Are We Alone?

October 28, 2024

This is a 'full circle' story.  Read on to find out how and why.

Are we alone in this vast universe that could contain as many as 300 sextillion (30 × 10²³) suns?  I used to think that the answer to this age-old question was obvious (Fr. Mike Schmitz, are you reading this?).  Now, I'm not so sure.  Please read on to find out why.

During my teens and into early adulthood, I was a huge fan of anything to do with science fiction.  I read countless science fiction books, good books in my opinion, stories of aliens and spaceships and galaxies filled with stars and weird and wonderful planets throughout the universe and I loved sci-fi movies and TV shows.  I gobbled 'em up.  I just couldn't get enough, and I have to say that at the time, I wouldn't have even been able to imagine a universe that wasn't jam-packed with intelligent life.  When I say 'intelligent', I mean having at the very least equal or higher intelligence than human life on Earth (in some cases, they could be far more advanced than we are, especially if they have mastered space travel).

Then, somewhere along the way, my conversion happened.  I won't go into any detail here because it's all on another page on this website called 'My faith journey'.  Suffice it to say that this conversion was a monumental occurrence in my life.  It got me thinking about a lot of things but relative to this topic, it was about the existence of intelligent life on other planets.  I started having a difficult time reconciling my faith in Jesus Christ with a belief in intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.  

Allow me to explain.  It began when I started thinking about the possibility that if there were other intelligent life forms in the universe that maybe, unlike us, the progenitors of these races had never committed original sin and therefore these creatures didn't need salvation.  They would obviously have been created by God but was it possible that they had a clear path to heaven to be with Him after their death like we humans did before Adam & Eve's original sin deprived us of that opportunity?  

I also believe that Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who came to Earth, became man and died for us and for our salvation, was certainly not going to be put to death on every planet in the universe that might have intelligent, sentient life in order to save those other creatures!  Jesus, fully human and fully divine, died once and He died for us as human beings created in His image and likeness and I sincerely believe this.  St. Paul writes, "We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him. As to His death, He died to sin once and for all; as to His life, He lives for God." (Romans 6:9-10, NAB¹).

In my mind, I kept wrestling with this concept.  I would think, "There has to be intelligent life elsewhere!"  Later, I would think, "But they would have to be perfect!".  Back and forth I went but there was this little nagging doubt and the fact that, because all things are possible with God, it was possible, and I thought about it for a very long time. 

And then finally, slowly at first, I began to rule out the possibility of any other intelligent life forms in the universe besides us here on Earth.  I came to the conclusion that it's only us, we are 'it' and that God created the Universe for us, to explore it and to find Him through it.

It's important to understand that I believe God created everything, the entire Universe and all that is in it.  In Genesis, the first book of the bible, the writer says, "Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.  Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.  God created mankind in his image; in the image of God, He created them; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:26-27). 

This means that if I was to believe in the existence of other intelligent life forms besides us humans, then I would also believe God created them.  I wholeheartedly believe that Holy Scripture is the Word of God.  Which leads me to my own personal paradox - If intelligent life other than us exists within this universe, then God created them.  Now, since Jesus isn't going to go from planet to planet saving these 'created beings', they must all be sinless and while this is possible, it strikes me as extremely unlikely!

Then, not that long ago, I was watching a nature show on television and the narrator was talking about intelligent life other than humans here on Earth.  Another thought blossomed in my mind.  At first, it was just a faint glimmer but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it had any credibility.  The thought went like this...  "What if there is advanced intelligent life on other planets, created by God, but created in the same manner that he created other semi-intelligent life forms on Earth such as whales, dolphins, dogs, crows, and primates just to name a few?  What if...?"

All of these earth-bound creatures have some level of intelligence and are created by God but are without an immortal soul that is destined to be with Him in heaven after they die.  And nowhere is it written that 'intelligence' necessarily equates with moral or ethical values.  So, another question arises.  "Is there a chance that life forms created by God on other planets are intelligent enough that they could evolve over thousands or millions of years to build advanced civilizations and technologies but at the same time, because they were not created in His image and likeness, are not destined to be with Him for all eternity like we are???"

Remember, this is just a thought and in no way implies that I believe it's true because of course, I don't know if it's true.  But is it possible??

And while we're on the subject of extraterrestrial intelligent life, I want to add another thought to this narrative and that is, if there is extraterrestrial intelligent life in the universe, would they have the exact same ways of revealing their intelligence that we do?  We express ours through art, music, literature, logic, reason, empathy, morals, and ethics to name a few.  Would they do exactly the same or would they have other, 'alien' ways of doing so? 

We can't expect that they will be hominids either, maybe some but not all, walking upright on two legs, with hands and feet, with mouths, ears and eyes like ours etc.  Their language, biology, and so on would undoubtedly be as unique and different as they, the aliens, would be from us.  What about math, physics, chemistry, and so on?  Would science be the same for them as it is for us?  Is math universal in the truest sense of the word?  So many possibilities!

¹The New American Bible (from the USCCB)

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