Will Aliens Contact Earth in 1,500 Years?

But Do We Want Contact?

Apparently scientists from Cornell reached their conclusion based on the Fermi Paradox, which says that “aliens have had plenty of time to make contact with Earth,” and Copernicus’ Mediocrity Principle which states that “Earth’s physical attributes are not unique and that natural processes are likely common throughout the cosmos.” They believe that this points to another roughly 1,500 years before we make contact with aliens.

But another current news item, commenting on research from a Columbia University astronomer, claims a “’Laser Cloak’ Could Hide Earth from Evil Aliens.” This researcher—whose coauthored research on this is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society—believes that if we can figure out where aliens are spying on us from, we can use lasers to hide our position and the fact that life exists on earth. Well, apparently they’ve got lots of time to perfect their technique because aliens won’t make contact until 3516! Unless, of course, we find them in the 20 or 30 years NASA predicts.

Forget extraterrestrial civilizations—there isn’t even evidence for life anywhere beyond earth!

Now that was a bit tongue in cheek, of course, but it highlights the completely arbitrary nature of the very expensive search for extraterrestrial life. So far, after years of searching and billions of dollars, no more evidence exists to suggest there is life on other planets than existed before researchers started actively searching. Even the researcher behind the laser cloak says, “We don’t have any evidence right now for extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy.” Forget extraterrestrial civilizations—there isn’t even evidence for life anywhere beyond earth!

Aliens? Depends on Your Starting Point

Why do so many researchers and scientists believe so strongly that there are aliens out there and that “if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking”? Well, like I said in my blog on finding alien life within the decade, it’s because of their evolutionary starting point.

Evolutionists are convinced they’ll find life in outer space because, if naturalistic evolution occurred here on earth, then it must have occurred somewhere else. According to secularists, earth is not special. In their view, it’s just one of many places where, over the supposed billions of years of the universe’s history, life managed to come from non-life and begin the process of evolution. Despite a lack of evidence, scientists are becoming increasingly convinced that life will be found soon. . . .

Many people hope that discovering extraterrestrials will help us answer the deepest questions of life like “where did we come from?,” “where are we going?,” and “what is the meaning of life?” But these questions won’t be answered by hypothetical extraterrestrials! They are only answered in God’s Word. Scripture alone provides the answers to the deep questions that we ask. Instead of putting our faith in the supposed existence of extraterrestrials and our hope in finding these beings, we need to put our faith and hope in Christ and what He did for us through His death and Resurrection.

From a biblical perspective, we don’t expect to find alien life. Although the Bible doesn’t directly address this question, there are biblical principles we can apply as we seek an answer. Life did not evolve here on earth or anywhere else (Genesis 1; Exodus 20:11) but was specially created by God for His glory. Earth was formed to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18) and is the focus of God’s attention. It is to earth that God sent His one and only Son to die and rise again for our salvation because of His love for us (John 3:16). Jesus did not come and die for extraterrestrials. He came as the God-man to die for mankind, descendants of Adam and Eve (1 Corinthians 15:22). Starting from God’s Word, we have good reasons to reject the idea of intelligent extraterrestrial life and to doubt even the presence of microbial life on other planets.

Aliens: Fact or Fiction?

The question of whether or not aliens exist is a popular one. Get equipped with solid answers, starting with God’s Word, from Answers in Genesis’ astronomer, Dr. Danny Faulkner. He wrote, and our very talented A/V team produced, Aliens: Fact or Fiction?, a show for our Stargazer’s Planetarium here at the Creation Museum. This planetarium show is now available on DVD for you to enjoy in your own home. I encourage you to equip yourself with biblical answers, using this new resource available at our online store.

Oh—speaking of spending billions of dollars, I want to point out that people can read God’s Word for free on the Internet!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.