Editor's Note: To submit a faith question to Catholic Exchange, email faithquestions@catholicexchange.com. Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange becomes the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.
Dear Mr. Shea:
What is the Catholic Church's view on aliens from outer space? So many people believe in such a thing, and nothing will convince them otherwise.
My view is that there is no such thing as aliens from outer space. Sometimes the discussion can get very heated. What can I say, based on faith, in rebuttal to their often convincing facts that aliens do exist?
Thank you very much for your time and courtesy.
Sincerely, T.
Dear T.:
The Church doesn't much worry about such questions until we actually know there are aliens. Not that there couldn't be. God is free to do as he likes. We already know for certain that there are non-human rational beings in the universe. They are called angels. So, I see no reason why there couldn't be non-human, physical rational beings as well, if God felt like making them.
As C.S. Lewis pointed out, life on other planets only becomes a problem for the faith if we find a) it is intelligent life capable of communion with God, b) it has fallen, c) redemption for such life can only be accomplished in the same way redemption was accomplished for us, d) redemption has been denied such creatures, and e) redemption will always be denied such creatures. Unless all five of these propositions is true (and they may very well all be beyond the possibility of our ever discovering them), then there's nothing much to say about life on other worlds. It will certainly be cool if life is discovered. And there's no particular reason it won't be. But, neither is there a particular reason it must be. I, for one, would not be shocked to discover that we really are All Alone (except for God and the angels, of course).
As to contact with other such life, I think it is essentially impossible in the physical sense. At best, we might conduct conversations via radiotelescope in which there are deserts of years, decades, or millennia between “Hello, are you there?” and “Yes, I am.” But, with the exception of a trip to Mars and a moon or near-orbit space station, we will not be getting far from earth. Even a trip to the nearest star would take generations. In essence, Star Trek will always be a fantasy.
My private opinion is that the dream of colonizing space and meeting aliens is a sort of replacement fantasy for people who have abandoned the hope of heaven. Aliens now occupy the imaginative niche that was once held by angels and devils. But that's just my opinion.
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
