BITR: Aliens and Ghosts

When I was a lot younger, I used to love watching shows about aliens and ghosts. Mostly aliens, because those kinds of documentaries came on more. Whenever I saw a program about UFOs, Area 51, or extraterrestrial aliens on TV, I would usually watch it. I know all about Roswell and the Bermuda Triangle, and I have probably seen all of the most popular footage of blurry UFO sightings. I also like movies about aliens. Independence Day is still to this day one of my favorite movies. As a kid I was fascinated with aliens because they were always a subject of great mystery. Are UFOs and aliens being kept at Area 51? Is the government covering them up? Did aliens teach ancient civilizations how to do things like build the pyramids? The possibility that we are not alone in the universe is fascinating.

I didn’t see as many ghost shows as a kid, but I saw enough to teach me about some sightings, beliefs, etc. I have seen the shows where the producers go to a site that is believed to be haunted and the take along a psychic. They walk through the house or graveyard, wherever it is they’re at, and in one area the psychic always gets excited because she can feel great “energy” in that place. And I have seen where they take radios and instruments that let them pick up electromagnetic fields and such.

It’s interesting that everything I know about aliens and ghosts came from watching TV. I’ve never had any sort of encounter with either of these beings. I haven’t read about them. I know people who claim that weird stuff has happened to them, but nothing that points directly to a ghost or an alien. It’s possible that the idea of these creatures is promoted by TV, since these types of shows get pretty good ratings. If you are a person who watches shows about ghosts or aliens and you experience something you can’t explain, you are much more likely to say that it was one of them. And the way that people tend to exaggerate, lie, and believe whatever they want to believe, it is more than possible that someone could see light reflecting off of an airplane and call it a UFO.

I am open to anything being possible in this world. I have learned to not really limit my beliefs about it just because I haven’t experienced something. Not really a whole lot surprises me. It is perfectly reasonable to think that extraterrestrial aliens exist. The universe is a vast, enormous, mysterious place; I can’t emphasize that statement enough. To think that somewhere out in the cosmos is a planet in some other galaxy with the ability to produce life is completely reasonable. In fact, it’s possible that lots of these places exist. We once thought that the world was flat and that we were the center of the universe, but we were wrong about both of those things. Isn’t it possible or maybe even probable to believe that we are wrong about being alone in the universe?

However, if I must give an answer then with all of this in mind I am still going to say that I don’t believe aliens exist. I say that not because I have so much trouble believing in aliens, but solely because of spiritual reasons. I believe what the Bible says, that God created humans in his own image, that humans are eternal but fallen creatures, that God became a human and lived here on earth for several years, and that he died to save humans from death. If intelligent life exists on other planets, then all of a sudden we have a lot questions that need answering. Are they created in God’s image or are they like plants and animals? Are they fallen creatures like we humans are? (I guess the best way of answering this is simply by seeing if they wear clothes.) Did Jesus die for them as well? If so, why did he come to earth to dwell among humans?

If I do believe in alien life existing on other planets, I would say that they are not intelligent creatures like we are. I would say that they exist as some sort of bacteria or maybe some type of primitive or maybe even advanced animals. But they don’t have a spirit, the breath of God breathed into them. I don’t think they would have the intelligence or the ability to build spacecraft and travel across the universe to observe us or try to invade our planet or anything.

As for ghosts, I am really not sure what to say. Have I ever seen a ghost? No. I know of people who have claimed to see dead relatives or hear their voices, which really creeps me out, but there is really no way of knowing whether that is true or not. I find it a lot easier to believe that people are either delusional or deceptive than to believe the ghosts that they have seen are actually real.

However, I do think that it is possible that ghosts might exist. I don’t think I will ever see one in my lifetime, and maybe they are completely impossible for us to see. Maybe they aren’t the white, transparent apparitions that we believe them to be. Maybe they exist as something outside of everything we can comprehend, some kind of creature that is not bound to the dimensions and laws that exist in our world. I do believe in spirits, but whether or not they wander and haunt various places on earth, I do not know. And whether they try to communicate with old family members I don’t know either.

In a very unusual and strange Bible story, King Saul and the Israelites are at war with the Philistines. Saul becomes very afraid when he sees the Philistine army, and he inquires of the Lord, but doesn’t get any kind of answer or response. So then he disguises himself and travels to Endor to consult a medium there. The Witch of Endor brings up Samuel, the Israeli prophet who had recently died, and Saul actually has a conversation with him. In this conversation, Samuel’s spirit predicts that the Philistines are going to defeat the Israelites, and that God is going to take the kingdom from Saul’s hands and give it to David. Both predictions come true.

There you have it, in the Bible of all places, an account of a medium consulting a spirit and nothing about this story suggests that the medium was false at all. Samuel really was summoned, and Saul really talked to him.

Either way, no evidence exists that I know of that would prove that either aliens or ghosts exist. I am definitely a skeptic, because I have never experienced anything like that and because it is easy for people to misinterpret all kinds of things, believing in something just because they want to. However, I am not a reductionist either. I’m not going to limit the world to just what I can perceive with my own senses. I believe in spirits, and so technically you could say I believe in ghosts. I don’t really believe in aliens, but I am definitely open to the possibility. Although, if they do show up on earth someday, I think God is gonna have a lot of explaining to do.