This will be sort of a different post from the normal themes I cover. But I wanted to quickly address it because I came across someone on my FaceBook feed who is reading a scholarly work (an OUP title) on Aliens, UFOs, and Christian theology. So, yes, this post will be on Aliens or “Extra-Terrestrials,” you know, ET silly, and how I navigate this question as a Christian.

Really, for me, this is a rather easy question to answer: I do not believe there is other intelligent life out there in outer space. The reason I do not think there is is because the Creator of the Universe (just one) became human in order to redeem the peak of his creation, us. The Creator of all reality, visible and invisible, assumed flesh, human flesh, in order to set the Cosmos to rights (cf. Rom. 8) with us as its priests, as we participate in His priesthood for us. The presumption seems to be that if there is ET ‘out there’ that they are even of a higher species than the human species; that they are more intelligent, and more advanced on the evolutionary scale than we are. Indeed, much speculation about ET is tied into a sort of hopeful monster thesis about the origins of life on earth; but we can leave that to the side for this post. In light of the incarnation I find it hard to believe that there is in fact ET out in the universe.

But there are unidentifiable happenings that happen even in our observable atmosphere. The Apostle Paul writes, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience . . . . .” We know, as Christians (at least some of us Christians affirm this) that the devil and his cohorts are “personally” and actively involved in the affairs of this earth (cf. Eph 6.10ff); indeed, the Apostle Paul says we are in a battle with them. This is how I view so called ET activity—not to mention the so called ‘paranormal’—I believe what people are seeing and experiencing (I’ve even experienced some of this directly and in confrontation) is demonic activity cloaked in popular mythos in order to keep people distracted and ‘a-mused’ so they look away from Christ rather than to Him. While the modern person lives in a disenchanted world, this doesn’t mean they want to; as such, there is an appetite, particularly in the West, for paranormal and ET encounters that people are enamored by. For the pagan they have no canonical witness or framework through which to accurately exegete what they are seeing and experiencing out there; so they let Hollywood do that for them. But for the Christian we do know that there are demonic hordes active in the world that will do whatever it takes to slander and belittle the name and power of Jesus Christ. This is what I see going on with so called UFOs, ET, and the paranormal.

Much more could be written, but I just wanted to drop a quick word and offer my perspective on these things.