Professor Stephen Hawking backs new search for aliens

From BBC 21st July 2015:
Professor Stephen Hawking has launched a new project to find out whether there is life elsewhere in the universe.
The search for intelligent life in space is said to be the biggest yet.
The 10-year effort will listen for broadcast signals from a million of the stars closest to Earth.
The £64m project was launched by the Breakthrough Initiatives group at the Royal Society in London.

Then another story: "Airbus Defence and Space to build JUICE spacecraft, ESA's next life-tracker inside the Solar System"
"JUICE will address the question: are there current habitats outside Earth in the Solar System with the necessary conditions to sustain life?” said François Auque, Head of Space Systems. "

It seems that the further man gets away from a knowledge of God, he is desperate to find some other life form. What they hope to find that will bring them comfort I cannot understand. What I do know it is a futile waste of money and resources. I guess they want to find what our place is in the universe - the meaning of life! If they invested a fraction of the energy searching for God they will find all their answers to life.

Will our faith be shaken if we came to know that life exists in another planet? For example if they discover some intelligent radio waves and there by understand that some star has intelligent life but it will take 10 years to reach them. Then I believe many shakable things will be shaken. What do believers here think?

People who have had these abduction experiences on board apparent UFO's seem to describe something demonic.

I look at facts.

No intelligent life has yet been found in the universe except here.

YETI listening devices have had their "ears" to space for signal evidence for decades to no avail. Anything within ten light years, the time frame mentioned in the OP, would already have reached us.

Nothing from out there has let us know it exists. If nothing is communicating, it is either not trying, not able, or not there.

If something is out there but unable to communicate, it seems they are at least as bound to themselves as we are. The only way, then, to consider their existence is through conjecture and extrapolation from conjecture.

We have Hubbles and YETIs and Hawkings and floating observatories now near and past the edge of our solar system. Radio and light waves far outpace the speed of object travel. We have stepped off the front porch, squinted and made it quiet so we can hear the cosmos winds. And we have imagined greatly from this with absolutely no evidence to suggest we will find anything alive. It must, then, come from an inner need to supplant the One who stands near and reveals Himself clearly in the very objects these instruments are made to see.

This is not a drive to find life so much as it is to make life less significant by denying the God who authors it.

I don't really view this as a religious issue, other than how Christians will respond when they do find some form of life. And I think some day they will.

To me there either is or isn't life out there. The Milky Way alone has 200-400 billion stars and at least 100 billion planets. There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies.

I find it hard to believe that God did not at least place one microbe or primitive life form on one of these. I am not so sure about intelligent life. I surely think it is possible. My wife thinks we earthlings are it- no life elsehwhere- nada.

I personally can't fault scientists who want to search for life elsewhere. Makes sense to me. I have always been pretty fascinated by outer space and our exploration of same.

Don't you think God wants us to explore His creation if we have the ability to do so?

Quote; "This is not a drive to find life so much as it is to make life less significant by denying the God who authors it."

Yes very well put Tim.

David, Yes I have read about these and it is possible that Satan may deceive those listening for something with some sort of manifestation to satisfy their desires.

Sreeram, I think that's like asking 'what if they find gold at the end of the rainbow'. It won't happen. I don't think that other creatures such as the angelic realm exist within our universe. They are in another dimension outside this creation, in the spiritual heavenly realm, in my understanding.

As Tim alluded to, it is part of a deception to continue seeking life further and further out. A few years ago they thought there were alien folk on Mars, but now Mars is within the reach of landing craft they know there are not, so have to push the possibility out beyond anything we can discover just to keep the delusion alive.

For those who are unsure about what is behind this whole fascination with alien life, a good book to read is 'Alien Intrusion' by Gary Bates (find on Amazon and kindle). He deals in a very thorough researched way subjects from alien abductions, UFOs, to search for life on other planets, etc.

He shows the history of this and one of the points he makes is the mass media flood of films and books about aliens and space. Many of us were brought up on the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Space Odyssey, etc, etc. Therefore many today are conditioned by years of this constant indoctrination to accept the deception being put about alien life. It is basically part of the evolutionary agenda. To deny in any way possible that there is a creator God. Anyway read the book.

Dave-

Why would discovery of life on another planet refute a Creator God?

I am curious how you would react if indisputable proof of life is found. Would it crush your faith?

I always thought Star Wars, 2001 etc were just good entertainment, not some sinister attempt at indoctrination. The idea of alien life preceded the theory of evolution.

Todd, As I have already said, it is a non sequitur for me. It would not knock my faith, but it will not happen in the way that is being pursued. i.e. intelligent alien life.

quote: "I always thought Star Wars, 2001 etc were just good entertainment, not some sinister attempt at indoctrination."

I think that is a little naive. Lets assume it is not overt indoctrination by men. Who is the god of this world? What is the most influential medium he uses to influence this worlds thinking? I would suggest today it is Holywood, TV, etc. Millions of people are subconsciously conditioned to accept these theories because they seem so established and common because of the consistent message over many years.

Quote: "The idea of alien life preceded the theory of evolution."

Not so sure about that. Darwinian evolution maybe, but evolutionary theories go back a long way. To the average unbeliever the two things go together. If you listen to evolutionist like Dawkins, they eventually reveal they believe life came to earth via aliens. Read the book, you will learn a lot.

It is funny. My 11 year old daughter has recently had a lot of questions and initiated some conversations on aliens. I am sure movies and what all are back of it.

We watched "Signs" not long ago. It disturbed her and we erred in watching it. The suspense and alien figures were a little more than she was prepared to see, and frankly it surprised me that she reacted so to it and more disappointed me that we did not appreciate the impact it might have on her. I thought it would be a useful discussion tool to see how fiction rubs up against faith, but what she got was alien dreams and a lost night of sleep.

So, aliens have been talked about in my home lately. When asked if I think other intelligent life is out there, I simply say there is no proof of it, that spaceships with alien critters from space did not enter our conscious thought processes until we started developing technologies that were on the threshhold of human flight. It is more likely that we invented aliens from space than God did. We have certainly fictionalized it more than there is any evidence of it.

Now, I know there are those who say UFOs have ancient portrayals and reports. I will not dispute that. But, the humanoid in a spacecraft is modern imagery. One early, respected UFOlogist, Jacque Vallee, who published the best early scientific defenses for the belief in ET spacecraft and aliens, later rejected it. He went on to connect religious experience with multidimensional visitations and to theorize that UFOs and humanoid aliens come from these realms. The ---- ahem ---- mainstream UFOlogy community skewered him for it and he labels himself a "heretic among heretics" . Vallee's surmises are more akin to the biblical phenomenon of epiphanies and appearances and supernatural events. All that to say this: if humanoid aliens in craft are visible to us, we have perhaps more reason to view them as from another realm (dimension) of the supernatural than from space, and to weigh the whole matter in cautious prayer to God that we not be soon taken by false reports of His appearing.

So, at my house, aliens are not spacemen. They are fictional, and maybe even fun in the right story. We are God's particular creation in His image and there is no reason to suspect or expect that science will discover anything in terms of extraterrestrial intelligent life.

I agree that's what evolutionists say but that is not what I would say. I am no evolutionist. If life is elsewhere God put it there for His glory.

I see where you are coming from regarding entertainment. I guess whether watching an oldie like "Earth v the flying Saucers" or Star Trek is opening yourself to demonic influence is a matter of opinion. I personally don't see it, but others might.

Hi Todd, I think you miss the point I'm making. It is not that watching one episode of a particular film or series will demonise you, but a continual influence on the mind and in particular the un-regenerate mind that makes one believe certain things are true. When I watch a nature program and they continually make reference to evolution over millions of years I am making a judgement in my mind about the foolishness of this and it does not influence me. But to the un-knowledgeable and immature these things go into the mind uncontested and eventually become accepted as facts as the rest. This is the process I am talking about. We cannot deny that this type of process goes on all the time through the medium of film and TV. Why do the majority now accept homosexuality as normal? Because it is the 'zeitgeist' (spirit of the age) and that comes from somewhere!

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind"

Signs was a pretty creepy movie. But it did have a spiritual side for sure.

To me the idea of interdimensional beings is scarier than aliens from outer space. But if there are interdimensional beings God created them.

I think the vast majority of alien abduction claims can be chalked up to sleep paralysis etc.

Dave-

I get what you are saying. I agree with you.

As a Christian, I personally believe there might be life elsewhere,and if Stephen Hawking finds there is, I still believe God created that life. Science wants to find life elsewhere, only to try and get Christians to wonder, or have second thoughts about there being a God. In my world, if there is life somewhere else, God created that life also, maybe I should tell Hawking this, it might save him a lot of time and money. Science is never going to be happy until they prove there is not a God, which they will never prove, but it gets them by thinking this while on earth.

TMK wrote:

To me the idea of interdimensional beings is scarier than aliens from outer space. But if there are interdimensional beings God created them.

You know -- and guys I hope I don't ruin the thread with these rabbit trails -- a few weeks ago while I was driving I started thinking about how we don't really see ALL the colors because our eyes are not equipped to do it. There are things HERE that we don't see. In a sense.

I thought about that because I'd seen a photo online that simulated a dog's vision (which, honestly, stinks for them -- and I was surprised to learn it) and explained that it was because of the limited numbers/kinds of rods and cones and all that. (Dogs are virtually color blind on top of having some really serious near-sightedness, with which I sympathize!)Colors are bright, bold and present, but the dogs don't see them.

And, so I wondered about that. It entered my mind that maybe the Lord has "cloaked" his messengers in our own lack of equipment to see them, again, in a sense. And, supernaturally, these messengers of God have, at times, taken on properties to bring them within our range of visual perception -- and they are seen.

It's just a thought and maybe a silly one. Certainly not a serious one. :)

I guess I wonder about the expenditure of resourses involved in the search of life elsewhere. Is it wise?

I grew up reading Dick Tracey - it was fun, whetted ones imagination; Russia's launching of their Spitnik was fun to us children. I did grow up to witness man's landing on the moon and subsequent landings there. Now at the age of 68 I wonder about the wisdom of these explorations...maybe people will always wonder what is out there? Would they pursue it if the financing depended on their own resourses only?

Sandra

There are a lot of payoffs to exploration. Man has always explored to the extent he is able and the technology he has. I believe that is a God-placed desire, not a satan-placed desire. Of course whether it is worth the expense is a valid matter of opinion.

What definitely is NOT a good use of taxpayer money is the several million dollar study (that we are paying for) to figure out why the majority of "married" lesbians are fat (true- Google it). I can tell you why without spending one cent: they take in more calories than they burn.

If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, they would have to exist in a state of perfection, or be damned forever. Jesus Christ died for the sins of this world. He is related to US by blood, not aliens. And He can't die twice. Watch out for deception in this area. Many abduction experiences are almost overtly demonic. Please use discernment.