First contact with intelligent alien life is one of the perennial cinematic themes. Sometimes the treatment is intimate and sentimental (E.T.); other times, the premise offers little more than a tweak of the standard war story (Independence Day; War of the Worlds). In still other cases is provides a fecund metaphor for the analysis of personal […]
alien
Aliens in our backyard?
Could there be an advanced alien civilization in our cosmic backyard? Phil Plait raises that fascinating possibility in his essay “Did Astronomers Find Evidence of an Alien Civilization? (Probably Not. But Still Cool.)” He’s right. Probably not. He’s also right. It is still cool. As Plait explains, the star KIC 8462852 dims at irregular intervals […]
On Fermi’s Paradox and the earth as a wildlife preserve
A few days ago I listened to a recent “Unbelievable” broadcast featuring a discussion on the possibility of intelligent alien life and how the discovery of such life might affect Christianity. It was an intriguing discussion between David Wilkinson and Mark Kidger, and it got me thinking once again about a topic I’ve often reflected […]
Would intelligent aliens present a problem for Christianity?
Jeff commented on my recent article “Should you call out Gouranga?” and in doing so offered a helpful basis to kickstart our discussion of exotheology. He is of the opinion that it is a problem to Christian theology if there are “intelligent species in the cosmos other than humans” for as he says “then we’re left […]
More on Mormons, atheism and aliens
There has been some incredulity toward my claim that Mormons are really atheists. But that is not very surprising. As I have pointed out, the professional class in most fields of discourse holds definitions of terms that differ substantially from views widely held in the general population. Ask Joe the Plumber to define “free action”, “mind” and […]
