Life on other planets; Seeking Religious perspectives.

Well I just HAD to answer this...hehhee. I happen to be a science geek....in fact when I was younger I aspired to be an astronomer...so to say I'm just a tad interested in astronomy? Mmmm. First of all, nope I don't think the Earth is the center of all creation. I know there are certain sects of Christianity that take the Bible and the creation story as literal truth...I don't. They also of course don't believe in evolution and that the Earth is only about a few thousand years old...uh, I don't believe that either....to much of the science person in me. I think it would be downright smug and arrogant of us to think that Earth is the only planet that supports life. How could that be possible? There are billions if not trillions of stars, and so many galaxies. We're known as the Milky Way galaxy...our planetary system is only one possible system in our own galaxy, and the position of our system is on the "outskirts" of the spiraling arms of the galaxy itself. The closet galaxy to us is the Andromeda Galaxy, some 2 million light years away...and you're right there. When one looks into space, we are looking back into time....we see the Andromeda Galaxy as it WAS 2 million years ago....is it still there? Did it blow itself up in a supernova? Only time would tell in about another 2 million years from now It would also be smug of us to think and expect that other life on other planetary systems would be identical to us...that is that there would be another species like we humans....for all we know, on another system, with intelligent life they may have formed from a more aquatic species...some species might be as "adorable" and loving as "E.T." or on the other extreme as horrifying as the "Alien" creature I actually sometimes wonder why the writers of the bible however when they did write out the creation story, only mentioned the Earth...the ancient astronomers of Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, etc. were actually well knowledgeable of the existence of the other planets in our system...considering the fact that they didn't have any of the sophisticated telescopes as well do now, they were able to map out the constellations with amazing accuracy and predict their return and when and what part of the year they could be viewed...unless of course...by creation of the earth...maybe it's a collective term??? Could it be the word "earth" actually represents the universe as a whole, of all the star systems, and therefore other planets...other "earths"???

Hi II2aTee, I feel certain that there must be life on other planets. It would not make sense any other way. We are a mere spect of dust in the universe, Why should earth alone be chosen for life? Saying that the earth is the centre of all creation, is like the people of Columbus"s day saying that the world was flat. The Bible doesn't talk about life on other planets, but it doesn't say that there isn't either. Blessings.

People STILL even think that the Earth is the center of the Universe. From what I've been told there have been a few hidden references to 'aliens' and 'ufos' in the Bible and biblical artifacts. Remember, the bible was written by MAN who is no where NEAR perfect. Of course if we go by biblical standards, YES it is possible for God to create OTHER living forms on OTHER planets. Generally speaking, I think its pretty egotistical of us as a human race to even Deny the existence or other, more intelligent creatures. To think in the whole galaxy, universe (and whatever else lies out there) that we are the ONLY living beings seems more unrealistic then talking green aliens. My mom is somewhat religious and has once believed (from a book she read) that when Armageddon comes, the bible states that a large light will come from the heavens and take us away. That large light being a UFO (space ship) taking us away to another planet for us to use a destroy. Okay...little over the top there, but you get what I'm saying.

I would love to believe there is other life forms out there. The tv the other night on the news showed a figure on Mars. Maybe there is life out there.

What if earth was the practice planet? What if we are the screw~ups and there are really cool planets and creatures out there that turned out far superior to us because they listened and got it right? What if, when we die and we face our maker and we still get to go to OUR form of heaven, but we get a glimpse of THEIR heaven? What if their's is totally different from ours, once again because they listened and got it right, while we have been spinning our wheels so to speak and slowly destroying everything that G'd gave us including ourselves? You know that G'd's going to let us get a peek just to put us in our place. Just to let us know that we are the screw~ups. Yes, I do think that there are other inhabited planets out there. I am sure that they are far enough away that we the probable screw~ups will never be able to visit them, but I think that they may be visiting and checking on us. Shalom~Adoniah

Sorry babe- you know me I'm not a religion person but there are other planets and that is scientifically proven. As far as life goes, who knows? It isn't out of the question but all we can relate to is living on Earth until we can go elsewhere and live a life or find someone or something who does- which would make it scientifically proven, I'm going to say that earth may be the only liveable planet. I'm not into Ufo's so I'm not to versed or convinced that they exist either.

I am not a Christian so I can not state how they would explain the other planets. Though, I look at the bible as a story book of that time. And knowing of that time, people did indeed believe the Sun revolved around the Earth and that the Earth was the center of all. They had no real technical knowledge of science to explain to them that there are vast amounts of such spinning rocks out there beyond their capacity to see. Even with their inventions and all that they had not the ability to understand. Though we still do not have the ability to completely comprehend the vast size of what is out there, we have the idea now that it could very well be infinate or uncountable amounts of fellow spinning rocks out there. We now know for sure, that we do not know and can admit it. So that said, of course the bible would not be so clear as to the other planets because the bible was written by man of that era. As for other life, I think I agree with those that say that it is arrogant to think that we are the only life forms out there. Why wouldn't there be other various forms of life? I mean, the universe is a huge place. We may never know. That to me is rather sad as I am curious person who really wants to know.... Anyway, anything is really possible and even us being alone in this vast space is possible, I do not feel it is probable.

I believe that God has created life on other planets out there. Other wise why create all that universe and leave it empty? The book of Job 1:4 mentions the sons of God and it is believed that these sons were from another world Hebrews 1:2 speaks of other worlds Revelation 12:12 speaks of “ye that dwell in the heavens,” You can read more about this here at this website http://www.bibleuniverse.com/star_tour/race_to_the_stars.asp

I'm not sure where Christians get the idea that this is the only planet God put life on. Sure, the Bible doesn't say that He did... but then again, it doesn't say He didn't either.

There will definately be life out there, there are different kind of life, we have the human life, the animal life, the plant life, there are many living things apart from those will see with our optical eyes, so I believe strongly that there are life outside there.

I am religious. I'll assume you don't mean religious to mean only Christian, as that would be narrow minded and highly innacurate. I think it's pure arrogance to look at all those stars and assume that no planet orbiting no star can have life on it. what makes us so special? to me, deity is the driving force of nature. it acts on this planet, and I'm sure it acts on others too. The Universe is so much bigger than we can ever grasp. how can we ever claim to be the only life.

Reading this discussion reminds me of a book I read called communion. It was about a guy who claims he was abducted repeatedly. The take on it as that even though they were superior in technology they were spiritually . Goes along with the idea of if there are aliens why havent they contacted us, maybe because they are so far advanced they are too superior to talk to us. Or could it be they are looking for spiritual minded people to relate with and not technology advanced society, after all what good would it do to learn the secrets of the universe if your too immature to handle it. I am christian and I found no conflict at being open minded to the idea that angels could in fact be aliens. Maybe we have been created to evolve into spiritual beings before we will recieve supreme knowledge. If you look at what the bible said with an open mind you can see that is the purpose of the bible to teach us to be spiritually minded. It could be that other life is closer than we think, maybe they arent aliens from another planet but another dimmension or universe. look into quantum physics 'm' theory, they no believe that our universe as created by 2 other universes comming into contact, and there are unlimited number of universes. Maybe aliens are so spiritually evolved they feel gods will and are compelled to do it constantly, except for the fallen ones. the book of enoch almost sounds like it could be about aliens and talks about we were intended to be spiritual creatures but chose differently (adam and eve). while we have to struggle with our own will to get back to being spiritual beings. There are multiple other references in the bible that could be taken to be about aliens. What if they might even be amongst us every day and we dont even know it. As far as did god create other life, the bible already says there is angels and they are greater in might and power who came before us.

There are some religious people in my family who says science and UFO's are witchcraft and satanism. A little extreme I know, but what do you expect coming from baptists? I know not all baptists are like that, but a lot of them are.

hi there i am a muslim and my faith teaches me that everything in this universe is alive or has life. like now we know that stars have life and everything would die or expire at one time or another. so it all depends on your defination of life and my view on the centre of the universe is let the man navigate the whole of universe and then decide the center for himself