The Bible and ET's

This is from http://www.beliefnet.com  They also have some other
articles on the subject, tied in with the Mars exploration.

Humans Are Not God's Only Intelligent Works 
Can anything in the Bible be reconciled with the concept of aliens? A
Jesuit astronomer mulls Mars, scripture, and more.
 
By Guy Consolgmagno, S.J.  
Reprinted from the March 2004 issue of Science and Theology News with
permission.

The successes of the recent Mars probes have rekindled interest in the
religious significance of planetary exploration, especially the
question of how the possible existence of alien civilizations
reconciles with Christianity.

The plurality of worlds has been long discussed by Christian
theologians. Invariably, they conclude that it is a bad idea to
underestimate God's creative powers. But it is still legitimate to ask
if such civilizations are consistent with our own understanding and
experience of what God is likely to do. Even Einstein defended his
theories by noting that, "The Lord is subtle, he is not malicious."
However, we should also remember that our understanding and experience
is always incomplete. The Lord may not be malicious, but He sure can
be subtle at times!
Is there anything in the Bible that can be reconciled with the concept
of alien civilizations? I don't mean the kind of nonsense that
attributes every miracle to an alien technology zapped from UFOs. But
at several junctures, we are reminded that we're not the only
intelligent life God created.

There's that odd and mysterious passage at the beginning of Genesis
describing the sons of God taking human wives and a passing reference
to "The Nephilim ... the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown."
Likewise, God asks Job if any human can claim to have been around at
the creation, "when the morning stars sang together and all the
heavenly beings shouted for joy." These heavenly beings come up
several times in the Psalms, including a beautiful passage in Psalm 85
that calls for praise of the Lord from the heavens, the holy ones, the
hosts: for "the heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the
universe and all that is in it � You have founded them."

Granted, most traditional scholars interpret these passages as
referring to angels. But angels themselves are an explicit
illustration that we are not alone in being creatures made to know and
love God.



And consider John's famous good shepherd passage: "I am the Good
Shepherd. I know My own and My own know me, just as the Father knows
Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. I have
other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also,
and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one
shepherd."

In context, these "other sheep" are presumably a reference to the
Gentiles, not extraterrestrials. But it is certainly intriguing to
read this with alien civilizations in mind. Perhaps it is not so
far-fetched to see the second person of the trinity, the Word who was
present in the beginning, coming to lay down His life and take it up
again not only as the son of man but also as a child of other races.

My experience only tells me that, no matter what I imagine, God's way
of doing things always turns out to be more delightful and surprising
than I could ever have expected. For that very reason, I am eager to
learn if this universe holds any other worshippers of the Lord ...
even though I admit I may have to wait until the life to come before I
meet them.



 
 
Guy Consolmagno is a Jesuit brother and astronomer at the Vatican
Observatory.