Are we back in 1947? At that time, news reports speculated on a mysterious crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Since then, many have wondered: could the crashed ship have been alien in origin? Recently, a seemingly credible whistleblower detailed the government’s experimentation and reverse engineering of foreign craft. What would be our response as followers of Christ?
Christian author C.S. Lewis created a book trilogy, “The Space Trilogy,” detailing the journeys of the main character, Ransom, from Earth to other planets in our solar system. On those planets he encountered rational aliens uncorrupted by original sin. In fact, Earth was considered quarantined by the rest of the planets due to our fallenness. While that is a work of fiction, it is not contradictory to our faith to suppose that there could be rational life on other planets. Like humans, God could have infused rationality into those creatures, enabling them to think and choose, like us. We would need to discover whether those same creatures were subject to Original Sin or not. Like missionaries sent to the New World in the 1500s, we would send missionaries to tell them about Christ.
Do aliens exist? We don’t know yet. Either way the central tenets of our faith remain intact. But if they did, we would try to teach them about Jesus Christ. If you would like to continue learning about this debate in theological circles you can learn more from Father Robert Spitzer and Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., director of the Vatican Observatory.
