounding her fists and forearms into the mud, pleading, begging, screaming with what little strength she has left, to come down. “Take Him down. He hurt no one. My precious boy. My precious son.” And He endures her agony

1 Like

My goodness. Back in the 70s. Long time ago.

2 Likes

Your old like me.
Its funny how people keep looking for life outside of this world. I found it a long time ago. In fact, the only true life that there is comes from outside this world. Fortunately, the one who has true life seeded this world with it through His son.

Hey, I may be old but I’m spry baby, Spry!