´óÏó´«Ã½

No i'm sure they'd find some way to incorporate it in to their belief system.
The young earth creationists would probably say that god did it as a joke - like the dinosaurs.

I think there are problems if christians want to say that human beings were created in God's image and are thereforew special beings. Any living being with consciousness is a special being.

I've always loved this question. There is, of course, no reason to think that we're alone in the universe. Is this another instance where Christian theology and science disagree (or at least appear to)? It seemed that way when Galileo first proposed that the earth is not the centre of the universe too.

But I'd suggest that, like the perception that the bible demands belief in geocentricity (a belief still held by some Christians), in fact there's no contradiction at all.

PB will disagree with me on this, but the bible is clearly an account of God from an earthly perspective; that's to be expected since it was written by earthlings. Perhaps the citizens of Gliese 581C have their own writings about God which they regard as inspired in some way too?

Here's a How-de-do!

I think it will be awhile before they discover life on this planet. That will give the Christians plenty of time to think something up in advance. They always do. Of course we may have to throw the first law of thermodynamics in the trash bin along with the second law but what the heck, it's all for a good cause. And there could hardly be more of a boon for Wilder Smith than this since it will give him an opportunity to open up an entirely new road show.

dp
Oh they'll find a way!
Let's give them a suggestion
Why shouldn't Jesus have siblings - possibly even female!

Interesting questions not just for christians but for all religions. They all emphasis the importance of one species (humans) but in fact we are a tiny and insigificant appearance in the universe.

Would Christian theology be thrown into crisis if alien lifeforms were discovered? Probably not. Christians have believed all manner of things over 2000 years and have adapted in the light of new evidence - albeit kicking and screaming and accepting it a little bit later than many others. But eventually they adapt. Even our young earth creationists will eventually die out or adapt.

Christian theology will survive.

SG

Jesus saves little green men? Wouldn't a little green Jesus be necessary for saving the little green men?

Jan I sense the force in you. Herh herh herh. Hmmmmmm.

Little green men need the force, everywhere, force is. Herh herh herh.

Answer, jesus on other planets is a question I cannot. Yeesssssss.

ask dp- creationism...To dark side creationism rubbish and belongs. Hmmmmmm.

Strong with the force, yoda senses that will's blog is. Yeesssssss.

Yoda loves all posters. Herh herh herh.

With you may the force be. Herh herh herh.

Yeesssssss.

Stephen- I agree. Christian theology has a long tradition of disagreeing with evidence and then adapting, and I concur with you about creationism; it'll shortly die out and people will look back upon creationists as they do now with geocentricists.

Folks- Here's another few questions: if the citizens of Gliese 581C do have a 'bible' of their own, gleaned from their own thoughts about God, would it hold an account of Christ dying on the cross for their sins? Or would there be a little green Jesus as Jan Green suggests above; ie. a Gliesian version of Christ, dying for sins? Or would there be an entirely different method of salvation for Gliese 581C than there is for Earth? Or would salvation of the Gliesians even be necessary? Maybe they didn't fall short of the glory of God in the first place? In that case, maybe Gliese is heaven (ie. the paradise God originally intended). If things are that different, perhaps more than three persons of the godhead were revealed to the Gliesians? Perhaps it's not a trinity but a ten-fold godhead of several new exciting characters? If things are that different, maybe on Gliese 581C, godly people don't get offended by the 'F' word? In that case, Mike Daisey would do well to apply for his intergalactic passport now (I've heard the paperwork takes an eternity).

John I dont disagree with you on that point at all.

But here is an even better question;

Doesnt this whole story really throw into sharp contrast how rare the conditions are for human life to exist in the universe?

How many other planets have we discovered and this is the closest to earth...

Is it all just some cosmic accident?

Or is it part of God's unique creation for man, right down to the last detail?

Jesus created the universe, the start of John's gospel tells us.

The little green men are a total moot point; what have we each done with the creator?

pb

PB- "Doesnt this whole story really throw into sharp contrast how rare the conditions are for human life to exist in the universe?"

I think you may be underestimating the vastness of the universe PB! Here we've found, with our very primitive goggles, in one of the nearest solar systems, right here in the Milky Way, a planet that would be hospitable for life. There are many planets per star, and an estimated 100 billion further stars in our galaxy. That's a lot of options. And that doesn't even take into account the other 99,999,999,999 galaxies, many of which are probably much larger than ours, just waiting to be explored!

"The little green men are a total moot point; what have we each done with the creator?"

Assuming God created the universe, what does the creator require that we "do" with him?

John

I think you're missing the point.

Man has been searching for other earth like planets for three whole years and that has covered a heck of a lot of planets.

And they are by no means certain this planet could actually support life.

You can look at this story from either end of the telescope, depending on your preference.

I see it throwing into sharp focus how unique earth is.

and reference adapting theology, yes Christians live and breathe in the real world and take in many cultural ideas. Unfortunately, very few of them are of the calibre of the intellectual creme de la creme of the world who rattle away here on this obscure blog.

But the resurrection has always been there at the core.

And you certainly show your attitude to Almighty God when you ask what you might do with him, you who professes to believe in God.

Might you just stop and wonder in awe for a moment. That would be a start.

PB

PB says: "and reference adapting theology, .... the resurrection has always been there at the core."

Always? Did the gnostics believe in the resurrection, for example? Yet they were Christian. I know you have this narcissistic version of theology where yours is inherently the only valid one, but the real world is a little more complicated.

"And you certainly show your attitude to Almighty God when you ask what you might do with him, you who professes to believe in God."

What should I "do" with him, PB? Theism is one thing; what to "do" with God is quite another. What do you mean by this question? That's what I'm asking, essentially.

"Might you just stop and wonder in awe for a moment. That would be a start."

I wouldn't hold the views I do or be the person I am had I not a sense of awe, wonderment and curiosity about this universe and our place in it. Might I suggest that awe does not necessarily lead one to the same conclusions as it led you?

Is William Crawley saved?

Jesus was a shape shifter. Small and green on Gliese 581, tall and pale on earth. I wonder how when he was ressurected, he got back to the mother ship. Could he fly like Superman?

"Could he fly like Superman?"

Well, he ascended into the sky after the resurrection - that sounds a little Supermanesque; also he walked on water. Both of these things prove his levitative ability, so quite possibly the answer is yes he could fly. In addition to many other things. I quote from Talladega Nights:

"I like to think of Jesus as wearin’ a Tuxedo T-shirt, ’cause it says, like, I want to be formal, but I’m here to party too. I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party."

"I like to think of Jesus as a ninja, fighting off evil samurai."

"I like to think of Jesus like, with giant eagle’s wings, and singin’ lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with, like, an angel band, and I’m in the front row, and I’m hammered drunk."

Gliesus Christ!

´óÏó´«Ã½: I think William would have a wee cuddly lovable friendly Jesus, since we all re-make god in our own image :-)

Ouch! Amenhotep was that an insult or a weird compliment to will!?

A compliment! :-)

# 15 biblebelievingchristian
is William Crawley saved?

I've always presumed he has some sort of faith.
Maybe he'll post a comment and let us know (or maybe not)
Interesting name biblebelievingchristian. Do you mean all of the bible?

#15- Only a "biblebelievingchristian" would ask a question quite like that.

'Are ya saved, brother? Is Jesus Christ your Beautiful Lord and Saviour? Where will ya be spendin' eternity, brother?'

For the people who settled Jamestown Virginia, this harsh alien environment was like visiting another planet.

"Britain's Queen Elizabeth to Visit Historic Jamestown at 400th Anniversary"

"Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will visit Virginia this week to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, which shaped the America of today."

Mark- I think you may be watching too much PBS. Withdraw!

such tolerance John

you DO respect other people's religious convictions dont you?

PB

PB- what a strange point you were making earlier. No it doesnt show how hard it is to find life in the Universe. This new planet is in the goldilocks zone which meaning that life there depends entirely on our sun. That simply tells us how difficult it is to find life in our system. We are one of billions and billions and billions of systems in the universe. Therefore your point is absolutely wrong.

As for your second insight, that little green men are a moot point, are you being serious? While I agree that Christians would find some way to adapt to the news, for all the people who find the whole myth hard to believe anyway this would be the final straw. We are explicitly told that man is held in a state of grace, man is created in Gods image and that man rules over all other beasts. If we found some beings with higher intelligence, I think that premise would be sufficently discredited. Also if we found other beings it would be interesting to know if they have had a visit from the son of man or whether they worship something else. Either way it would clear everything up! Pity I wont be around to see it!

Hi Joe,

in the above post you tell PB his claims are,

"absolutely wrong"

I think you are not treating pb fairly. For me he makes a good point.

You also make a valid point, but I could enter the lottery a thousand times and my chances of winning are still very small. It dosent matter is there a 1 trillion planets if the chances of it forming form a cosmic explostion are only one in one billion trilion.

You have to admit it is quite a remarkable planet we live on. Well said pb.

I believe that the question Did Jesus die for extraterrestials? is very premature at this point in relation to this new planet.
Do we know if it has an atmosphere? If yes what does the atmosphere consist of? Does it rotate? At what speed does it rotate? Does it have a magnetic field? What strength is the magnetic field? There are many more questions that would need to be answered before we even begin to speculate if this 'super earth' contains life.
In relation to the original question, from a Biblical perspective the answer would have to be NO.
The Bible clearly teaches that sin came into the world via Adam's rebellion and that Grace came by the last Adam, that is, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:12 - 21 is one passage that cites this.
God in the form of Jesus Christ became a human being to live a righteous life and endure death on a cross where He became our sacrifical Lamb. Christ now stands before God as our advocate. I do not see how he can step outside of this to save extraterrestials and remain our Saviour within the teaching in the Bible. Also only those who are descended from Adam can be saved by Jesus Christ.

Now we're getting somewhere. If we estimate Adam's Fall at ~6000 years ago, then the wavefront from this seismic munch must be spreading out from our planet at a maximum of the speed of light, which means that all the other planets in the universe at a distance of >6000LY are still in a state of grace. Once they are struck by the sin-boson, they will fall, and we in fact won't know about that until the return of other sin-bosons (or other information-carrying particles/etc) until another 6000 years.

What these scientists *should* be doing is monitoring systems ~3000LY from Earth, looking for sin bosons, because these will have had time to absorb the sin, and reflect it back at us. We should, in other words, be able to view the sin shockwave as it rips through our galaxy, turning veggie beings on other planets into meat-crazed carnivores and making it painful for their females to have babies.

Just imagine - all those galaxies, billions of light-years away - we are seeing them in a State of Grace. The cosmic microwave background - the very echo of "it was good".

Does the sin-boson travel at c? Can we determine its position and momentum at the same time? Does the Pope have mass?

yeti if you are not actually joking, please stop begging the question. How on earth can you argue about questions such as " does it have a magnetic field" from a biblical perspective. The people who wrote the bible didnt even understand that the Earth moved around the bloody sun. It is preposterous to ask a question like that and then proceed to say "the bible says that......"!

Hi PM. I wasnt trying to nasty or anything, I just did think that he was wrong. With regards to your post, I am interested in where you are getting your odds from? From my own research on this it would seem that the chances are evidently less than one billion trillion and the amount of planets substantially higher than 3 trillion.
How could we possible say that our planet is pretty special when we cant even get a proper look at Mars. We are in one galaxy, which contains our solar system among many many (uncalculated because of the sheer number) others which we cant even get a close look at. Our Galaxy is one of an unfathomably high number. We dont even know how far the universe extends. WHEN YOU LISTEN TO OR READ REPUTABLE SCIENTISTS ON THE MATTER THEY WILL OFTEN SAY THINGS LIKE "IT IS HIGHLY PROBABLE THAT THEIR IS LIFE SOMEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE". SOME EVEN SAY "IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN". THAT IS BECAUSE THE ODDS, UNLIKE WHAT YOU ARE SUGGESTING, ARE STACKED HEAVILY IN FAVOUR OF US NOT BEING A SPECIAL EXAMPLE. WE ARE SPECIAL WITHIN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, BUT THAT DOESNT EQUATE TO MUCH ON THE SCHEME OF THINGS!

Joe. In the first part of my reply I was trying to bring some reality to some of the suggestions that are being offered on this new "super earth".

If something is not written down it does not mean that the writer is unaware of its existence.

The statement from a Biblical perspective refers to the salvation issue.

Again salvation is not on what you know but who you know.

another question i wonder is if we create a plane/spaceshipthat can fly the speed of light would we do it if we did we could mess up the eco-system and maybe even stop a creation of the "little green men" with pollution and such so wouldwe mess upthat world as we are ours at the moment