Life on Other Planets

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
19 Jul 2009

Is there intelligent life in the universe beyond planet earth?  Is this possible or probable?  A Christian might ask whether God could have created other intelligences in other worlds.

The belief that the Creator God is good and reasonable was one important foundation for scientific research into the laws of nature.  If God was believed to be evil or a liar or not interested in reason there would have been less reason to look for nature's laws or mathematical theories. 

Very early on Christianity decided that it was going to argue the truth of its case.  It accepted the ancient Greeks' respect for reason and truth.  Christian claims would not be reduced to mythology, which contains only some uncertain hidden meaning.  Christians assert that it is more reasonable to believe in one God, who created and sustains the universe than to claim the universe came about by chance.

Some Christian claims go beyond reason e.g. that Christ was divine as well as human, but do not contradict reason.  We need faith to accept these.

Today with the advance of science and technology, the development of radio telescopes and space craft with cameras, we know immensely more about the expanding universe than any of our ancestors.

Apparently more stars exist than all the grains of sand on the earth and astronomers now claim that the observable universe extends for more than thirteen billion light years.  The earth is not the centre of the universe and neither is the sun.

Nature is full of patterns, repetitions and regularities; the seasons, night and day, while the laws of physics are universal.  But so far, the only evidence for intelligent life is found on planet earth.  This is a spectacular anomaly.

Today some scientists are systematically scanning the universe for signs of intelligent life e.g. radio signals, as well as searching for stars which might have a planet like earth circling them.  Some possible planets have been discovered (or claims made to that effect), but no evidence of extra terrestrial intelligent life has been uncovered.

Scientists have drawn up equations predicting the likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere e.g. the Drake equation.  But the accuracy of each of the factors in the equation cannot be known.  They are like computer models for future weather, exercises in exaggeration and hyperbole.

I do not know any Christian teaching which would exclude the possibility of other intelligent life, but we have no evidence of it whatsoever.